Food & Nutrition [Volume 15, Number 3]

              July 1985 Volume 15
jTor Buil?~~ ys,e ~nly
Number 3
In this issue, we focus on com­munity
involvement in the food
programs. Articles look at:
-contributions of individual
volunteers;
-ways food stamp offices can
use volunteers and how volunteer
coordinators can help; and
-efforts of federal, state, and
local food program managers who
go the extra mile to respond to and
work with people in their
communities.
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II I
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I I
U RARY
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D.epository
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Gene Pitman:
A Knight to
Remember-
Gene Pitman, a food program
specialist with USDA's Food and
Nutrition Service, believes in his
agency's mission to help people in
need. He also believes that we are
our brother's keeper, and he lives
this belief both on and off the job.
Because of Pitman's outstanding
efforts in organizing volunteers to
help the needy, he has won anum­ber
of awards for community serv­ice.
Working through the Knights
of Columbus in Maryland, he has
been recognized at the state and
local level by a number of awards.
Last summer, Pitman received
national recognition by winning the
George Washington honor medal
from the Freedom Foundation at
Valley Forge for the community
programs category. The award was
conferred at a special ceremony in
the U.S. Capitol. In January, he was
presented with a resolution on
behalf of the State of Maryland and
a proclamation from the governor in
Annapolis.
Pitman has been with the Food
and Nutrition Service since 1969,
the year the agency became an
official entity. Before joining FNS,
he was cashier and manager for the
A&P food stores. Brought up in an
Irish Catholic family in Roxbury,
Massachusetts, he learned early
about thrift, hard work, and respon­sibility.
As the eldest son whose
father died when he was 12, he had
to quit school and began working
the next year as a provider for the
family.
"I'll do the
best I can"
Pitman works in FNS' food distri­bution
division and is involved in
the inventory, shipping, and distri­bution
of government foods around
the country. The end product of
these activities is getting food on
the tables of the needy. One
responsibility of the division is
transporting shipments of food to
disaster areas in the aftermath of
floods and destructive storms.
One particular disaster­Hurricane
Agnes in 1972-was
2
catastrophic to many people and a
transformation in Pitman's life. Fol­lowing
the storm and flooding, he
was sent to Wilkes Barre, Pennsyl­vania,
with a team of food distribu­tion
specialists from the FNS
Washington and regional offices to
coordinate efforts with state and
local workers.
Pitman kept track of the invento­ries
and, as shelters were set up for
the flood victims, he supplied the
necessary amount and kinds of
foods at the sites. Ordinary office
hours went by the board. They
worked double shifts or sometimes
around the clock. They stopped
only when every shelter was provi­sioned
or food was on the way.
Pitman has worked other disas­ters
since, but a meeting with one
of the survivors of Hurricane Agnes
changed his life on the spot. He
had worked 19 hours that day
around and through the flood
devastation of Wilkes Barre. It was
time to go home, and he was riding
in a jeep with a couple of national
guardsmen when they saw a lone
woman walking along the darkened
streets. Concerned for her welfare,
Pitman suggested they stop to see
if she needed any help.
They identified themselves to the
woman and started to find out
about her situation. They learned
that the woman's home, husband,
and three children had been
washed away in the flood.
"I'll never forget that woman the
rest of my life," Pitman says. Her
loss was a dramatic example of how
deeply and suddenly tragedy can
strike. "I don't know what I can do
to help," Gene told her, "but what­ever
I do, I'll do the best I can."
Returned home
and got to work
From that time on, Pitman's
volunteer work on behalf of the
poor and disadvantaged went into
high gear. Through the Knights of
Columbus, he developed a corps of
255 volunteers who work weekends
and holidays. He also organized a
list of blood donors for the elderly
who are poor and is currently
putting together an organ donor
program.
He is enthusiastic about the
volunteers he works with and
directs. "One girl, who works for
Agriculture and has a home comput-er,
filed all of the figures for the
volunteer program. She worked a
whole year on it. These are the
types of people who are out there.
It's amazing."
Under Pitman 's direction, volun­teers
have donated more than 7,200
hours and driven 8,171 miles during
the past 2 years alone.
They work on a variety of proj­ects
that include assisting at shel­ters
for homeless or battered
women and men; obtaining and
providing free medical equipment;
providing such items as food, cloth­ing,
furniture, appliances, and serv­ices
to area soup kitchens, child
day care centers, orphanages, hos­pitals,
summer camps, and homes
for the physically or mentally
impaired; and transporting elderly
people to appointments, religious
services, and food stores.
Gene is known as the person to
call if someone needs help or has
something to give. Last year, for
example, Holy Name College in
northeast Washington was sold to
Howard University for its divinity
school. The college had to be
vacated by the end of May and they
needed help in the disposition of
furniture, beds, mattresses, desks,
table lamps, typewriters, and other
items.
