Food & Nutrition [Volume 3, Number 1]

              for auilding Use On\\1
Reaching
Baltimore'S
Elderly
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PROPERTY OF THE
LIBRARY
FEB 22 1973
Meals on
Wheels
. reach
Baltimore's
elderly
By Carol Brent McLaughlin
WHEN THE LITTLE grey-haired lady
in a bright knit cap carries her
wooden basket into the courtyard of
Perkins Housing Project every Friday
noon, she looks like everyone's image
of the cookie-toting grandma. Bright­eyed
and spry, Mrs. Elizabeth Garland
actually is packing a sack of two
nutritious meals to Mr. William Will,
one of the nine elderly "Meals on
Wheels" customers on her route in
south Baltimore, Maryland.
With a shy smile and an open door,
Mr. Will greets his friendly visiting
volunteers from the Christ Lutheran
Church kitchen-one of eleven Balti­more
Metropolitan Meals on
Wheels, Inc.'s meal preparation and
training sites.
Friday is Mrs. Garland's day to bring
a hot lunch and a cold dinner plus
cheerful understanding to this elderly
man who lives alone and who has
difficulty cooking all of his own
meals. A two-year old amendment to
food stamp regulations enables Mr.
Will to use food stamps to buy these
home-delivered meals, which help
him remain self-sufficient and at
home in familiar surroundings.
The tremendous empathetic re­sponse
of so many elderly volunteers
to help their aging neighbors is one
of the main reasons--why Baltimore's
independent, non-profit meal delivery
service has been able to provide
meals at low cost to the needy.
"You wouldn't believe the com­mitment
and dedication of the vol­unteers
in these kitchens!" exclaims
Peggy Sheeler, director of the Balti-
2
more Metropolitan M.O.W. opera­tion,
which was first established in
1960. Along with her small staff at
the central intake office downtown,
Mrs. Sheeler coordinates the city's
eleven separately sponsored pro­grams,
screens all new clients, and
makes up the route-sheets for all of
the Baltimore meal delivery networks.
The Baltimore Metropolitan M.O.W.
operation is completely funded by the
United Fund of Central Maryland,
sponsors of kitchens, and private con­tributions.
"But it's still the volunteers
who make Meals on Wheels some­thing
that clients can afford," explains
Mrs. Elizabeth Lottich, coordinator for
all three Lutheran sponsored kitchens.
Other sponsors of M.O.W. kitchens
include: the Baltimore Section Coun­cil
of Jewish Women, the United
Methodist Board of Social Concern,
the Presbytery of Baltimore, Douglas
The day's hot mea/ of fish, rice and
stewed tomatoes is packed by }ames
Spinner, Ann Moreau, and Margaret Adler
Memorial Community Church, St.
Anthony's Catholic Church, and First
United Church on Copely Road.
A close look at the "Lutheran
South" kitchen site and its volunteers
provides a good example of the grass
roots level of the Meals on Wheels
operation in the dock-side area of
Baltimore.
Only two years old, the Lutheran
South feeding operation delivers a
hot lunch and a cold supper to 55
clients Monday through Friday all year
'round. Although it's normal for the
volunteers to work 3 hours one day
a week, the Lutheran South Kitchen
has a good number of its volunteer
"packers," "visitors," and "drivers"
who work twice a week, including
five retired men.
Mr. Moreau, for example, visits on
Thursdays and alternates packing with
(above) as fast as cook Riddick can pre­pare
it. Elizabeth Garland (right) gets
a bright welcome from Andrew Palivoda.
food and nutrition
driving every other Friday. "I work at
a job 5 hours a day 3 days a week
then come down here," explains 68-
year-old Moreau, as he washes out
two thermal packing chests he bought
for the Meals on Wheels kitchen with
his own money. Although it's Friday
and his day to visit-deliver two
meals personally to each of eleven
people on his route-Mr. Moreau is
at the kitchen 11/2 hours early helping
his wife and two other packers put
together chicken-salad sandwiches.
"You'd be surprised how active it
keeps you," he adds. "I don't feel
any older than when I was fifty."
Usually it takes the day's four
packers around 2 hours to prepare the
necessary 110 ready-to-eat meals for
delivery at 11 a.m. Regularly, recipi ­ents
pay $10 in advance each Monday
for the week's ten meals. For the
needy, including food stamp clients,
the cost of the meals is reduced to
$7.50 and is collected during Friday's
delivery for the following week. All of
the money collected goes to defray
the operating cost of the sponsoring
kitchen.
The hot and cold meals are de­signed
with elderly nutritional needs
in mind, since 90 percent of Balti­more's
1300-plus Meals on Wheels
recipients are over 65. The meals are
prepared so as to contain 2/3 of an
elderly person's nutritional require­ments
and are unseasoned and easy
to chew.
Carrie Riddick, the cook and the
only paid member of the Lutheran
South kitchen's Meal on Wheels team,
explains: "All of our meats are ground
into patties, and we try to chop
vegetables, such as spinach. Whipped
potatoes are a regular, too, along
with hard-boiled eggs and pud­dings
. ... "
You can deliver appetizing and
well-balanced meals to old folks, but
you can't always get them to eat
them, most M.O.W. volunteers have
discovered. Teaching volunteers how
to pleasantly persuade their clients to
"eat the whole thing" is one sub­ject
covered in volunteer training
sessions.
Each time a new route is added to
a central kitchen and new volunteers
join up, "basic" training sessions are
held by the sponsoring kitchen. Ad-
4
ditional training sessions on such
things as "The Personality of the
Aging Person" and "Geriatric Nutri­tion"
can often prove quite helpful,
explains Mrs. Lottich, who conducts
the training program for the three
Lutheran-sponsored kitchens. This
week, for example, Mrs. Lottich is
holding a training session for an hour
each morning with around ten of
"Lutheran South's" visitors and
drivers.
