Food & Nutrition [Volume 11, Number 3]

              June 1981
/ For Building Use Only /
There are a lot of things
many of us take for
granted in our everyday
lives. The ability to walk
into a phone booth and
make a call ... or drive
ourselves to the grocery
store ... or read about
services we need.
This issue is about
people who cannot take
everyday living for
granted. Because of phys­ical
or mental handicaps
or limitations caused by
old age, they have to
struggle to make their
way in the world, often
against barriers the rest
of us unwittingly impose.
Built into USDA's food
assistance programs are
provisions to make setv­ices
accessible to the
elderly and handicapped.
In the articles that follow,
we take a look at these
provisions. We also look
at how communities are
using food programs to
enhance opportunities
for elderly and handi­capped
people to lead
full, independent, and
productive lives.
FOR FOOD STAMP USERS WITH SPECIAL
Some basics on how to apply
for and use food stamps
Of all the assistance available
through the Food and Nutrition
Service, food stamps are the most
important tool for reaching low­income
elderly and handicapped
people in need of food help. USDA
estimates that nearly 25 percent of
all food stamp households have at
least one person who is elderly.
Some 10.3 percent of all food stamp
participants are age 60 or older,
and many of them are disabled .
The Food Stamp Program has
several special provisions to help
the elderly and disabled apply for
and receive food stamps. Among
them are these: ••••• Certification up to 1 year. House-holds
with elderly or disabled mem­bers
may be certified for the Food
Stamp Program for 1 year. The
average period of certification is 3
months. ••••• Joint processing. Currently, elder-ly
and disabled people may apply
for food stamps at local social
security offices at the time they
apply for Supplemental Security In­come
(SSI) benefits. However, joint
processing is limited to persons
who live in households in which all
members are receiving or applying
for SSI. ••••• Mail certification and issuance
services. Elderly and disabled peo­ple
who have difficulty getting
around can ask the food stamp
office to arrange a home or tele­phone
interview. The certifying of­fice
can then issue stamps by mail. ••••• Use of authorized representatives.
Elderly and disabled people may
name an authorized representative
who can handle the complete food
stamp application process for them.
This includes applying for stamps,
going for the interview, picking up
the stamps, and shopping for food.
2
••••• Medical deductions. If a house-hold
has at least one person who
(a) is age 60 or older, or (b)
receives SSI benefits or disability
payments under the Social Security
Act, the household may deduct all
medical expenses that exceed $35 a
month for its elderly or disabled
members. Deductions are made
from the household's adjusted
income . • • • • • Shelter deductions. Households
with elderly or disabled persons
may deduct all shelter costs over 50
percent of the household's adjusted
income . • • • • • Higher allowable assets. Food
stamp rules allow households of
two or more persons, one of whom
is 60 years old or older, to have up
to $3,000 in assets. All other
households are currently allowed
$1 ,500. ••••• Dependent care deduction for
working adults. Food stamp house­holds
may deduct up to $115
dollars per month for the care of an
elderly or disabled person when
such care enables someone in the
household to accept or continue
employment, or to participate in
training or education preparatory to
employment.
The Food Stamp Program also
has the following provisions to help
elderly and disabled people use
food stamps to purchase meals: ••••• Communal dining facilities and
home delivery of meals. USDA may
authorize nonprofit food services to
accept food stamps from the elderly
and disabled in payment for meals.
Such food services may include
communal dining facilities and serv­ices
that deliver meals to homes.
Currently, about 1,500 home
delivery services, such as Meals on
Wheels, and 2,600 communal dining
facilities are accepting food
stamps. ••••• Restaurant meals at low or re-duced
prices. States may contract
with restaurants to offer meals at
low or reduced prices to food
stamp participants who are age 60
or older. When approved by USDA,
such restaurants may accept food
stamps for meals. Currently, 10
states use this option to contract
with about 660 restaurants. The
states are: Alabama, Florida, North
Carolina, Indiana, Arkansas,
Arizona, Hawaii , Iowa, and South
Dakota.
In addition to these special
provisions, there are other accom­modations
for the elderly and
disabled that are best identified and
made locally. For example, while
the Food and Nutrition Service can­not
authorize drug stores to accept
food stamps, arrangements have
been made between some phar­macies
and grocery stores so that
the latter can sell food supple­ments
(such as for cancer patients)
for food stamps.
For more information on the Food
Stamp Program and special pro­visions
for the elderly and disabled,
write:
Food Stamp Program
Food and Nutrition Service
U.S. Department of Agriculture
Washington, D.C. 20250
by Michael McAteer
Food and Nutrition
NEEDS
A look at one county's
efforts to reach the blind
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June 1981
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Lil Gyulveszy has been blind
since childhood. For 3 years she
has worked at the Cleveland Sight
Center for the Blind, teaching and
counseling visually impaired people
who have personal problems or
who want to participate in the
center's rehabilitation program.
In 1977, she called the Cuyahoga
County food stamp hotline. " I need
to know more about the food stamp
program so I can inform my clients
about its availability," she said .
"Could you send someone to my
office so we can talk?"
That call prompted a meeting be­tween
staff members of the Cleve­land
Society for the Blind and the
Cuyahoga County food stamp staff.
After examining the hotline log and
finding numerous calls from visually
impaired people, the two agencies
embarked on a joint venture to pro­duce
a food stamp brochure in
braille. Their efforts have not only
helped Cuyahoga County residents,
but have served as a model for
other social service agencies pre­paring
materials for the blind . ••••• Helps clients
and caseworkers
Food stamp information in braille
is helpful both to visually impaired
people themselves and to people
who work with them.
