Three Good News Stories

(CBS)  Most good news in America is buried--buried in a back room at the Library of Congress, buried on the inside pages of some of America's least read newspapers.

In the sprit of Thanksgiving, CBS News correspondent Steve Hartman visits the Library of Congress to try and find three stories the mainstream media completely overlooked--three positive stories that we could all be thankful for.

It wasn't easy, Hartman explains, as he stumbles across stories of rare ferrets in Colorado and a narcoleptic dog in Idaho. Eventually, though, he finds three tales sure to make anyone who reads or hears them smile.

THE GOLDEN CARROT

At Seven Hills Elementary School in Cincinnati, Ohio, Hartman finds a cafeteria renowned for its great-tasting, healthy school lunches.

The Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine awarded the cafeteria for overhauling the way they prepare food. Translation: they tossed out the deep fryer.

One worker was asked how the foods are fried and replied, "We don't fry. We bake."

And you know what that means: the food has less fat, of course, and there's less salt and sugar, and everything's cooked from scratch using organic meats, vegetables and whole grains.

"Some of the things we have here, I can't even pronounce," says one kitchen worker.

In short, every child's nightmare.

"Scary healthy. That's what I'd call it," says a boy student. A girl classmate adds that on one particular day, "All they had is like healthy Gorgonzola cookies."

They don't really serve gorgonzola cookies, Hartman learns, but that doesn't mean the menu isn't unusual.

Some of the diet-friendly dishes include: Moroccan meatballs with couscous, salmon with lobster sauce, chicken parmesan and lemon tilapia.

The really weird part: the kids like it.

The kids credit one man for bringing out their golden palates: Jimmy Gerhardi, a celebrated local chef, who began working at the school last year.

"The better the ingredients, the less you have to do to it, the less fat you have to add," Gerhardi says. When asked if it seemed odd to lavish children with such intricate dishes, Gerhardi adds, "They're not just kids. They're customers."

And those happy, healthy customers are making the school's bean counters happy too. Sales are up and, because the cafeteria doesn't serve any processed, packaged foods, costs are down.

"This could be taken to any school within a week's time," Gerhardi declares.

If it's that portable a program, Hartman ponders, why isn't it implemented at more schools? "It's a mindset," Gerhardi says.

"Once we break that mindset and learn to throw a chicken in a pot again, so we're making real food. It's pretty simple I think," Gerhardi says.

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