To many of the older volunteers,
the sessions seem more than "just
theory." Learning about the needs and
feelings of the home-bound elderly
on their delivery routes brings them
a step closer toward better under­standing
the changes that aging is
bringing to themselves.
The training sessions also give the
volunteers a means of exchanging
ideas on how to cope with the various
problems that can arise. Most of the
"do's and don'ts" are outlined in the
"Meals on Wheels Volunteer Hand­book"
distributed by the central in ­take
office, but the volunteers' actual
experiences often provide touching
illustrations.
"Old people can sometimes feel
resentful and cranky-being depend­ent
on other people is embarrassing
to them and their slowed bodily func­tions
can make them uncomfortable,"
points out Mrs. Lottich.
"When they complain to you that
'You're late,' it's really an expression
of 'I've missed you ... I've been wait­ing
for you.' Sometimes you may be
the only person they see all day."
Mr. Moreau explains how he always
tries to touch the people he visits­putting
his arms around the women
and patting the men on the back. This
type of contact and companionship
can help satisfy the recipients' emo­tional
needs and put them in a better
mood to eat and digest their food.
Making things easier for the people
they serve to eat well and live longer
is no lip-service objective to M.O.W.
volunteers-it's a serious and multi­faceted
problem that constantly holds
the attention of the program's volun­teers
and administrators.
"Operating in a city which houses
more than 96,000 elderly people,
there is a great need for a major out­reach
effort," observes Peggy Sheeler,
the director of the M.O.W. program.
Beset with a large share of the
typical limitations of an understaffed,
volunteer organization, Mrs. Sheeler
nevertheless is determined to con­tinue
her fight for the city's aged.
According to a survey conducted by
the central intake office, current
M.O.W. recipients and volunteer
visitors are sti II the best locators of
new clients. However, Mrs. Sheeler
adds hopefully, "Project FIND should
help us locate many of the isolated
elderly people who need us so
badly."
Mrs. Sheeler observes that the
problems that permit an elderly per­son
to use food stamps to receive
home-delivered meals are precisely
the same problems that may keep him
from finding out about his eligibility
and physically preclude his ability to
get to the food stamp office to regis­ter.
Project FIND is expected to be­come
highly useful in helping these
needy older citizens.
As part of the project, a message
on food assistance programs was en­closed
in last August's mailing of 28
million Social Security checks, along
with a pre-addressed reply postcard.
Those who were interested but could
not visit their local welfare office to
find out more details on eligibility
and participation simply returned the
postcard. Arrangements were then
made for a Red Cross volunteer to
visit the household with further
information.
Director Sheeler would also like
to see a central city-wide clearing
house for services for elderly people,
and more college-aged and pre­retirement
volunteers involved in
these services. Mrs. Sheeler also in­dicates
that a need exists for sug­gested
easy menus for Meals on
Wheels clients to use in preparing
their breakfasts and weekend meals.
Reaching out to quickly respond
to any person needing home-de­livered
meals can sometimes mean
a difference of extra years of life to
an incapacitated elderly person. The
Baltimore Metropolitan Meals on
Wheels program has just begun its
fight against malnutrition among the
city's aged, combining food stamps
with "Meals on Wheels" to help to
do the job. *
food and nutrition
PERCHED HIGH ON cliffs over­looking
Conchas Dam Lake is a
rustic lodge, a favorite haunt of
fishermen and hunters who frequent
the untamed land of northeastern
New Mexico.
Not only does the lodge host many
sportsmen, but it also hosts 31 young­sters
who come there every school­day
for lunch. They are students from
the Conchas Dam School-a one­teacher
school without food service
facilities and too far away from other
schools to share the benefits of their
lunch programs.
The first through sixth graders have
been coming to the lodge since owner
Darrel Adam heard that they needed
a place where they could enjoy the
benefits of the National School Lunch
Program. Adam, an Albuquerque
businessman and developer of land
around the lake, generously offered
the services of his staff as well as the
facilities of his restaurant.
The Lodge's chef prepares meals
february 1973
The food service staH of Conchas Lodge
greet their daily visitors-31 students from
nearby Conchas Dam School, who come
each weekday for lunch. They look forward
to serving the children, who line up at the
steam table before many guests arrive.
meeting the Type A lunch pattern. He
uses the menu guide and recipes sug­gested
by his nearest neighbor, Helen
Esquibel, school lunch director of
the Las Vegas Public Schools.
Since the lodge is located more
than a mile from the school, the
manager, Viggo Moller, sends two
minibuses to transport the students
to and from lunch.
Usually one of the drivers is the
chef, who loves to regale the students
with stories about the food he has
prepared for them.
"How much students look forward
to lunch," says Reynaldo Estrada, their
teacher. "The trip to the lodge and
the surprises in the dining room are
the big adventures of the day. The
students know that the chef and his
fellow workers are catering to their
whims, and they respond to this very
warm and personal relationship."
Most of the time the students eat
in their own private dining room
where tables are set with white linens,
silverware and decorations of the
season. Milk and salads are already at
each place setting when they arrive.
"Such an environment creates an
attitude of hospitality, encourages
good social behavior and makes
lunchtime something special-not
just at feeding time," observes Mr.
Moller. "We try to make the dining
environment as interesting for the
students as for our lodge guests."
For special events such as the first
snow, birthdays or holidays, the chil­dren
are served in the main dining
room of the lodge, where large
picture windows offer a breathtaking
view of the lake and the mountains.