As a caseworker and home re­habilitation
teacher, Gyulveszy
divides her work schedule between
interviews at the center and work­ing
with clients in the community. "I
go to the visually impaired person's
home to teach braille and daily liv­ing
skills," she says. "If the family
I'm counseling is having financial
problems, I tell them that food
stamps can help supplement their
food budget, and I encourage them
to contact the food stamp office
nearest their home .
"With this food stamp pamphlet in
braille, I can direct them to the cor­rect
food stamp application center
located in their part of town," she
says. "Sometimes the people have
Visually impaired herself, Lil Gyulveszy
works as a caseworker and home rehabilita­tion
teacher. Many of her clients are food
stamp participants.
heard of the food stamp program
but do not understand how it works
and where to apply. This brochure
helps me help them." Gyulveszy
says she feels more independent,
professional and effective on the
job by having the food stamp in­formation
on her desk.
"Once the immediate concerns
are met-the personal and financial
problems-it's easier for me to
teach people techniques of caring
for their homes and families. Teach­ing
them crafts helps them learn the
methods of touch and this makes
them function more independently
at home. They can turn on the
oven, for example, and move to a
new setting when they want to. All
3
the areas of learning meld togeth­er,"
she says.
Not all of Gyulveszy's clients
know how to read braille. In fact,
those who do not outnumber those
who do. Gyulveszy has learned that
people who lose their sight late in
life-possibly because of a serious
illness or accident-will probably
never learn braille. "They depend a
lot on their family, friends or vol­unteers
to help them out," she says.
In these instances, she explains the
food stamp program to family mem­bers
and leaves printed materials
for them to use as reference.
Those clients who do read braille
use the food stamp materials on
their own. "The deaf and blind
whose only means of communica­tion
is braille, or persons who lost
their sight during childhood, ap­preciate
the freedom of reading the
information themselves," Gyulveszy
explains.
This is the case with Lucy Miller,
the first person to receive food
stamp information in braille in
Cuyahoga County. Because of an
accident, Miller has been visually
impaired since childhood . She was
declared totallyblind 10 years ago.
Miller has been using food
stamps since 1964. She heard about
the brochure in braille at a meeting
held in the high-rise apartment
where she lives. After the meeting
she contacted the food stamp staff
and requested a copy. "Now I can
read about the program and the in­come
guidelines in my own home,"
she says. "This way I know that I
am receiving the correct amount of
stamps each month." ••••• Adds feeling
of security
Handicapped persons like Lucy
Miller must rely on volunteers and
neighbors to tell them what they re-
Lucy Miller, pictured here in her apartment,
was the first person to use food stamp
material in braille in Cuyahoga County.
4 Food and Nutrition
ceive in the mail and to read it to
them. Information transcribed in
braille helps them be more inde­pendent
and feel more secure.
"And," says Miller, "the list of issu­ance
center locations lets me tell
the volunteers exactly where to
cash my ATP card."
The authorization-to-participate
card (ATP) is a check-1 ike card that
lists the amount of stamps the food
stamp participant is alloted for a
month. It is mailed to the partici­pant
each month. An issuance
center may be a bank, currency
exchange, or even the office at
which the participant initially ap­plied
for food stamps.
In addition to using the food
stamp brochure to help herself,
Lucy Miller also uses it to help
other people in need of food as­sistance.
When neighbors from her
high-rise apartment come to visit,
she reads the food stamp brochure
to them if she thinks they may be
able to benefit from the program.
The Cleveland Sight Center is
celebrating its Diamond Jubilee this
year. In addition to Cuyahoga
County, the center serves Lake and
Geauga Counties and parts of Sum­mit
and Medina Counties. The
center receives 10 percent of its
income from the United Way
Agency and the remaining portion
is provided through private and
public support. Persons who are
visually impaired may benefit from
the center's services regardless of
race or creed, age, education,
financial ability or economic status.
To receive certain services- like
being issued a white cane or
getting specially processed bus and
railroad passes-the individual must
by law meet the requirements of
legal blindness (less than 10
percent vision).
The center's rehabilitation pro­gram
covers a span from 8 to 24
weeks, depending on the needs of
the client. Out-of-towners who
enroll in the rehabilitation or food
June 1981
service training program stay at the
sight center's new apartment facili­ties.
Through the food training pro­gram,
blind persons learn to
manage snack bars and other food
service operations.
The agency's services are avail­able
to every visually handicapped
person. Individuals are encouraged
to pay service fees in accordance
with United Way agencies' policy.
Fees are scheduled on a sliding
scale, based upon ability to pay, but
no person is denied services be­cause
of inability to pay. Many of
the rehabilitation services needed
by blind persons have no fee at­tached.
••••• Staff does
transcribing
The Cleveland Sight Center used
its own facilities and staff to trans­cribe
the food stamp materials into
braille. According to Cleo B. Dolan,
executive director of the Cleveland
Society for the Blind, similar ma­terials
could be produced just about
anywhere in the country with sight
centers and local food stamp of­fices
working together.
"Most sight centers have all the
equipment to work with," he
explains. "Once a copy is trans­cribed,
it can be reproduced very
fast by a thermoform machine. And
there is no cost for postage. Most
of the States throughout the coun­try
have a permit that allows
reading matter for the blind to be
mailed free of charge."
The Cuyahoga county food stamp
staff provides the information to be
transcribed . There are now two
brochures in braille: "How to Apply
for and Use Food Stamps," a USDA
pamphlet, and "Cuyahoga County
Helps with Food Stamps," a bro­chure
compiled and published by
the Cuyahoga County Welfare De­partment.
"The USDA brochure gives the
reader general program information
and the local brochure tells how,
when and where to apply for the
program in this area," says Verna
Moore of the Cuyahoga County
food stamp staff. "The local bro­chure
also lists the locations and
hours of issuance centers."