One day the director of the col­lege
called Gene and said, "We
have 120 rooms of furniture, and
you're welcome to whatever you
can carry out of here on Saturday."
Within hours, Gene organized a
crew of volunteers with enough
trucks to virtually empty all 120
rooms in one day.
Sometimes Gene will get four
or five calls for help at home after
work. As a result, he regularly
sleeps only 2 or 3 hours a night, but
insists this is sufficient for his
needs. "And, if you enjoy what you
do," he says, "that's not work."
Recognition is
well deserved
When he received the Freedom
Foundation award in the Capitol,
the pomp and circumstance and
marble and statuary seemed intimi­dating.
"There was Senator Baker,
and my hometown Congressman
Tip O'Neill. An admiral was on my
right, and Senator Glenn asked me
about by award. I'm a high school
dropout from a ghetto in Roxbury.
Food and Nutrition
The 1983 booklet, called Making
Food Dollars Count-Nutritious
Meals at Low Cost, was written at a
high reading level and was intended
for nutrition professionals, parapro­fessionals,
social service workers,
and community leaders who work
with low-income families.
"This was a fine starting point,"
says Braley. "But we learned from
this experience that there was a
need for something tangible that
low-income participants in a work­shop
or one-on-one activity could
take home with them as a reminder
of what they had just learned."
In November 1983, several USDA
agencies formed a nutrition educa­tion
task force to come up with
ideas on the best materials for
low-income audiences.
In addition to representatives
from FNS, which would have pri­mary
responsibility for developing
and distributing the materials, the
task force included representatives
from the Agricultural Mar_keting
Service, the Food Safety and
Inspection Service, the Human
Nutrition Information Service, the
Office of Governmental and Public
·Affairs, the Extension Service, and
the Office of the Consumer Advisor.
During a series of meetings and
with the input of food stamp eligi­bility
workers and supervisors, the
group identified major concepts to
be developed in the materials.
"Buy better
to eat better"
"What we came up with," says
Patricia Daniels of FNS' Nutrition
and Technical Services Division,
"were two themes, 'Buy Better' and
'Eat Better'. We wanted to give
people information that would help
them develop specific skills-like
knowing how to compare brands to
get the best buys and to read labels
for nutritional content.
"Another idea we wanted to get
across was that with convenience
foods you can spend a lot of money
for fancy packaging and season­ings.
We wanted people to see that
you can get more for your money
by doing things yourself-and often
without a lot of extra time and
trouble."
The materials FNS developed
present these and other concepts in
a number of different ways. They
are being called Make Your Food
Dollars Count-a slight change
from the earlier Making Food Dol­lars
Count booklet-to emphasize
April 1985
their consumer orientation. The
materials include:
• Four pamphlets in English and
Spanish with two messages on
each. The pamphlets can be dis­played
in social service offices,
used in workshops or in one-on­one
sessions with individuals, or
mailed to food stamp recipients.
• Two full-color posters in Eng­lish
and Spanish for use in food
stamp offices and other group
settings.
• A 12-minute slide show that
can be used with an accompanying
cassette tape and narrative guide.
• Eight 30- to 60-second radio
public service announcements-six
in English and two in Spanish.
• Nutrition and shopping mes­sages
in English and Spanish in a
reproducible format for use by
magazines and newspapers.
• A project guide with sugges­tions
for using the materials in local
food stamp offices and for coordi­nating
activities with community
organizations.
Careful planning
included surveys
To ensure that the materials
would be appropriate for and useful
to food stamp recipients, staff from
FNS headquarters and its Mid­Atlantic
regional office showed the
posters and pamphlets to a repre­sentative
sampling of food program
participants before the materials
were printed in final form .
Above and left: Susan Mahan, an aide with the
Expanded Food and Nutrition Education Pro­gram,
visits a low-income homemaker in
Quincy, Massachusetts. Using the new Make
Your Food Dollars Count materials, Mahan talks
about how to look for good buys and read la­bels
for nutritional content.
"We wanted to know how attrac­tive
food stamp recipients found the
publ ications," says Daniels, "how
well they understood and could
accept them, and how well they
could identify with the information
in them.
"We made a lot of changes as a
result of our surveys, but we made
sure the format of the materials
remained consistent, straightfor­ward,
and simple so that recipients
could understand the messages.
"Most important to us throughout
the project," says Daniels, "was
getting the materials into the hands
of the people who needed them. As
a result, we made sure that we
printed enough posters for every
food stamp office and enough pam­phlets
for every food stamp house­hold
in the country.