Gretchen Plagge, New Mexico
School Food Service Director, State
Department of Education, says that
this one-teacher school is a good
example of how any school without
a lunch program can take advantage
of the National School Lunch Program
when local citizens become con­cerned.
She points out that payments from
the children, the cash reimbursements
for each Type A meal served to stu­dents,
and USDA-donated com­modities,
do not cover the full cost
of operation.
"The difference is handled by Mr.
Adam" Mrs. Plagge reports. "He is a
concerned citizen who wants to be
sure the students in this developing
community get a nutritious school
lunch." {;:{
5
HIGHLIGHlS of
the NUTRmON
SURVEY
IN 1967, CONGRESSIONAL hear­ings
pointed out strongly the pos­sibility
that serious hunger and mal­nutrition
existed in the United States.
Later that same year, Congress
directed the Department of Health,
Education and Welfare to determine
the scope and location of malnutri­tion
and related health problems.
HEW planned then and executed
what has come to be known as the
Ten-State Nutrition Survey, the results
of which are now available.
Primary interest in each State was
malnutrition among the poor. How­ever,
the population sampled did not
include all of this lower income group
within a State, nor was it restricted
to only the poor.
Research was conducted in 10
States and New York City, selected as
geographically representative of the
major areas of the country, the broad
diversity of economic, ethnic, and
sociocultural composition, and avail­ability
of trained manpower to con­duct
such a survey. The work was
accomplished through contracts with
State health departments and univer­sity
schools of medicine.
The survey collected 5 kinds of
6
information: general demographic;
dietary intake; clinical and anthro­pometric;
dental; and biochemical.
All individuals were invited to par­ticipate
in the clinical evaluation,
which included a medical history,
physical examination, anthropometric
measurements, x-ray examination of
the wrist, dental examination, and
collection of blood for hemoglobin
and hematocrit determinations. This
evaluation involved approximately
40,000 individuals.
Selected subgroups received more
detailed biochemical and dietary eval­uation.
Among these subgroups were
high-risk populations such as infants
and young children, adolescents,
pregnant and lactating women, and
persons over 60 years old.
There was a heavy representation
of children in the groups that re­ceived
the detailed evaluation. More
than 50 percent of the persons ex­amined
were 16 years of age or less;
30 percent were from 17 to 44 years
of age; and the remainder (17 per­cent)
were 45 years of age or older.
Major F1ndings
* Results indicated that a signifi­cant
proportion of the population
surveyed was malnourished or was at
a high risk of developing nutritional
problems. * Generally, there was increasing
evidence of malnutrition as the in­come
level decreased. * Among the various age groups
surveyed, adolescents between the
ages of 10 and 16 years had the
highest prevalence of unsatisfactory
nutritional status. * Male adolescents had more evi­dence
of malnutrition than females. * Persons over 60 showed evi­dence
of gradual undernutrition
which was not restricted to the very
poor or to any single ethnic group. * The number of years of school
completed by the person usually re­sponsible
for buying and preparing
the family's food was related to the
nutritional status of children under
the age of 17. As the homemaker's
educational level increased, the evi­dence
of nutritional inadequacies in
the children decreased. * Among adults there was also a
pos1t1ve relationship between the
number of years of school completed
by the individual and his or her nu­tritional
status.
However, since the number of years
of school completed is associated
with other factors affecting nutrition,
such as income status, it is not pos­sible
to identify these findings as the
specific effect of education. * There was evidence that many
persons made poor food choices that
led to inadequate diets and to poor
use of the money available for food.
In particular, many households
seldom used foods rich in vitamin A.
There was also a heavy emphasis on
red meat in many diets, rather than
the use of less expensive protein
sources such as fish and poultry, or
legumes and nuts.
In addition, many diets were defici­ent
in iron content, but this was less
a reflection of poor food choice than
of the generally low level of iron in
the American diet. * Poor dental health associated
with insufficient dental care was en­countered
in many segments of the
population.
In adolescents it was found that
between-meal snacks of foods high
in carbohydrates, such as candies,
soft drinks, and pastries were as­sociated
with the development of
dental cavities. This finding suggests
the potential detrimental effect of
poor nutrition on dental health. * School lunch programs were
found to be a very important part of
nourishment for many children. Par­ticularly
in the low-income-ratio States
(based on a median measure of
poverty), school lunches contributed
to a substantial proportion of the
total nutrient intake of many school­children.
* Obesity is a nutritionally related
problem of significant public health
concern because of its association
with increased rates of diabetes, cer­tain
cardiovascular diseases, and other
chronic diseases.
Obesity was found to be most prev­alent
in adult women, particularly
black women. In some age groups
more than 50 percent of adult women
were found to be obese.
Men were less frequently obese,
although white males in both the
food and nutrition
adolescent and the adult age groups
had a relatively high prevalence of
obesity when compared with black
males. * Major points in .regard to spe­cific
nutrients can be summarized:
Iron: The evaluation of iron intake
data in rela,tion to hemoglobin levels
showed a tendency for l9wer hemo­globin
levels to be associated with
lower dietary iron intakes. One can
conclude from the Ten-State Nutrition
survey data that iron deficiency
anemia, as evidenced by a high prev­alence
of low levels of hemoglobin,
is a widespread problem within the
population surveyed.
The low levels of hemoglobin in
the total population appear to be due
largely to nutritional iron deficiency.
Protein: A relatively large propor­tion
of pregnant and lactating women
demonstrated low serum albumin
levels, suggesting marginal protein
nutrition in this group.
In contrast, dietary protein in­takes
were generally well above levels
considered to be adequate.