To let the public know about the
materials in braille, the food stamp
staff sent notices to community
agencies, state agencies, and the
news media. They mention the ma­terials
in speeches and during
meetings with community groups.
Moore agrees with Dolan that free
postage helped defray the cost of
the project. "In fact," she say$, "the
only real cost to the agency was the
paper."
Was it worth it? There's no doubt,
says Lil Gyulveszy, who knows from
her own handicap the problems of
visually impaired people. "People
who are blind enjoy trying to think
and do things for themselves. The
food stamp brochure in braille is
one way we help them do this." • • • • • For more information on this
project contact:
Lil Gyulveszy
Cleveland Society for the Blind
1909 E. 101st Street
Cleveland, Ohio 44106
or
Verna Moore
Food Stamp Program
Cuyahoga County Welfare
Department
3121 Euclid Avenue
Cleveland, Ohio 44115
by Eunice Bowman
5
As our age advances, our bodies
slow down. This is a process that
occurs steadily through life, but ac­celerates
as we get older. It is partly
a natural deterioration, but it is also
influenced by our diet, our health
practices and the effects of disease,
our changing habits and circum­stances,
and even our self-satisfac­tion.
The following are some physi­cal
ways our food needs change
with advancing age:
As we get older, our ability to
absorb nutrients from food de­creases.
Even though we may need
fewer calories as our lives become
more sedentary, our need for
nutrients (especially vitamins and
minerals) remains about the same.
Our bones become lighter and
more brittle, so the importance of
maintaining our intake of calcium
increases.
We produce less saliva and other
digestive juices, making it more dif­ficult
to digest rich and heavy
foods.
More frequent, smaller meals be­come
easier to handle than three
large ones.
We need extra bulk-more foods
that are high in fiber, such as whole
grains and leafy vegetables.
Loss of teeth and increasing in­cidence
of gum disease may make
it hard to eat certain foods.
Our body becomes less able to
meet extreme demands, and it be­comes
more important to eat good
meals every day.
Many factors affect our ability to
get food, prepare it, and eat it. The
elderly face myriad problems they
are often ill-prepared for. Loss of a
spouse may make fixing food dif­ficult,
and eating it uninteresting.
Loss of mobility may mean fewer
trips to the grocery store or in­creased
dependence on others,
both of which may result in not
always having what one needs.
Coping with inflation on a fixed in­come
is an added burden.
Adjusting to retirement can be
emotionally difficult, resulting in de­pression
and loss of appetite. Feel­ings
of helplessness and depend­ency,
inability to improve one's
surroundings or move to better
ones, and health problems can all
overshadow the need to eat well.
Help is
available
The best deterrent is to be aware
that nutrition is a constant need
and that good nutrition can reduce
other problems or at least make us
better able to cope with them. Good
food is an important morale builder.
Social service agencies are good
sources for information on pro­grams
to help the elderly and the
handicapped eat well. Meals on
Wheels, transportation assistance,
companion programs, feeding pro­grams
at social centers or schools,
and other resources are often there
for the asking.
The Departments of Agriculture
; (USDA) and Health and Human
, Services (HHS) cooperate to help
Food and Nutrition
make some of these programs pos­sible.
USDA supplies donated
foods, or cash in lieu of foods, to
nonprofit meal services for the
elderly funded by HHS under the
authority of the Older Americans
Act. Last year, USDA contributions
to HHS nutrition programs for the
elderly amounted to $57 million in
cash and $14 million in foods.
Other nonprofit meal services for
the elderly, not funded by HHS
under the Older Americans Act, are
not eligible to receive cash from
USDA. As charitable institutions,
however, they are eligible to receive
some USDA foods. The amount of
food depends on the number of
needy people they serve.
The Department of Agriculture
authorizes nonprofit meal services,
on application, to accept food
stamps as payment for meals
served to elderly or disabled par­ticipants.
In December 1980, there
were 2,638 nonprofit communal din­ing
services and 1,472 nonprofit
meal delivery services accepting
food stamps throughout the coun­try.
In New York City alone, there
were 95 communal sites and 20 de­livery
services accepting stamps.
Meals with
companions
Meal delivery services and com­munal
dining centers usually offer
much more than good food at little
or no cost. They are hubs about
which resolve whole systems of
support such as health care, recrea­tion,
and simple companionship.
They become a welcome daily trip
or visit from a friend who can be
depended on to help with a small
problem or a large emergency.
Self Help for the Elderly, a San
Francisco organization, is a good
example. It not only offers meals,
companionship, and activities, it
also trains older workers to enter
the job market. Its unique meal pro­gram
serves and delivers three
ethnic meals a day-Chinese,
Korean, and Filipino-as well as an
"American" one.
Most of the meals are served at
nine communal sites-in base­ments,
schools, churches, whatever
space Self Help can lease cheaply
June 1981
or have rent-free-in the city's
ethnic communities. Self Help
serves about 580 meals a day and
reaches an estimated 4,000 senior
citizens a year. The schedules of
the sites vary. Some operate on
weekdays only, some on weekends
only, and others all week long.
"The senior citizens in Chinatown
Self Help for the
Elderly serves and
delivers three e.thnic
meals a day­Chinese,
Korean, and
Filipino -as well as
an "American" meal.
7
are very happy to have this place,"
says Robert Lin, one of the vol­unteers
at the organization's China­town
site and headquarters. "We
have a lot of activities-moving pic­tures,
slide shows, stories, games,
music, art. People come every day
at lunchtime. Some come in at 8
a.m. in the morning and stand in
the doorway, waiting for us to
open."
Lin, who is now 69, came to this
country when he was very young.
He worked hard all his life and
Many of the meals
Self Help delivers go
to elderly people liv­ing
in residential ho­tels
(right). Above is
"Self Help for the
Elderly" in Chinese.