"We also experimented with a
different distribution system where­by
local food stamp and Extension
Service offices could order mate­rials
directly from FNS. Usually,
local offices order from state ware­houses.
The system we are using
for the new nutrifion education
materials eliminates the storage,
3
Volunteers and
the Food Stamp
Program
In communities across the coun­try,
volunteers help hospitals,
schools, churches, and charitable
organizations provide needed serv­ices.
In a nom ber of areas, food
stamp managers are finding that
with careful planning , volunteers
can be used successfully with the
Food Stamp Program as well.
While volunteers can't be used for
regular staff functions that involve
certification or issuance, for rea­sons
of confidentiality and security,
there are many things they can do.
For instance, they can :
• help people fill out applications
and understand which documents
they need to verify information;
• give people rides to and from
food stamp offices and grocery
stores;
• help food stamp clients plan
meals, shop, and cook;
• help paid staff with filing, tele­phone
coverage, and special proj­ects
like mass mailings.
Volunteers can
be used more
Tim Grace, president of the
national association of food stamp
directors, feels volunteers could be
used more. "At this time," he says.
"you're going to be hard pressed to
find a lot of states that use volun­teers.
But I th ink it is something we
can and want to do, especially with
nutrition education ."
As food stamp director in Illinois,
Grace has started a new initiative to
work more closely with the Expand­ed
Food and Nutrition Education
Program (EFNEP) located at the
University of Illinois. Through
EFNEP, Grace expects to be mak­ing
use of volunteers to teach
people about food and nutrition,
using the new "Make Your Food
Dollars Count" materials developed
by USDA for food stamp recipients
and other low-income people.
"EFNEP and the food stamp staff
have been working with the same
people for years, we just haven't
been working together and we want
to change that," Grace says.
According to Grace and other
food stamp managers, food stamp
4
offices have had varying degrees of
success using volunteers. Roy
Clark, assistant food stamp director
in Columbia, South Carolina, says,
"Half of our offices would say they
work with volunteers real well. The
other half would say, 'I wouldn't
touch them with a 1 0-foot pole.'
"Some counties have had bad
experiences with volunteers. The
volunteers would come in for 2 or 3
days, and then they'd lose interest."
Good management
makes a difference
To guarantee reliability, many
state, county, and charitable agen­cies
hire paid volunteer coordina­tors
whose sole job it is to work
with volunteers. According to Mar­tha
Martin, of the National Associa­tion
of Volunteer Administrators, a
volunteer coordinator works much
like a personnel officer.
"A volunteer coordinator helps
you place the right person in the
right job, works with you to provide
training, and guarantees reliability,"
she says. "Good volunteer coordi­nators
make the volunteers under­stand
that this is a commitment, no
different from any other job. In fact,
some volunteer coordinators have
their volunteers sign job contracts. "
Dahlene Shen, volunteer coordi­nator
for Oregon, agrees that the
key to using volunteers is good
screening and training. " Every
volunteer has a motive for volun­teering,"
she says. "The closer you
can match their motives or needs
with your assignments, the better
off you're going to be."
Shen supervises a paid staff of
county volunteer coordinators who
find and manage volunteers at the
local level. Each county in Oregon
has a volunteer coordinator.
"We help with all service pro­grams
in the state-Medicaid, Aid
for Families with Dependent Chil­dren,
children 's services," says
Shen . Funding for the volunteer
coordinators comes equally from
state and federal sources. Part of
their federal funding comes from
the Department of Health and
Human Services' Title 19 because
of the work they do transporting
clients to medical appointments;
part comes from a social service
block grant.
"We also have volunteers taking
the clients to food stores, as well as
showing them how to make thei r
food dollars stretch with shopping
tips. We also have volunteers who
work with cooking, which is espe­cially
helpful for some young clients ."
Like Tim Grace, Shen feels the
new "Make Your Food Dollars
Count" materials will be a catalyst
for using volunteers more. The
"Make Your Food Dollars Count"
materials include a slide show,
posters, and pamphlets with smart
shopping tips.
" I'm sure we'll be having volun­teers
organizing and doing actual
training with these materials," Shen
says. " It's an excellent way to use
volunteers."
Some advice on
getting started
For agencies interested in using
volunteers, a good place to start is
seeing how other organizations
have set up their volunteer
programs.
According to Steve McCurley,
from a national nonprofit organiza­tion
called "Volunteer-the National
Center," a first step is contacting an
already existing volunteer organiza­tion
you might work through. These
organizations could include, for
example, the United Way, the Red
Cross, or a voluntary action center.
State volunteer coordinators may
be especially helpful.
" Right now," says McCurley,
"about half the states have state­wide
volunteer coordinators. They
are usually attached to the state
department of human services or
the governor's office, and they
make a big difference. North Caro­lina,
for instance, is about 5 years
ahead of everyone else in using
volunteers because of their strong
state-wide program.''
