The Morning Grumble

Volunteers team up to feed all of the kids at Healdsburg Elementary School on Wednesday, October 24, 2012. Ross McGowan loads milk. (Jeff Kan Lee/ The Press Democrat)

At 9 a.m. the fleet of carts launches out of the cafeteria, wheels humming through the halls of Healdsburg Elementary School. Doors quietly open for the delivery. Sometimes it’s a silent drop-off, sometimes the cart is greeted with an enthusiastic chorus of “Thank you!”

It’s that time in the morning when empty stomachs start growling. But thanks to “The Morning Grumble,” no more kids are showing up in the school office mid-morning complaining of tummy aches.

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Since school started this year, a team of 45 community volunteers has shared the duty, arriving on campus by 8 a.m. to start assembling a healthy breakfast for all 394 kids who attend the K-2 campus, including the Healdsburg Charter School.

No one has to qualify for the free meal, which includes such items as fresh fruit, granola bars, yogurt, cheese sticks, carrots, boiled eggs, milk and muffins from Costeaux Bakery once a week.

The brains behind The Morning Grumble are retired Bay Area TV personality Ross McGowan, whose old “People Are Talking” sidekick and fellow Healdsburg resident Ann Fraser works beside him in the kitchen a few days a week.

“When you retire, you don’t know what you’re going to do. People can say, ‘Oh I’m going to take cooking classes or go back to school.’ Which are all nice things to think about,” he said. “But that is all ‘me’ kind of stuff. I asked myself, ‘What am I going to do to give back without, frankly, having to join clubs or organizations?’”