Vitamin A: Based on evidence from
the biochemical measurements and
analysis of the dietary intake data,
Spanish-Americans in the low­income-
ratio States, mainly Mexican­Americans
in Texas, have a major
problem in regard to vitamin A
nutrition.
In addition to the more serious
problems noted among the Spanish­American
population, young people
in all subgroups had a high preva­lence
of low vitamin A levels.
Vitamin C: Although vitamin C
was not a major problem among any
of the groups studied, males generally
had a higher prevalence of low
vitamin C levels than did females. The
prevalence of poor vitamin C status
increased with age.
Riboflavin and Thiamine: Nutri­tional
status in re lation to thiamine
did not appear to be a problem.
Riboflavin status was poor among
blacks and among young people of
all ethnic groups.
Iodine: Data from the study
showed no evidence of iodine de­ficiency
and no relationship between
the prevalence of goiter and iodine
status, suggesting that goiter seen did
not result from iodine deficiency. *
february 1973
in any language:
Scliool [unCh=
FOOD
SINCE THE DAYS of the gold rush
in 1849, San Francisco has attracted
people from all over the world. In
the 1970 census, over 20 percent of
the city's 715,000 residents were
foreign -born. Their cultures, tradi­tions,
and languages are woven into
the daily life of this cosmopolitan
city.
Nearly half of San Francisco's resi ­dents
claim a mother tongue other
than English and of those, one-tenth
are Spanish-speaking. Board a bus or
cable car at rush hour and you' re
likely to see commuters reading news­papers
in a variety of native
languages.
While this diversity gives life and
color to the city, it also presents
special communication problems for
the agencies of the city government.
Four years ago, the San Francisco
Unified School District saw a need
for multilingual printed material in­forming
families of the National
School Lunch Program. It now dis­tributes
free and reduced-price lunch
applications in four languages:
Spanish, English, Chinese and Filipino.
This effort is in accordance with
the policy of the Department of
Health, Education, and Welfare con­cerning
announcements . milde by
school districts serving national origin
minority group children. Guidelines
issued in May 1970 state that school
districts have the responsibility to
adequately notify the parents of these
children of all school activities which
are called to the attention of other
parents. To be adequate, the notice
may have to be provided in a lan­guage
other than English.
In San Francisco, the school dis­trict's
Office of Human Relations and
the Bi lingual Education Office worked
together to develop multilingual
material for the city's 127 elementary,
jun ior and senior high schools.
During the summer of 1970, four
separate sheets-one in each of the
four foreign languages-were mailed.
Many families failed to return the
sheets, thinking the information
printed in another language did not
apply to them. The cafeteria division
tried data processing in hopes that
the number of responses would in­crease
and processing would be
easier. However, again most papers
were not returned and therefore
could not be processed. Problems
such as changes in names and ad­dresses
during the summer and high
mailing costs complicated the system.
Last year there was an increase in
the number of applications returned.
For the first time all languages were
written on a single sheet, which was
distributed to the students during the
first week of school. This year the
school district is using a longer single
sheet which includes directions for
parents to return the form in an
enclosed self-addressed envelope to
the data processing division.
Mr. Walter Nuss of the school dis­trict's
accounting division says partici­pation
has definitely grown. During
the 1966-67 school year, approxi­mately
4 million meals were served
in San Francisco schools. Average
daily participation was 23,367. Last
year daily participation had increased
to an average 33,304 students with
nearly 5,750,000 meals served.
The cafeteria division complies with
Federal standards when determining
eligibility for free or reduced-price
lunches. During 1971-72, 82 percent
of the participants received a free or
reduced-price lunch.
In addition to the multilingual
printed material, welfare and immi­gration
agencies work in the com­munity
to inform families of the
National School Lunch Program and
other available government services.
International institutes have been
set up to help translate school mate­rials
and to tutor children who do
not speak English. Dr. Elmer Gallegos,
Director of the Spanish Bi lingual Edu­cation
Program, says a new project
is being worked on for Spanish-speak­ing
San Francisco students which will
provide suggestions for study habits,
homework hints, and proper study
atmospheres.
Language is no barrier to the lunch
program in a district which is reach­ing
to meet the needs of families with
interesting and diverse heritages. *:
7
8
Combining her talents as gourmet cook and teacher, Sophie
Leavitt set out several years ago to help needy families prepare
nutritious and tasty meals with USDA-donated foods. She began
near her winter home in Palm Beach, Florida-experimenting
with the foods, distributing recipes, and conducting classes.
Since then she has taken her down-to-earth talks and demon-strations
to migrant camps in Florida and Pennsylvania, to day
care centers, to homes and community halls. In her warm and
friendly way, she's worked with whatever is available--oil
stoves, hot plates, coffee cans. In the summer of 1970
she conducted a "cooking school" for inner-city youngsters in
the public schools of Hanover, Pennsylvania, her home. The
children, most of whom are from families on welfare, learned
about nutrition while cooking with USDA-donated foods. The
following winter she started a speciai"Food Preparation and
Nutrition" program in kindergarten and first grades in the
schools of West Palm Beach and the Belle Glade migrant area.
To help spread the nutrition education message further, Mrs.
Leavitt recorded several radio announcements on the use of
donated foods and a series of educational TV demonstrations on
low cost meals. Because her ideas and work created so much
interest, she incorporated her recipes into "The Pennypinchers'
Cookbook" and outlined her adaptable and highly personal
teaching methods in a handbook for volunteers called
"Operation Food." Mrs. Leavitt was the subject of
the first article in a series on ·outstanding American Volunteers
in the February 1970 issue of Reader's Digest. A panel member
of the December 1969 White House Conference on Food,
Nutrition and Health, Mrs. Leavitt received a letter from
President Nixon commending her "outstanding work in assisting
poor people to prepare nourishing meals at /ow cost."
food and nutrition
s
By Sophie Leavitt
MY NAME IS Sophie Leavitt. I am
a volunteer. Most people think a
volunteer is a nut who works for
nothing. Nonsense, a volunteer is
a person who has -deep love for his
or her fellow human beings and
does something about it.