Most large cities, and all capital
cities, have volunteer action cen­ters,
according to McCurley. They
should be able to help set up a
volunteer program and may even
manage it, or they may recruit
someone to become volunteer
manager.
Agencies considering large-scale,
long-term volunteer programs may
consider adding a person to their
paid staff as a volunteer coordina­tor.
" It's just like anything else,"
says McCurley, "if you have good
people managers, you'll have good
results."
Food and Nutrition
The next steps in setting up a
volunteer program:
• Plan the job. Work with a
volunteer coordinator to assess
your needs. Says Oregon coordina­tor
Shen : "Make sure the needs are
there and that they are well defined.
I don't know how many times
programs have been developed that
people thought would be real nice,
but then nobody used them ."
• Enlist the support of manage­ment.
" If you don't have internal
support," says Shen, "your volun­teer
program is going to fail." In
Oregon, for instance, the volunteer
program relies on having clients
referred from paid staff. Shen
makes sure paid staff know what
kind of services the volunteers can
provide.
• Write up job descriptions. Ana­lyze
the job and how it should be
done as carefully as you would a
paid staff job. Part of this process,
according to Shen, includes work­ing
with paid staff to make sure
their positions are not undermined
by volunteers.
• Recruit and screen. Work with
your volunteer coordinator to try to
make sure you have the right volun­teer
in the right job.
• Place and train. Analyze the
training that needs to be done and
work with the volunteer coordinator
to see that time is devoted to
training . "One of the biggest errors
that's made," Shen says, "is throw­ing
volunteers into assignments
without much background or train­ing
and just expecting them to pick
up the job and do it ."
• Supervise and evaluate. "Volun­teers
are just like paid staff," Shen
concludes, "they need supervision
and constant reinforcement and
recognition from the people they
are working for."
For more information on working
with volunteers, contact:
Dahlene Shen
Community Relations Coordinator
417 Public Services Building
Salem, Oregon 97310
Telephone: (503) 378-3680
Tim Grace
Bureau of Food Stamps
3616 South Second Street
Springfield, Illinois 62762
Telephone: (217) 782-1355
article by Dianne Durant
July 1985
Sam Shapos:
A Volunteer
for Life
Volunteers. Can they really make
a difference? Sam Shapes thinks
they can.
Helping people is a way of life for
Shapos. "Back when I was in Balti­more,"
he laughs, "I was running
my own business as a commercial
artist and steel-die engraver. People
used to line up at my front door
every Monday morning-and every­one
got something."
Sam Shapos moved to North
Port, Florida, 15 years ago. Four­teen
years ago, he helped set up a
meals-on-wheels program for
elderly and handicapped people.
Ten years ago, he started a volun­teer
program to provide free trans­portation
to people needing medical
services. Twelve years ago, he was
appointed by the city commissioner
to run volunteer social services.
Still works
as a volunteer
He works 60 hours a week,
unpaid. Five years ago, he was
given a paid part-time GET A worker
who, he says, "became like a right
arm." When GET A ran out, the city
continued the position, but Shapos
took extra steps to keep her
around.
"I didn't want to lose her," he
laughs, "so I married her 6 months
ago." He loves the shock of it, and
teases, "I think sometimes it takes a
lot of nerve to get married at the
age I did-1 turn 77 this summer!"
His "right arm," the former Mary
Hargraves, gets paid for 20 hours a
week, but sticks in there for a full
60 just like Sam. Together, they
cover the gamut of volunteer serv­ices
in North Port, providing help
with welfare, food stamps, utility
assistance-anything that might
help North Port people.
The town has about 8,500 people
and is still growing, but it has a lot
of homes for rent at cheap prices.
As a result, it has attracted a
number of people without jobs,
mainly women between the ages of
19 and 38 who are divorced or
separated and trying to support
If people need help, Sam Shapes
knows how to get it. A long-time volun­teer,
Shapes runs volunteer services
to ~- North Port, Florida.
5
children. Jobs are scarce, says
Sam, "but I guess Florida is a magic
word." ...
When people need food stamps,
the Shapos help them fill out appl i­cations.
If they need help getting to
the certification office, the Shapos
take them there, wait for them, and
bring them back home.
The Shapos also distribute free
food . "I've got three refrigerators
and a freezer to hold food, and I go
out personally to raise money and
food to fill them up. No one who
comes in," Sam says, "no matter
what condition , is ever turned away
hungry."
Help in other
ways as well
If people need rent money, Sam
Shapos tries to help them raise it. If
people's utilities are threatened, he
works with the local companies to
guarantee payment and helps set
up a payment schedule. If older
folks are bedridden and have no
one to care for them, Sam helps
them find someone to come in.