8
raised several children , one of
whom is now the Surgeon General
at the San Francisco General
Hospital. Noreen Chen, director of
the meal program, describes Lin as
a "typical" success story of the im­migrant
who works hard and
achieves something in America.
"He's a very giving person," says
Chen. Lin is one of about 10 regular
volunteers at the various sites.
Reaching the
housebound
The Self Help staff deliver only
about 10 percent of their meals, and
most of those go to people who are
or were participating in the com­munal
meals program.
"In San Francisco, there are resi­dential
hotels that are occupied
mostly by seniors," says Chen.
"There's one room, with a bathroom
and kitchen down the hall. Many of
the Chinese and Filipino seniors
who come to our meal sites live in
these hotels, and when they get
sick or become too frail and can't
cook anymore or come down the
stairs and go shopping, we do
home delivery and home visits.
"For us, home delivery is more
than just bringing the meals. The
person who does the delivery visits
the recipient and tries to solve
whatever problem he or she has
that day. For instance, in the Manila
Town Senior Center we have a
young Filipino man who's very
committed to serving the elderly.
He makes the rounds every day.
After he delivers the meal, he
comes back and maybe takes them
to see a doctor, or writes a letter for
them, or just visits with them. And
for the Chinatown sites, we have a
young Chinese man who does the
same thing."
All the meals are prepared by
caterers, using different ones for
the weekend meals. The differences
between the menus may be subtle
to an "American" palate, but they
make the meals more appealing to
the recipients. Having appealing
meals is especially important for
older people, who, for one reason
or another, may not always feel like
eating.
The Chinese, Korean, and Filipino
meals all have rice in common. The
Korean ones may contain more
sesame oil and usually include
kimchi (pickled cabbage, of which
there are many varieties).
The Filipino menu is described as
having more of an "island" flavor,
closer to Samoan, Guamanian, or
Hawaiian food (more fish, stews,
Food and Nutrition
June 1981
and taro, for instance). Most of the
580 meals are Chinese and "Amer­ican."
The Korean and Filipino ones
together number about 100 a day.
Another interesting meal delivery
service is operated by the Greater
Detroit section of the National
Council of Jewish Women. It serves
two kosher meals a day-a cold
lunch and a hot dinner-to about
130 recipients. "It's a unique pro­gram,"
says corresponding secre­tary
Doris Goldman. "These people
are used to eating kosher food all
their lives, and would not be com­fortable
eating if the food wasn't
kosher." Some recipients are on
additional special diets, such as
diabetic and salt-free.
The service is not restricted to
the financially needy, although
caseworkers from the Jewish
Family Service do the "intake" on
each recipient. Those who can
afford to, pay a full fee.
Often, communal meal services
operate only during the week, or on
certain days. A four-county pro­gram
in Florida arranged to buy in­dividually
bagged meals from its
weekday caterer to distribute two
each to its 600 participants for over
the weekend. The meals consist of
canned main courses, fresh fruit,
packets of dried milk, and con­tainers
of juice.
In another Florida project, voca­tional
students learning commercial
cooking prepare some of the meals
each week. This duty is rotated
among several schools to spread
the practice and keep it from
becoming routine. The students
gain valuable real-world experience
and feel good about their contribu­tion,
and the recipients benefit from
the students' enthusiasm.
For more information, write:
Darrel Gray, Director
Food Distribution Program
Food and Nutrition Service
Washington, D.C. 20250
Self Help for the Elderly
640 Pine
San Francisco, California 94108
Susan Miller
Greater Detroit Section
National Council of Jewish Women
16400 West Twelve Mile Road
Southfield, Michigan 48076
by Christopher Kocsis
9
FOOD AND TRAINING EXPAND OPPORTUNl
A visit to a training center
for the mentally retarded
During the past decade, the
mentally retarded-long shrouded
in the darkness of fear, ignorance
and superstition-have been emerg­ing
from the shadow of their
isolation.
Increasingly, they are being
helped to become functioning
members of society through a wide
range of therapeutic services. And
for those who are too severely af­fected
to function independently,
skilled residential care is available­care
which does not forsake their
growth and their future.
Medical research into the cause
and treatment of retardation has
been significantly responsible for
reversing negative attitudes.
Society, guilty in the past of view­ing
retarded people as objects of
shame and even ridicule, is replac­ing
intolerance and misconception
with compassion and under­standing.
In Fairfax, Virginia, there's an in­stitution
that excels in treating and
caring for the retarded . And the
people who run the institution are
committed to returning the retarded
to the everyday world.
The institution is the Northern
Virginia Training Center for the
Mentally Retarded. Within several
modern buildings resembling a
small college campus, the center
serves as a residence, school , work­site
and medical facility for nearly
300 retarded children and adults.
As a residential child care institu­tion,
the center qualifies for USDA­donated
foods provided by the
Food and Nutrition Service through
the Food Distribution Program. The
Northern Virginia Training Center
participates in the National School
Lunch and School Breakfast
Programs.
10
Full range
of services
The center offers a full range of
services: physicians on staff;
speech, occupational , physical and
recreational therapy; radiology;
complete dental and medical serv­ices;
and rehabilitation counseling .
For most children , the center pro­vides
primarily an educational pro­gram.
They attend school either on
or off the grounds 180 days of the
year, just as other children do. In
the summer, they attend summer
school for 30 days. On their return
from school in the afternoon, they
participate in a clinical program of
psychological and recreational
therapy.
Adults are given the opportunity
of going into the community to
work environments and sheltered
workshops. Some of the less
capable adults remain on the
grounds in the center's own
workshops. When they finish with
work , the adults also participate in
a program of clinical services.