I spend my summers in Hanover,
Pennsylvania, one of the most beau­tiful
spots in the United States. From
my window you can see the beautiful
rolling farm country of this part of
south central Pennsylvania. In the
winter I fly with the birds down south
to Palm Beach, Florida.
There are two sides to Palm
Beach-one is the "right" side of the
track, and the other is the "wrong"
side of the track. There are hungry
people living on the wrong side.
Some receive foods donated by the
Federal government. Many of these
people do not know how to use these
foods and, therefore, waste them.
february 1973
The idea of hungry children and
food going to waste appalled me. I
started to work with the donated
foods and found to my great pleasure
that they were good, staple foods of
the same high quality that people buy
in the supermarkets. What was
needed was to help these people
learn how to cook these foods so that
they tasted good.
In Riveria Beach, where I started
working, we had great pleasure both
in cooking the foods and eating them.
One very old man-upright with a fine
face, came almost every session and
always sat in the first row. I looked
forward to seeing his wonderful face
each session. When he did not come,
I discovered it was because instead
of drinking the milk I had taught him
to mix, he was drinking from another
kind of a bottle.
There was one time when one
woman, who was very frustrated,
came to the front of the room-so
full of bitterness beca:use she didn't
want donated foods or food stamps,
she wanted a job and a decent home
and not a handout. She ranted and
raved until she got everything out of
her system. There was complete
silence. She looked up, chagrined,
"I didn't mean you."
Cooking together brings under­standing
to each other. It was im­portant
to have a cup of coffee and
talk, especially to let the people talk.
Eventually, I got involved with
working with the migrants-rich, rich
Palm Beach, separated by a few miles,
and all the poverty, heartache of the
wonderful people called migrants.
Migrants have become a popular sub­ject
for many " do-gooder" groups,
political groups, and surveys. I have
lived through so many surveys I could
scream when a government agency
is again spending money to make a
survey. If only it would spend the
survey money on helping these
people, instead of going over and
over and over, like an old broken
record, to try to find out what every­one
already knows. You can see that
even a lowly volunteer speaks up!
Why do I like the migrants? Be­cause
they are an honest, hard-work­ing
people who are the least com­plaining
people. They want to work,
they try to work, they do work when­ever
they can. They are a proud
people. They don't want handouts,
they want work, and they go after it.
Do the migrants just migrate and go
from State to State because they love
to see the country? Probably, being
human beings, some do. Sometimes
in your innermost soul, in the nights
when you can't sleep, don't you too
wish you could travel and see the
country? Perhaps it may be that some
of the migrants rather like this way of
earning a living, but most of the mi­grants
prefer staying at one place as
long as they can work. You can't pay
for food when you don't have work.
I used to drive the 50 or so miles
to Belle Glade to teach the women to
cook the foods they received. It was
very gratifying. Some of the women
would leave their work early to come
to learn to cook. This meant they
would get less pay; yet they felt they
could better feed their families if they
learned to cook the foods.
9
"We have one aim," Sophie Leavitt begins, " to make food that
is good and makes us healthy ... nutritio us is a fancy word."
Watching eagerly are 60 to 70 members of Late Start, a program
begun 2 years ago in Pennsylvania to provide nourishing meals,
companionship, and activities for the aging. Many of these
elderly residen ts o f Harrisburg are very familiar to Mrs. Leavitt,
who has spent several mornings teaching them how to plan and
prepare good meals for themselves and showing them that cook­ing
can be fun-even for those who live alone. On her fourth
visit (below), she prepares severa l favorites-including fluffy
pancakes made with "Quickie Mix" and beaten eggs, and "Stretch
It Hamburgers." "/ do it this way," Mrs. Leavitt tells the
Late Starters, "but what's best for you is the best." It's
helpful to make dinners for one or two people and f reeze them,
she explains (right), showing them a frozen beef casserole
she brought from home. At the end of the session (fa r right),
the group enjoys a lunch prepared by the Late Start Program
cook using Mrs. Leavitt's recipes for oven-fried chicken,
crisp sa lad, and cookies and biscuits made with "Quickie Mix.''
Having been a school teacher, I
gravitated to some of the schools in
the Belle Glade area. The need for
teaching cooking and nutrition was
very evident. Cooking food and nu­trition
go together like the old­fashioned
horse and buggy; or, a
modern version-an automobile with
the motor. You need both to get
going. We know that the schools
should be teaching how to cook along
with the nutrition facts, because just
"talking" nutrition get children and
people nowhere.
The other day I had a discussion,
or, as some of the young people say,
a " rap" with the superintendent of
schools in our township in Pennsyl­vania
who happens to be a very
knowledgeable person. He wanted to
know if there was something that
would get the low-income women to
become involved with their children's
education at school. The fact was that
10
although these women were ap­pointed
to committees, they did not
show up. What could motivate them?
My first idea was to get the help
of the school nurses. He said that
even the nurses complained that
when they made appointments for
either the children or the parents,
many of them did not keep the ap­pointments.
Were there any other
suggestions?
Many women probably do not want
to come because they do not have
the proper clothes to wear. They are
doubly sensitive because they have
never spoken in groups or to groups;
also, many feel they have not the
education to talk. Why be surprised?
You can't blame these women for not
wanting to come.