One of the projects Sam Shapos
got off the ground was a proposal
to USDA to allow meals-on-wheels
programs to accept food stamps­which
was approved. ''I'm a busy
little bee down here," he chuckles.
The only time Sam gets frustrated
with his job is if he can't help
someone. "But usually," he says, "I
find that I can go to my Kiwanis
Club at a luncheon, ask if I can get
the floor for 2 minutes, tell them I
have a desperate family, and I get
the help I need."
The most important thing in help­ing
people, says Sam, is not what
you know. " It's being able to really
cry with people, to feel hurt with
them. You can't put yourself in their
position, but you empathize with
them and as long as you do, you're
going to do something for them.
And that's your job."
For more information, contact:
Sam Shapos, Director
Volunteer County Social Services
North Port Social Services
North Port City Hall
311 North Port Boulevard
North Port, Florida 33596
Telephone: (813) 426-2331
article by Dianne Durant
photo by Charles Lynch, FNS
Tampa Field Office
6
Food Stores
Get Involved
Many food stores across the
country provide special services to
their clients. Nutrition education,
accord ing to the Food Marketing
Institute (FMI), is a growing focus
for most food chains. Many also
help with food assistance efforts by
donating food to food banks, partic­ipating
in fund-raising drives, and
helping in other ways.
Community service, particularly
service to people living on lim ited
incomes, has long been a priority
for the Atlanta-based Food Giant
chain. The chain , which operates 77
stores in Georgia and 6 in Alabama,
is currently involved in five efforts
that help low-income people.
"We decided a seasonal commit­ment
was not sufficient to meet the
needs of a community," says Pat
Thompson, director of corporate
relations for Food Giant. "Although
many stores provide special assist­ance
during the holiday season,
needs continue after Christmas.
Food Giant stores try to do what
they can to meet community needs
year- round."
Transportation for
elderly shoppers
One way Food Giant addresses
ongoing needs is by assisting
elderly shoppers at some Atlanta
stores. Since September 1984, Food
Giant and the Atlanta Housing
Authority have jointly provided a
"Senior Shoppers" service to seven
federally subsidized housing proj­ects
for the elderly. Most of the
people using the service are food
stamp recipients.
"There are many elderly people in
this area who are not incapacitated
and who are maintaining their own
households," says Thompson. " It's
necessary for them to go out and
shop, but shopping is neither easy
nor convenient for them. Many
spend their meager income to hire
taxis for trips to the store.
"We saw an opportunity to ad­dress
this need so we approached
the Atlanta Housing Authority with
a proposal to form a partnership
and operate the 'Senior Shoppers'
service on a trial basis."
The two organizations split the
cost of a bus which visits the
housing projects twice a month to
pick up senior shoppers. The bus
delivers the shoppers to Food Giant
stores where extra staff are on hand
to help them. The staff at these
stores have been trained on the
special needs of the elderly and are
prepared to accommodate those
needs.
For example, the stores are
equipped with shopping carts
designed for people in wheelchairs,
and store employees help people in
wheelchairs reach items on high
shelves. The employees read labels
for the shoppers, direct them to the
locations of particular foods, and
whenever possible, break packages
into smaller sizes for them.
On a monthly basis, the buses
transport about 500 people to the
Food Giant stores. A private bus
service furnishes the transportation
at a reduced rate of $700 per month
for the 14 trips.
Food Giant is presently evaluat­ing
the Atlanta "Senior Shoppers"
pilot project to determine whether
the service should be modified and
expanded to other areas.
Food donated
all year long
In other efforts throughout the
year, Food Giant stores donate all
their surplus and damaged, but still
usable, food products to the Atlanta
Community Food Bank. With the
products it collects from Food
Giant and other stores, the Atlanta
Community Food Bank furnishes
food to more than 250 churches
and community organizations with
emergency food box operations.
Also, Food Giant extends credit
to the Salvation Army, the Red
Cross, and the St. Vincent de Paul
Society by accepting food vouchers
from persons aided by these organ­izations.
The redeemed vouchers
are submitted to the organizations
for payment each month.
During the holiday season, Food
Giant stores step up their commu­nity
involvement activities. Their big
annual project is a "'can -a-thon"
that lasts from Thanksgiving until
just before Christmas. Collection
bins are set up in each store for
customers to donate canned goods
for needy families.
Food and Nutrition
All of Food Giant's print and
broadcast advertisements during
December and the latter part of
November mention the "can-a-thon"
and encourage customers to partic­ipate.
Around the middle of Decem­ber,
an Atlanta television station,
which co-sponsors the "can-a­then",
holds an on-the-air appeal
for 5 hours to further increase
donations.