No matter what the skill level of
the adult, the work experience af­fords
a level of independence and
personal accomplishment. And for
many, the experience is preparatory
to being discharged and on their
own.
It's not easy to obtain admission
to the center. The prospective ap­plicant
must undergo many
Food and Nutrition
N1'11ES
screenings and evaluations, plus a
review of his or her case by court,
before being accepted. "We make it
very tough to get in here because
it's so hard to get back out," says
Leon Rose, assistant director at the
center.
Rose emphasizes that the goal is
to treat a person's problem and
then release him as quickly as pos­sible.
"we just don't take someone
in ," he says. "We take him in with a
contract.
"We go to the family and say,
'These are the things we think he
needs. This is what we can do.' And
when we've done these things, we
discharge him. No one is going to
drop him on our doorstep and then
go away and forget him."
June 1981
Reaching these treatment ob­jectives
is rarely as easy as it
sounds. "These contract objectives
may take 5 years or they may take
1 0," Rose explains. "Sometimes, in
the course of treating someone with
a serious behavior disorder, we may
correct the initial problem but in­advertently
create two others in the
process."
Residents of the center range in
age from babies 1 week old to
adults as old as 60. School pro­grams
are designed for 2- to 22-
year-olds, but there are special
education programs for people .of
all ages.
Food plays
key role
Diet and nutrition play an equally
important role in treatment. The
operation of the center is totally
funded out of appropriations from
Virginia state revenues, but much of
the food used to feed the residents
comes from USDA. In 1980, the
center received $13,000 in donated
food , amounting to 26 cents per
child per meal. The types of
donated foods vary from time to
time, however they generally in­clude
dairy products, cereals and
grains, vegetables, fats and oils.
"We utilize approximately 90 per­cent
of the items available," says
Lee Hilton, the center's food service
manager. According to Hilton,
many USDA-donated foods require
11
no special preparation-fruit, flour
and shortening, for example, can go
directly into fruit pies and cobblers.
With some other items, however,
the center staff must take extra
steps to meet the needs of resi­dents.
"We have people with many dif­ferent
feeding difficulties," Rose
explains, "so we have one basic
therapeutic menu with about five
variations. If the menu includes
hamburgers, for example, people on
a regular diet will get a hamburger
that is chopped. People requiring a
puree diet will get a hamburger that
has gone through the blender. It
doesn't much look like a hamburger
anymore, but the nutrition is there
and that's what counts."
Rose estimates that roughly 80
percent of his residents are on
some sort of special diet. "Our
people may be on either low calorie
or high calorie diets, special kinds
of mechanical diets, low sodium or
no sodium," he says. "Because
we've determined that a strong link
exists between the chemical inter­action
of foods and mental dis­orders,
we must pay close attention
to this as well to food preparation.
"We simply have to view every­body
as individuals and provide
food service to them on an in­dividual
basis. Even though we have
a cafeteria and most of our people
go through the cafeteria line, every­one
who comes through will be re­ceiving
, for the most part, an in­dividual
diet."
Providing residents with indi­vidualized
food service means that
each resident receives a meal
labeled with his or her name. Staff
members-as well as many Fairfax
County teachers who accompany
the children back and forth from
12
lunch-are on hand to help children
select the proper food and feed
themselves if they need assistance.
Some added
features
The cafeteria itself provides a
bright and airy atmosphere. Recent­ly
redecorated , it explodes in vivid ·
colors of red , yellow, blue and
green.
Another new addition is a salad
bar, which the children love. The
staff had been warned it would
prove a failure, but not so, claim
Rose and Hilton. "A salad bar gives
the kids some freedom of choice­something
they rarely enjoy," Rose
says. "It also cuts down on plate
waste. Since the kids make their
own, they're more inclinded to eat
everything they've taken. So we
save money."
Some of the USDA-doated foods
also are used in cooking workshops
and demonstration projects the
center has developed for adults.
"We have a cooking program pri­marily
for adults who are getting
ready for discharge," says Rose.
"Since we have several people who
go out to work in the community,
we teach them how to make their
own lunches-how to make a sand­wich
and wrap it, put it in a bag
with a piece of fruit, add their milk
or juice and take it with them."
It requires a special kind of de­termination
to commit one's self to
the job of caring for the retarded, a
career that can be richly rewarding ,
but equally frustrating and even
heartbreaking. Both Leon Rose and
Lee Hilton take an active interest in
the activities, problems and feelings
of the people in their charge. They
care and it shows.
For more information on the
Northern Virginia Training Center's
food service or other activities,
write:
Northern Virginia Training Center
for the Mentally Retarded
9901 Braddock Road
Fairfax, Virginia 22032
For more information on USDA­donated
foods, write:
Darrel Gray, Director
Food Distribution Division
Food and Nutrition Service
U.S. Department of Agriculture
Washington , D.C. 20250
by Carolyn Williams
Food and Nutrition
Schools make mealtime a
time to learn new skills ~
There are many examples of
schools providing hand icapped
students with better than normal
access to food and nutrition serv­ices.
Some schools have found
imaginative ways to make mealtime
an opportunity tot children to learn
and practice basic skills.
An impressive example is a
school district in Cuyahoga County,
Ohio, that consists of eight schools
serving profoundly retarded or
handicapped children with less than
normal learning skills. The system
educates approximately 1,300 chil­dren,
between the ages of 1 and 21,
from all the county's 33 school dis­tricts.
A high percentage of the chil­dren
have special mental disabili­ties,
and about 200 have multiple
physical disabilities as well.
Working on
basic skills
All eight schools participate in
the National School Lunch Pro­gram.
" It's part of their basic train­ing
," says Bill Caldwell , director of
business for the county board of
mental retardation. "Some of the
things we teach retarded children
are basic life skills, and one of them
is how to feed yourself, how to take
care of your body."