Our schools should begin to
remedy this by starting with the
kindergarten children. Since children
like to eat, we can start with food
and nutrition-not the fancy kind of
nutrition that mouths words and has
no meaning, but actually have the
kindergarten children do the kind
of cooking they can do.
Smear a piece of bread with pea­nut
butter, and as the children eat,
the teacher can tell what this peanut
butter does for them nutritionally in
language they can understand. At
snack time give a carrot to each child
and discuss what the carrot does for
him in a child's language. It this
cooking? Yes.
Out of necessity I have written a
booklet giving the nutrition facts,
cooking recipes, and information on
where to get free materials for a
kindergarten and first grade teacher
to use in her class. The class can cook
on an ordinary hot plate. We have
to make up our minds that we are
not going to always have a perfect
situation where we can have cooking
food and nutrition
facilities available for each classroom,
and, therefore, we should become
members of the school of "make do."
At any rate, if we start in the
kindergarten teaching food and nutri­tion
and giving the children a chance
to talk and to participate in this ex­perience,
the children at first may
hang their heads and talk very low,
or they may not even speak at all.
This I know from my own experience.
But gradually the child begins to talk,
and as he progresses-maybe by the
end of the kindergarten year, maybe
by the end of first grade, maybe later
on-he learns to express himself and
to have confidence in himself. This
will continue through the school
years, so by the time he or she gets
married, it is no sweat or tears to get
up, talk and participate in groups.
I must add that here and there,
some teachers, some schools are be­ginning
to start food and nutrition
february 1973
programs. Hopefully, they will be
relevant and down to earth.
This winter I taught a group of
ten migrant children-lovely, lovely
children, so eager. People say to me,
"You mean you taught the migrant
children, and they didn't misbehave?"
I could only say, "Never once."
Children in their honesty know
when you are honest with them, and
when you cook together the every­day
good foods that they like to eat,
there is never a problem. I must admit
I was very anxious to teach the boys,
because I strongly believe that boys
should learn to cook just as well as
girls. I did manage to get four boys
and six girls, and the boys were just
as interested as the girls.
Here is what I taught the children
to cook: American Hamburgers,
"Stretch It" Hamburgers, "A Good
Breakfast", "A Weekend Breakfast"
(including French Toast), Oven Fried
Chicken, Smothered Chicken and Rice
in Gravy, Raisin and Peanut Butter
Cookies, Oven Biscuits, Top Stove
Biscuits for a Hot Day, Top Stove
Fruit Dumplings, Pizzas and Snacks,
Fresh Fruits and Raw Vegetables.
In cooking there are so many
ramifications. We can open the world
to these children not only for the
good taste of food, which helps make
the home a happy home, but also
to show them what doors this could
open for them. They could become
an agricultural extension agent, a nu­tritionist
teaching in the schools, a
dietician in a hospital, and on and
on and on. But most important we
can stress the fact that when they
know how to cook well, the children
not only take care of their own health,
but when they are older, their family's
health, which would put them on the
road to greater health and happiness.
For so many years we have looked
11
down on the person who cooks.
What's wrong with cooking? As long
as we eat food, why not make it
both nutritious and good-tasting? We
must make an effort to stop down­grading
cooking.
Now let's get down to the nitty
gritty. With joy in my heart, and these
words ringing in my ears, "When
will we have more cooking lessons?
This summer? When school starts?"­(
headed for my home in Hanover.
I decided that I would get volun­teers
from every church in Hanover
who would start a cooking program
with their own neighborhood chil­dren
in their own church kitchens.
Hundreds of women, I thought, would
rush to do this. Weren't the churches
their own? Weren't the children their
own?
I asked to speak to the Council of
Churches. When I spoke, it seemed
that both the men and women were
enthusiastic. Now that I think of it,
one woman did say she thought the
church kitchens could not be used,
because she thought the insu~nce
people would not "stand for" them
being used by the children. "Non­sense,"
said another woman, "kitch­ens
are for cooking." So that was thgt.
It was decided that a letter would
be written to go to all the churches
(to be posted on the bulletin boards,
I later learned) about this program.
Some time later I received a copy of
the letter. I nearly dropped dead! It
said in brief that I would "train the
women in procedures, and such train­ing
classes would begin with ten
women." Train the women ? All I
said was, I would meet with the
women once to discuss what the
cooking would be, and I would show
the women how I did it, and they
could then do it their way. I had
stressed one meeting only, because
I knew that volunteers could cook.
To continue, "The manual of pro­cedures
has been prepared by Mrs.
Leavitt and is the one used by her in
the teaching of migrant children in
Florida." Ye gods! Not one woman
volunteered.
I am writing this story because
I want volunteers to know that we
win some battles, we lose some, but
we never give up. I know now what
12
I should have done. My fri ends and
I should have taken the time to talk
to every minister, get two women
from each church (the ministers
know which women will and which
won't be volunteers) to become
enthused and to start the program.
Have I given up? No, next year we
will begin the right way.
Perhaps this story doesn't have a
bad ending after all. I started working
with the "Late Start" crowd-those
honorable men and women who are
living on Social Security. "Why don't
you get food stamps?" "I don't need
food stamps. I only spend $20.00 a
month on food."
Can I flap my wings and crow a
little? There are now people getting
stamps who weren't. There are
people who pull my sleeve and say,
"When are you coming again?" There
are people who say, "That tastes
good, I think I'll try that." There's
good talking about shopping to get
the most taste and nutrition for our
money. There's recipes and recipes
and recipes.
There's a woman who says eagerly,
"I saw you on television, can I have
your 'Quickie Mix' recipe?" And
another who asks, "How do you make
those pancakes?"