On that particular day, additional
bins are placed in various collection
sites throughout the city, and
volunteers from Food Giant and the
television station are located at
each site to receive the donations
of food and corporate donations of
July 1985
funds. In 1984, more than 80 truck­loads
of food were collected and
donated to the Salvation Army.
Contributions also
made individually
Apart from the "can-a-thon",
Food Giant employees also give
personal contributions to the Salva­tion
Army so the organization can
provide gift certificates for food to
needy families. Employees have
contributed as much as $20,000 at
Christmas for this cause.
"There's an active link between
Food Giant stores and the com­munity,"
says Pat Thompson. "The
community is where our employees
and our customers live and work.
We try to serve the community well
and meet its residents' food needs."
For further information, contact:
Pat Thompson
Director of Corporate Relations
Food Giant
450 Franklin Road
Marietta, Georgia 30067
Telephone: (404) 429-7888, Ext. 222
article and photo
by Brenda Schuler
Evelyn Edison is one of several Food
Giant clerks trained to assist elderly
shoppers. Here she helps a man select
canned goods.
7
Churches Work
Together "In
Vinton County
In few places is the spirit of
voluntarjsm more vibrant than in
Vinton County, Ohio.
Perhaps this is because of the
county's demographics: roughly
11 ,000 residents sparsely spread
throughout 420 square miles of
tree-covered hills. Or perhaps it is
because of the county's location:
southeastern Ohio, hours away
from any industrialized center.
But the reason is unimportant.
What is important is that local
citizens have recognized that col­lectively
they can do more to help
their less fortunate neighbors than
they ever could individually.
Rev. Stuart Huffman is proud of the
work of VCOM volunteers. He is pic­tured
below in front of the McArthur
United Methodist Church, VCOM's main
office and site of the organization's food
bank and food buying cooperative.
8
An alliance
of churches
For more than 13 years, hundreds
of volunteers have been working
together through the Vinton County
Outreach Ministry (VCOM), an
alliance of members and friends of
the 14 United Methodist churches
located throughout Vinton County.
From these churches more than 200
volunteers work year-round provid­ing
services from 10 different
VCOM programs.
Rev. Stuart Huffman, minister at
the McArthur Methodist Church,
directs VCOM's efforts. "The com­munity
realized early," says Rev.
Huffman, "that through joint minis­try
they could do more things,
accomplish more tasks than any
one church could do by itself."
Of the churches' combined mem­bership
of 740 people, more than 30
percent are VCOM volunteers. Huff­man
estimates that on average,
each volunteer puts in 10 hours
weekly, bringing the annual total to
more than 100,000 hours-a stagger­ring
amount for Ohio's second-least
populated county.
"Why do I do it?" asks Marcia
Moore, who works more than
4 days a month at the local food
buying cooperative. " I do it because
it gives me an inward satisfaction
knowing I'm helping people who
need help."
Retired for more than 5 years,
Moore takes orders on Friday, then
sorts and delivers the food , using
her own car, when it arrives the
following Thursday.
"We're doing a lot of good for
people here in Vinton County,"
Moore says. "And we're making a
noticeable difference in their lives.
People can buy food in bulk quanti­ties
at the co-op so much more
cheaply than they could in stores."
Pantry meets
emergency needs
Besides running a food co-op,
VCOM volunteers also operate a
highly successful food pantry. Like
the co-op and other VCOM pro­grams,
the pantry is staffed by
dozens of volunteers, many of
whom spend 2 days or more a week
working there.
Reverend Huffman is especially
proud of the pantry's success. "In
the 3 years I've been here," he says,
"we've progressed to where last
year we provided area residents
with food for 3,800 meals."
Food and Nutrition
The pantry is a source of emer­gency
food. Families needing help
are given enough food to prepare
three meals a day for 3 days at a
time. They may use the pantry's
service up to four times a year, but,
Huffman explains, this is not a hard
and fast rule. If a household is
having an especially rough time,
volunteers will make sure their
needs are met.
Part of the pantry's food comes
from USDA through the Southeast
Ohio Food Bank, located in an
adjacent county in Nelsonville; part
is purchased for 10 cents a pound
from food banks; and the rest
comes from local businesses,
church drives, and anonymous
donations.
Other services
also provided
VCOM's activities are not limited
to its food programs. In addition to
the food pantry and co-op, the
organization provides: vegetable
seeds for home gardening and can­ning;
kerosene heaters for emer­gency
use during cold weather;
emergency transportation to and
from such places as doctor's offices
and hospitals; and emergency lodg-
July 1985
ing at local hotels and motels for
stranded transients.