In addition to housekeeping and
food' preparation skills, which some
students learn in home economics
classes, the children use the daily
lunch period to work on the many
skills ancillary to eating. The teach­ers
eat with the children and assist
them in learning to handle knives
and forks, which is a precise and
demanding motor skill. Cleaning up
before and after meals must be
learned, too.
The schools rotate a variety of
serving styles to expose the
children to different situations they
are likely to encounter elsewhere:
cafeteria style, buffet, barbeque,
and especially family style.
Money skills are important; the
children are taken out to eat often.
Those who have learned to count
June 1981
change pay for their meals, and the
schools are considering a play­money
scheme for all the meals.
Although preparing each day's food
is not a part of this system's train­ing,
there are occasional day trips
into the kitchen to help and to learn
how the meals are made. Actually,
only two of the schools have com­plete
kitchens, where the meals for
all eight are prepared and later de­livered
by truck.
Vocational
training
Some schools around the country
use the cafeteria as a vocational
training classroom for handicapped
students, and in others disabled
children take part in fixing the
school lunch. One is Holland
· School in Skowhegan, Maine. Hol­land
receives cash and commodities
through the National School Lunch
Program, and al l of its 28 students,
who come to the school from sev­eral
districts, make the noon meal.
The school is for trainable re­tarded
children , ages 13 to 20. Hol­land
has two different skill pro­grams,
one is woodworking, and
the other in food preparation. In the
latter, students study nutrition, buy
groceries, and learn how to meas­ure,
mix, and cook. They make the
entrees and salads, do the dishes,
and clean up. They make bread and
pies and, on each other's birthday,
cakes which they decorate with
frosting.
The point of the programs is to
prepare the children for a more in-
13
dependent and productive life at
home and possibly fit them for
a job.
Some students do volunteer work
when they leave Holland, and most
go into two area workshops for the
retarded. The Skowhegan workshop
is a rag industry, which collects,
sorts and prepares rags for local
factories and shoe shops. It also
helps the three local thrift shops
with a pickup service. The Waterhill
shop is for more advanced indi­viduals
and is crafts oriented; it
refinishes furniture, braids rugs,
polishes brass.
Ash Street School in Manchester,
New Hampshire, is another where,
for a time, retarded children fixed
lunch and served it to their class­mates
every day. Although prepara­tion
has since been contracted out
to a central commissary, students
still serve the food, clean up, and
help in the kitchen with special
events. And the project's success
has led to expanded programs for
the trainable retarded in the Man­chester
school district.
As anyone who works with re­tarded
or handicapped children
realizes, it is only a small step from
doing for oneself to doing for
others, but that step goes a long
way toward greater satisfaction and
self-esteem.
For more information on these
schools, write:
Cuyahoga County Board of Mental
Retardation
1050 Terminal Tower
Cleveland, Ohio 44113
Ken-a-Set Association for the
Retarded, Inc.
P.O. Box 334
Waterville, Maine 04901
Thomas A. Burke, Director
Food and Nutrition Services
City of Manchester School District
333 Beech Street
Manchester, New Hampshire 03103
by Chris Kocsis
14
Workshops give clients a
sense of identity and purpose
Imagine three sheltered work­shops
for the handicapped. Imagine
a warehouse. In that warehouse,
visualize 65,000 square feet of gov­ernment
publications-an area half
again as large as a large super­market-
pallet after heavy pallet of
books, brochures, posters, and
other public information. You have
begun to picture part of DCARC, a
remarkable organization that
handles the bulk distribution o·f
many government publications, in­cluding
this magazine.
DCARC stands for District of
Columbia Association for Retarded
Citizens, and is the local branch of
a nationwide nonprofit corporation
headquartered in Arlington, Texas.
DCARC's workshops distribute
publications for several Federal
agencies at a fraction of the likely
cost. At the same time, the work- ·
shops provide gainful employment
to several hundred handicapped
clients at four locations.
DCARC clients include people who
are mildly or moderately retarded,
people who are emotionally
disturbed or mentally restored, and
people who have physical
handicaps, such as sight and
hearing impairments.
"A feeling of
independence"
The workshop from which most
Food and Nutrition Service publica­tions
are handled, is on the grounds
Food and Nutrition
of St. Elizabeth's Hospital, a Federal
institution. While all of this work­shop's
clients are on the hospital
rolls, 99 percent are outpatients.
"That's one of the things we feel
proudest about," said Shirley Wade,
who was manager of this workshop
for several years and is now deputy
director of DCARC's workshop
operations. "The wages our clients
make through DCARC help make it
possible for them to pay rent, buy
food, and live in the community.
"It's unfortunate more people
don't support sheltered workshops,"
she continued. "Many feel these
people should go out and get
regular jobs like everybody else, but
if you talk to a couple you will see
that it's hard as blazes for them to
find work. And ifs a funny thing,
June 1981
most employers will accept inferior
work from so-called normal people,
but a handicapped person has to
come very close to being perfect,
because if you start out with a
handicap, they will be looking for
you to do it wrong.
"Actually, handicapped people
will often do a job more carefully
and consistently than others. They
take to routines. And once they
understand what it is they are sup­posed
to do, they are not manipula­tive
to the point of trying to get out
of it, as some people are. They just
work, and work, and work.
"I've had people who want to
work through lunch, and break, on
weekends, and on holidays. You
have to say no. Working gives them
a sense of identity, purpose. A per­son
living within the confines of an
institution, or in the care of a parent
or guardian, knows he or she will
be taken care of, so money itself is
not a motivator. What they really
need is a feeling of independence,
and we help them have that by let­ting
them manage their own affairs
to the extent they can."