There's talk about the apartments
these people love (Federal govern­ment
funded). Will I come up to see
her?-the new refrigerator, the clean,
clean bedroom with the picture of a
beloved husband-the cup of tea­shared.
I am counting the pennies as I
make recipes for the "Over Sixty"
crowd.
" Late Start" was started to help
feed and make life more meaningful
for the elderly. It is a program that
is being started in many parts of
Pennsylvania, a program that would
benefit all our country. I know be­cause
I see people beginning to have
an interest in "living" again-no star­ing
at blank walls-no starving. It's
Late Start, but what a start!
So you can see, as a volunteer my
story has a happy ending, and the
only message I would like to give
all volunteers is never, never give
up. ~
Hele
come
the
nutlientll
HOW DO YOU ACT like a green
bean, carrot or banana?
For students at A. S. Johnston
Elementary in Irving, Texas, the an­swer
is simple. Act like a "nutrient."
The children actually dress up as
foods and tell fellow students why
they are important to eat.
"This is just one part of our efforts
to teach nutrition awareness," says
Mrs. Melbagene Ryan, director of
food services for Irving Public
Schools. "Kids know what foods they
like-it's just a matter of getting
them to eat nutritious foods and ex­plaining
why these foods are good
for them. By dressing students as
' nutrients,' we are trying to get them
to associate good nutrition with good
foods."
Johnston Elementary is one of 30
schools in the Nation selected to par­ticipate
in a "nutrient standard study"
in cooperation with Colorado State
University under a contract from the
Food and -Nutrition Service. The pur­pose
of the study is to compare the
presently used Type A lunch pattern
with the nutrient standard approach
to menu planning.
The Type A lunch system requires
schools participating in the National
School Lunch Program to follow a
menu pattern which specifies amounts
of protein-rich food, fruits and vege­tables,
enriched or whole-grain bread,
butter or fortified margarine, and
milk. ·
The use of the nutrient standard
approach would allow school lunch
menus to be based on the Recom­mended
Dietary Allowances estab-food
and nutrition
lished by the Food and Nutrition
Board of the National Research
Council, rather than the specific Type
A pattern.
"The students are very interested
in the program," said Wallace
Wimbish, principal of Johnston Ele­mentary,
" because they know they
are doing a service for thousands of
other students across the Nation."
In November, 45 student volun­teers,
who regularly eat in A. S.
Johnston's cafeteria, participated in
a 4-week test of the Type A lunch
approach. In April, these students
will take part in a 4-week test of the
nutrient standard approach.
Here's how the test works:
Each day two survey team mem­bers,
subcontracted by the Colorado
State University program, weigh each
portion of food on five full meal trays
to determine the weight of an average
serving.
After the student finishes the meal,
his tray is returned to the survey team
where each uneaten portion of food
and milk is carefully weighed and
recorded to determine how much and
what foods the survey student con­sumed.
In this way, the exact amount
of nutrients eaten by the student at
the meal can be determined.
Before the meal, student volunteers
fill out a "menu acceptability card"
which lists every item on the menu
with a rating chart for each . The rat­ings
include, " terrible," " bad," "OK,"
"good," and "great." After the stu­dents
have had a chance to complete
the cards, the school food service
manager rates the meal in terms of
quality of preparation.
The rating cards are then sent to
Colorado State University where the
information is fed into a computer
for evaluation. Hopefully, the study
will be completed and results avail­able
in the fall of 1973.
Mrs. Barbara Sharp, Johnston
cafeteria manager, feels that children
aren't "picky eaters"-they are just
very choosy. "They develop set pat­terns
at home and bring them to
school. Most children don't like
strange foods-like vegetables that
are not served at home."
To acquaint students with a variety
of different foods, Mrs. Ryan includes
two or three "strange" vegetables on
the school's menu each year. "We
surround the new food with favorite
Dressed as bananas, green beans, and carrots, A.S. johnston Elementary School students tell
their classmates about the foods they portray and explain their importance to nutrition.
february 1973
foods to get them to try it. But we
always make sure that there are more
than enough favorite foods included
in the meal," she explains.
Three or 4 days before serving a
new item, Mrs. Sharp places a can
of the food on the cafeteria line to
generate interest and help students
recognize it.
" It's funny when you hear a kid
say he's allergic to certain foods,"
Mrs. Sharp says. " I have yet to hear a
student say he is allergic to desserts."
Mrs. Ryan, Mrs. Sharp and Mr.
Wimbish all agree that, while the
school is waging an all-out-war on
poor eating habits, parents should
also concentrate on teachi ng nutri­tion
awareness at home.
"Too often, the child is not getting
the benefits of good nutrition at
home," Mrs. Ryan explains. "It's not
a matter of care-but one of time.
The parents try to cut down on time,
so the child doesn't get a good break­fast
and many times the same is true
in the even ing."
In addition, many of the parents
take nutrition at school for granted.
Mrs. Glynda Dike, first-grade teacher
at Johnston Elementary and innovator
of the green bean-carrot-banana ap­proach
to nutrition awareness, says
that in the 14 years she has been
teaching, only about four parents
have asked how their child eats at
school.
Wimbish adds, "Last year we
opened the cafeteria to inspection
during our annual open house. Out
of 1400 total visitors, only 60 visited
the lunchroom to see how their
child's food is prepared."
One of the goa ls of the present
nutrition education campaign is to get
the parents involved by teaching the
children.
"We want the children to feed
back to their parents what they have
learned about nutrition and why it
is important," says Wimbish. "Our
system is a living curriculum-where
instruction given at school can be
used every day." '(:(
13
With "box lunches," Los Lunas students can
eat anywhere on campus-under the trees,
outside in the courtyard, or in their cars.
bo* lunehes reaeh
''Nutrition Dropouts''
"NUTRITION DROPOUTS" can be
found almost anywhere.