VCOM also .has: counseling for
alcohol dependency; a county-wide
bloodmobile; a clothing bank at
which used but good clothing can
be purchased; and a youth work
program in which county young­sters
aid shut-ins by doing such
odd jobs as mending fences, paint­ing
houses, and building sheds.
"I volunteer my time," says Twila
Rose, who spends Fridays at the
clothing bank, "because so many
people around here need help. I
can't give much, but I can give my
time.
"Some people come in here and
don't have hardly any good cloth­ing,"
she says. "The clothes we get
are usually in really good condition.
Most are just things that people
never really did wear.
"We put clothes on shelves or
hang them on hangers, and the
people walk around and can fill up
a big plastic garbage bag for $1 .00.
And if they can't afford that, we
won't charge them at all."
Evelyn Turner works at the cloth­ing
bank 3 hours a week and helps
with a variety of VCOM activities.
Mrs. Turner, who retired several
years ago, says she looks forward
to working with the other
volunteers.
Her work with VCOM keeps her
busy. "I sort and bag food for both
the co-op and the pantry," she
explains, "and I also help register
people when we sponsor a blood
drive and help with the seed pro­gram
in the spring. I'm busy a lot,
but so are a lot of the men and
women around here. And the kids,
too. They do a lot in the summer
youth programs.
"We just all pitch in," she adds,
"and do what has to be done."
For more information, contact:
Reverend Stuart Huffman
McArthur United Methodist Church
McArthur, Ohio 45651
Telephone: (614) 596-2394
article and photos
by Michael Fluharty
VCOM volunteers help with a variety of
community food needs. Here volunteers
help prepare lunch for a meals program
serving the elderly (center) and sort
and package food for the food buying
co-op (left and right).
9
Truck Deliveries Make
A Difference in Shelby County
Charles Faust operates a delivery
service that makes getting food
help a lot easier for women and
children participating in the Com­modity
Supplemental Food Program
in Shelby County, Tennessee.
Faust, warehouse manager for
more than 6 years at the Memphis
and Shelby County Health Depart­ment,
is proud of the delivery
service and of the staff that runs it.
The service is quite unlike any
other in the Southeast.
The Commodity Supplemental
Food Program (or CSFP) provides
USDA-purchased commodities
once a month to low-income preg­nant,
breastfeeding, and postpartum
women; infants; and children up to
age 6.
The food packages are specifi­cally
designed to provide supple­mental
foods to this nutritionally
vulnerable group. CSFP food pack­ages
contain such products as dry
milk, infant formula, egg mix, pea­nut
butter or dry beans, and canned
meats, fruits, and vegetables.
In most areas that have CSFP, the
program is administered by state
10
4~ iS! cOUNTY
¢lE
\Ill
HEALTH
DEPARTMENT
and local health agencies in coop­eration
with USDA's Food and
Nutrition Service. In Tennessee, the
CSFP is administered by the State
Department of Health and Environ­ment
and operated in four coun­ties-
Dyer, Shelby, Davidson, and
Weakly.
Deliveries made
throughout county
The service that is unique to this
community is a truck delivery oper­ation
that brings CSFP food pack­ages
to 11 different sites through­out
Shelby County. CSFP partici­pants
can pick up their food at one
of these sites or at one of the two
Memphis food warehouse locations.
"On a sunny day, this park looks
like the Fourth of July with children
playing and mothers visiting," says
Faust as he oversees the distribu­tion
of CSFP food packages at a
truck site in Millington, Tennessee.
"Without the truck delivery pro­gram,"
says Faust, "some of these
people could not afford the drive
downtown to the warehouses to
pick up their food." The drive from
Millington is approximately 25 miles
from downtown Memphis.
Participants appreciate having
this service closer to their homes.
The county has been operating the
delivery service for more than 15
years.
"Out of some 13,000 people
served by CSFP through the Shelby
County Health Department, we
serve 3,000 at our truck delivery
sites," says Faust. At these sites,
the clients present their ID cards to
the health department staff and are
given an order form indicating
which food package they are to
receive.
When the client accepts the pack­age,
she signs for it and returns the
signed order form to the staff. The
participant is notified at this time if
she needs recertification prior to
the next month's pick up date.
Participants mu{)t be recertified for
eligibility every 6 months. The com­pleted
forms are then returned to
the main office where the informa­tion
is recorded.
Deliveries save
county money
"It is a very basic and simple
procedure- direct delivery from the
warehouse to the participant, and it
saves money for the client and the
county. We'd probably have to have
another warehouse to serve the
outskirts of town if it weren't for
these truck sites," says Faust. The
same staff serves the central ware­house
and all 11 truck stops.
All truck delivery sites, as well as
the two warehouses downtown, are
supplied through a central ware­house.
Although this central ware­house
covers some 15,000 square
feet, the staff has an efficient
method of inventorying their stock
every day of the week.