Clients receive their own checks,
and DCARC encourages them to
open bank accounts, establish
check-cashing privileges at mar­kets,
and so forth. If a person is
judged incapable of handling his or
her own finances, that person is
judged inappropriate for the St.
Elizabeth's workshop.
Wade explained, "Parents and
hospitals all too often say, 'I want to
be the payee.' But we want people
to feel they have the use of the
money they worked for. I don't
know how to say how important
this is."
Variety of
services
Clients and staff at DCARC main­tain
inventory records of all pub­lications,
and distribute them as
requests come in through the pub­lishing
agency. This guarantees that
the agency itself knows what it has
in stock. DCARC also keeps careful
records that show when and how
many copies of each publication
are shipped, and how. It decides
which carrier is the most eco­nomical
and often can suggest
better ways than those requested
by the agencies. It has its own fleet
of trucks for carrying the publica­tions
in town. The drivers' helpers
are handicapped clients.
"We think the sheltered employ­ment,
training, and other experi­ences
we provide are invaluable,"
Wade said. "A relationship is estab­blished
not only with the client but
with families and other support sys­tems.
Vocational rehabilitation
counselors, hospitals, clinical
people, and parents value the rela­tionship
because they can see how
it benefits their wards. Our clients
gain in self-esteem. And the gov­ernment
saves money. How can you
beat that?"
For more information, write:
District of Columbia Association
for Retarded Citizens, Inc.
405 Riggs Road, N.E.
Washington, D.C. 20011
by Christopher Kocsis
15
The General Assembly of the
United Nations has declared 1981
the International Year of Disabled
Persons (IYDP), with this objective:
to encourage the full integration of
and participation in society of the
estimated 450 million people on
Earth who suffer from some form of
physical or mental impairment.
In the United States, an inter­agency
council is working to
heighten public awareness of the
rights, capabilities, achievements,
and needs of disabled persons. For
information on the ·council and how
you can help, ·write or call Harold
O'Fiaherty, Executive Director, In­ternational
Year of Disabled Per­sons,
330 C Street, S.W., Room
3124, Washington, D.C. 20201. Tele­phone:
(202)-245-0170.
16
State and
local efforts
Many states and communities
have set up committees of their
own to organize activities for the
Year. In Milwaukee, for example, a
county committee is starting a com­prehensive
program to make local
merchants aware of disabilities. It
stresses training personnel iri at­titudes
toward disabled persons,
making stores accessible, and
educating store buyers about mer­chandise
used by disabled con­sumers.
California has established a state­ment
of rights for the Year. It is
committP.d to: ••• Promote independent living ••• Insure equal employment oppor-tunities
••• Develop a barrier-free environment • • Guarantee access to public facilities
and transportation •• Provide the necessary supportive
services for employment oppor­tunity
and independent living ••• End the segregated education of
children with disabilities and insure
a free and appropriate education ••• Secure the right of persons with
disabilities to bear, raise, and adopt
children ••• Guarantee the right of disabled per­sons
to participate in all aspects of
the political process ••• Promote affordable, integrated, and
accessible housing.
Activities
at USDA
For its own part, the Department
of Agriculture plans to: continue to
modify its buildings and facilities to
make them more accessible to em­ployees
and the public; recruit
handicapped personnel; establish
talent and skill banks in each
agency personnel office; and
provide information to training
officers, placement coordinators,
and managers on the training needs
of handicapped employees.
The Department is also consider­ing:
providing special equipment
for handicapped patrons using the
agricultural library; producing some
of the Department's most popular
publications in braille or 'cassette
tape editions; and entering into a
-
I
contract with the Reg ister of
Interpreters for obtaining
interpreting services on a regular
basis. The Food and Nutrition
Service has already offered its
employees two beginning courses
in sign language taught by a deaf
employee and a trained interpreter.
The agency will offer an
intermediate course later in the
year.
The Rehabilitation Act of 1973
prohibits discrimination against the
handicapped in employment or
delivery of services by any activity
receiving Federal funds. During the
year, USDA will hold training con­ferences
for employees on the
provisions of this law.
Any person who feels he or she
has been discriminated against
because of handicap, age, or
for any other reason by a
Department of Agriculture
agency, program, or recipient
of USDA funds, should write
to: U.S. Department of
Agriculture, Washington, D.C.
20250.
/
\
• ••
~at can you do to help the
elderly and handicapped in your
community? First, identify specific
needs. Find out if there are organ­izations
or social service agencies
that can use your help. Existing vol­unteer
and community action
groups can pinpoint needs and
offer some suggestions.
If you'd like to help with food and
nutrition services, here we some
examples of things you might do: ••• Volunteer to help feed handicapped
children in local schools, or older
le in congregate or delivered­eal
programs . • • • Offer to help an elderly or handi-capped
person shop for food, cook,
or apply for food assistance . • • • Investigate whether meal programs
for the elderly provide meals on
weekends, and work something out
to fill any distressing gaps . • • • Try to cook creatively for the
severely disabled-eating may be
one of their few pleasures. They
may enjoy having more variety in
flavor and texture than they are
now getting . • • • Meet yvith physical or occupational
therapists· to learn about the needs
and capabilities of elderly and dis­abled
persons, especially ones you
Photos courtesy of United Way and the Preside
Committee on Employment for the Handicapped.
know, so that you can tailor work or
social situations to them better.
Do an accessibility survey of public
places, including food stores and
social service agencies. Publicize
your findings and suggest ways the
community might make services
more accessible. ••• Boston has started a mini-store-on-wheels
for the elderly. Although the
original purpose was to protect the
elderly from being mugged as they
walked to and from stores, the mini­store-
on-wheels has also made it
easier to shop. Such a service could
be expanded to serve rural shut-ins,
whose transportation problems are
the worst . • • • Coney Island, N.Y., is testing a dif-ferent
approach: senior citizens
who live in the 60th Police Precinct
are being given rides to and from
shopping centers in police vans.