A " nutrition dropout" is a teenager
who eats just what he likes, explains
Bonnie Hindman, school food serv­ice
consultant, New Mexico State
Department of Education, Santa Fe.
How can you reach these "nutri­tion
dropouts" with a complete meal
meeting the Type A lunch require­ments?
Mrs. Hindman tackled this problem
by looking at it to see what could
be done in just one place-the public
schools in Los Lunas, a small town on
the Rio Grande River about 30 miles
south of Albuquerque.
Superintendent of the Los Lunas
schools, Bernard Baca, and the direc­tor
of food services, Gladys Gliesman,
were eager to cooperate in a pilot
project because they wanted to help
the " nutrition dropouts" in their
community.
They found it easy to identify stu­dents
who may become "nutrition
dropouts" because such students
consistently skip lunch in the school
cafeteria.
Instead of asking the students di­rectly,
they asked the Student Council
to find out why the teenagers weren't
14
eating lunch in the school cafeteria.
"Too often students tell teachers
and other adults what they think
these teachers and adults expect to
hear rather than what they really
think," points out Mrs. Hindman.
"But when students hold rap sessions
with other students, they are more
likely to be authentic with their
complaints."
Typical gripes from the students
were these :
"I don't like the idea of the school
saying : 'Here's the menu for today­eat
it.' "
" I don't want to spend all my lunch
period standing in line for food."
"I want to get away from school
when I eat."
" I don't want to be told to eat
this or that because it's good for me."
To meet these complaints, Mrs.
Hindman suggested that the school
test the box lunch.
With this kind of lunch, students
who don't want to be told, "Here's
the menu for today-eat it," have a
choice. They can go through the cafe­teria
line or pick up a box lunch.
Each features different foods.
A typical box lunch is the follow­ing:
roast beef sandwich with barbe-food
and nutrition
february 1973
que sauce, potato salad cup, cherry
tomatoes, celery sticks, and fruit pie,
with a 1/2-pint of milk.
Students who don't want to spend
all their lunch period standing in line
for food, can get "instant service" at
the boxed lunch counter. There's no
waiting because it's self-service.
Students who want to get away
from school when they eat can pick
up a box lunch and eat anywhere on
campus. Many of them eat in their
cars so they can listen to the radio.
Students who don't want to be told
to eat something because it's good
for them have a choice among their
favorite foods. Whether they choose
the cafeteria line or the box lunch,
they still get a complete USDA Type
A lunch when they add whole milk.
Emphasis in all Los Lunas menus is
on "the foods you like," rather than
on "what's good for you."
"It may be too late to reach many
teenagers with nutrition education, so
we're trying to guide them to eat
nutritious meals by serving the right
combinations of foods they readily
accept," says Mrs. Hindman.
Students must like the box lunch
because Los Lunas High School re­ports
a 50 percent increase in the
number who are participating in the
National School Lunch Program since
this lunch became available.
School officials from all over the
Southwest are visiting Los Lunas to
see the box lunch operation.
One official commented, "Our
kitchen is too small to prepare a
larger volume of food for tray lunches
and our dining room cannot accom­modate
more tables and chairs for
seated meals, but we can overcome
these obstacles by using the box
lunch to reach more students."
Another school official said, "This
is an effective way to give a com­plete
meal to those students in
schools without a kitchen or dining
room." And yet another remarked,
"Our year-'round sunshine invites
outdoor eating with a box lunch and
stretches the limited seating capacity
of our cafeteria." '(;{
Editor's Note: This pilot program
for increasing participation in Los
Lunas · High School by offering quick
line service of the USDA Type A
lunch in a box is one of the project
proposals generated by the South­west
Region School Food Service
Seminar, Kansas State University,
Manhattan, Kansas.
15
UNITED STATES GOVERNMENT PRINTING OFFICE
Division of Public Documents, Washington, D.G: 20402
POSTAGE (I]
Official Business.
Penalty for Private Use, $300
EARL L. BUTZ
Secretary of Agriculture
CLAYTON YEUTTER
-·
Assistant Secretary of Agriculture
EDWARD J. HEKMAN
Administrator
Food and Nutrition Service
BONNIE W. POLK, Editor
JANICE A. KERN, Assistant Editor
MARCIA B. EDDINS, Art Director
FOOD AND NUTRITION is published
bimonthly by the Food and Nutrition
Service, U.S. Department of Agricul­ture,
Washington, D.C. 20250. The
use of funds for printing this publica­t
ion was approved by the Director
of the Office of Management and
Bu.cfgel .;:f;)ecember 4, 1970. Yearly
su~sc . :tion is $2.00 domestic, $2.50
fo-" ign. Single copies 45 cents each.
· u scription orders should be sent to
the Superintendent of Documents,
Government Printing Office, Wash­ington,
D.C. 20402.
Reference to commercial products
and services does not imply endorse­ment
or discrimination by the Depart­ment
of Agriculture.
Prints of photos may be obtained
from Photo Library, U.S. Department
of Agriculture, Washington, D.C.
20250.
U.S. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE
& FEES PAtD ,
U.S. DEPT.
OF
AGRICULTURE U.S.MAIL
AGR 101
! Meals on Wheels in Baltimore
li The Lodge Goes Type A
I Nutrition Survey Highlights
7 Food in Any Language
I A Volunteer Tells Her Story
I! Here Come the Nutrients!
Ill Reaching "Nutrition Drop-outs"
FIRST CLASS