The service runs from 10 a.m. to 2
p.m., 2 days a week . • • • Sponsor a health fair for the
elderly with such features as blood
and vision tests and nutrition
counseling. Publicize existing and
18
needed health and nutrition
services for the elderly and dis­abled.
Involve the professional
medical community and social
agencies. • • • Look for help from local businesses
and business leaders. ••• Stroke victims in Frederick, Mary-land,
wanted to form a club but
found most members couldn't get
to meetings. Stroke sufferers often
recover slowly and are unable to
drive or use public transportation.
They requested the help of a local
car dealer, who now furnishes a
free pickup service and gets con­siderable
public recognition for his
~esture.
Sponsor a job fair to publicize
local employment opportunities;
obtain pledges from local
merchants, industrial employers,
and other businessmen to look
into jobs for the elderly and
physically and mentally disabled.
Help them find out what jobs
and tasks are suitable-and
suggest ways they can create
their own jobs . • • • When the owner of a Portland food
store chain decided to close one of
his stores, he offered it rent-free to
a group of senior citizens interested
in starting their own discount
grocery. The Senior Grocery is now
in its fourth year and going strong. • •• Work to reduce the incidence of
disabilities through accident and
disease prevention campaigns. Set
up displays in shopping centers,
recreational facilities, libraries,
schools, churches, and in poverty
areas. • • Establish contact with other towns
to learn about local, regional, and
state services for elderly and
disabled people. •• Establish an award program to
recognize community accomplish­ment
in meeting the needs of dis­abled
persons . • • • Organize dialogue-through
seminars, interviews, public
forums- involving persons with
and without disabilities on issues of
importance to them. The religious
community can help with leadership
here. • •• Whatever you do, think in terms
of bringing the elderly, disabled,
and handicapped to the "regular"
world, rather than the other way
around. While there are many ways
in which these groups can be
served only by bringing things to
them, they often benefit more
from being enabled to partici­pate
in society at large.
Food and Nutrition
1
Several things are necessary to
make your project work, whether it
is a state, county, community, or
individual one. Funds, space, work­ers
and volunteers, and local sup­port
are all vital, and ingenuity can
turn them up in unexpected places.
Sometimes different organizations
can each chip in part of a service,
as was planned in one Ohio county
where sheriff's deputies were to
drive a welfare department van
bringing food stamps to the rural
homebound. County officials
decided to issue the stamps by
mail, making the van unnecessary,
but they felt the idea was good. In
Seattle, a joint project between the
city and the Seattle school district
gives lunch to elderly persons in
school cafeterias after the children
have eaten.
New resources are just as im­portant
as new services. The New
Jersey Department of Human Serv­ices
has published a picture cook-
(o)food
(%Nutrition
book that was developed by the
New Lisbon State School for the re­tarded
.
The book can also be used by:
people who have temporarily lost
the ability to concentrate or read,
such as stroke victims or emotion­ally
disturbed persons; people with
learning disabilities or dyslexia;
people who do not speak English;
and people who never learned to ,....._.....,.;:
read. Copies are $1 .50 from the
Office of Education, Department
of Human Services, CN 700,
Trenton, New Jersey 08625.
Telephone 609-292-0501 .
Whether you or your commu­nity
begin a service, unearth a
resource, or ask a question, the
first step is not a step at all, but
standing in somebody else's
shoes. There, we may say, but
for the grace of youth, job,
opportunity, accomplishment,
or chance go I. . . and I may
come there still. What will I
need if and when I do?
by Christopher Kocsis
Food and Nutrition is a magazine of A yearly subscription is $6.50 for six
the U.S. Department of Agriculture. issues. Foreign subscriptions are
In it you'll find articles on the family $8.15. To subscribe, mail a check or
food assistance and child nutrition money order, payable to the Super-programs
administered by USDA's intendent of Documents, to the
Food and Nutrition Service in following address: Superintendent
cooperation with State and local of Documents, Government Printing
,.3.___ agencies. Office, Washington, D.C. 20402 . ............. ~~ ................................. .
• • :o •• •• •• •
I'd like to subscribe to
Food and Nutrition
magazine, published by
the U.S. Department of
Agriculture's Food and
Nutrition Service .
Name
Street
City
State
•• •• •• ••
·zip Code •• •• •••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••
UNITED STATES GOVERNMENT PRINTING OFFICE
Division of Public Documents. Washington. D.C. 20402
Official Business
Penalty for Private Use. $300
Published six times a year by the
Food and Nutrition Service, U.S.
Department of Agriculture,
Washington, D.C. 20250.
John R. Block
Secretary of Agriculture
G. William Hoagland
Administrator
Food and Nutrition Service
Jan Kern, Editor
Jan Proctor, Art Director
Yearly subscription: $6.50 domestic,
$8.15 foreign. Single copies: $1 .50
domestic, $1.90 foreign . Send sub­scription
orders to: Superintendent
of Documents, Government Printing
Office, Washington, D.C. 20402.
The Secretary of Agriculture has
determined that the publication of
this periodical is necessary in the
transaction of the public business
required by law of this Department.
The use of funds for printing this
publication was approved by the
Director of the Office of Manage­ment
and Budget through Sep­tember
30, 1981 .
Prints of photos may be obtained
from Photo Library, U.S. Depart­ment
of Agriculture, Washington,
D.C. 20250.
All programs of the U.S. Depart­ment
of Agriculture are available to
everyone without regard to race,
creed, color, sex or national origin.
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& FEES PAID
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