"If there is a problem with our
numbers, we discover it when it is
made, not a week or a month later.
It is much faster and cheaper to
correct an error this way," says
Faust.
The health department is also
concerned about the quality of the
foods received in the packages. "In
Left: Charles Faust goes over the deliv­ery
schedule with a member of his staff.
Right: A CSFP participant signs for her
food package at one of the 11 distribu­tion
sites.
Food and Nutntion
order to keep the foods their fresh­est,
we maintain temperature con­trol
throughout the summer and
winter at our warehouses.
"We also turn the entire pallet of
our liquid cases every time we
move them. This prevents the sepa­ration
of milk products or juices,
which would make the products
look unappetizing," says Faust.
Special efforts
make a difference
"We take special pride and care
in the job we do. The little things
we do differently in Shelby County
make a big difference in the quality
service our clients receive. Our staff
is a group of hard-working people.
They feel good about the job
they're doing. Without them, my job
July 1985
would be impossible," says Faust.
The Memphis and Shelby County
Health Department has also imple­mented
an appointment system for
picking up the CSFP food packages
at the two Memphis warehouses.
When the participant is certified,
she is assigned a time-frame within
which to go to the warehouse
(either South Memphis or Guthrie)
to receive her monthly package.
This system went into place dur­ing
the early 1980's. Since that time,
there has been a dramatic improve­ment
in the length of a time a
participant has to wait for her food
package.
"Now, unless there is a special
problem, no one waits more than
10 minutes to pick up her package.
The clients are spaced during the
day so there isn't a crunch at any
time," says Faust.
In both the truck delivery service
and the appointment system, the
Memphis and Shelby County Health
Department saw a need in the
community and responded in ways
that benefit the county as well as
participants.
For more information, contact:
John R. Sandefer
Manager, Nutrition Services
Memphis and Shelby County Health
Department
814 Jefferson Avenue
Memphis, Tennessee 38105
Telephone: (901) 528-3950
article by Diana Swindel
photos by Larry Rana
11
How Arlington
County Meets
Refugees'
Needs
During the past 10 years, Arling­ton
County, Virginia, has become a
magnet for the newest American
immigrants-refugees. Commercial
Arlington boulevards that used to
flash "Sears" and "Wards" signs
now include "Due Tran's Grocery"
and "Asian Artifacts."
Located just minutes from the
nation's capital, Arlington now has
a sizeable Indochinese community
as well as immigrants from Afghan­istan
and Ethiopia. In a study done
by the federal government several
years ago, Arlington was identified
as one of the areas in the country
most heavily impacted by refugees.
Community groups, county offi­cials,
and public assistance officers
have worked hard to respond to
their new neighbors' needs. Almost
from the start, the county set up
special units staffed by profession­als
and former refugees to provide
orientation, job and language train­ing,
and referral services for health
screening and public assistance.
A recent survey commissioned by
Arlington County to assess the
needs of refugees from more than
23 countries shows that more than
51 percent are working full or
part-time. They are trying to
improve their adaptability and
employability through education-
79 percent are taking English
classes, and 37 percent are taking
other classes.
But day-to-day life is still a strug­gle
for them. More than three­fourths
of the families have incomes
less than $13,000 a year and report
personal and family problems
caused by the stress of trying to
adapt to a new environment.
Assistance is
client oriented
When refugees need food and
financial aid, they are referred to
the Arlington Department of Human
Services, which operates the ·
Food Stamp Program and a number
12
of other services.
At first, according to bureau chief
Doug Smarte, refugees referred to
his programs were accompanied by
a translator provided by the refugee
assistance group. When a translator
wasn't available, says Smarte, his
agency tapped into funds from
social services for translating help.
This system worked for several
years, Smarte says, but social serv­ices
funds were running out "and
we knew there was a better way of
doing the job." That better way
turned out to be hiring people from
the refugee community to work as
caseworkers themselves.
The first former refugee was hired
about 8 years ago, and today
Arlington's 31 caseworkers include
4 Vietnamese, 1 Laotian, 1 Ethio­pian,
and 1 Afghani. Among the 120
staff workers, Smarte estimates they
have translating capabilities for
more than 20 languages.
Hiring caseworkers who are part
of the community they are serving
is consistent with Smarte's philos­ophy
of being "client-oriented."
"The most important thing I can
do," he says, "is hire people who
are client-centered. If you have
people on the staff who have an
attitude that says, 'We're here to
- help,' then you get a natural boost
out of that-a boost that you can't
always predict. You can't tell what
spin-offs there will be, but it makes
a big difference."
Various kinds
of help given
Obviously, the biggest advantage
to hiring caseworkers from refugee
communities is that they know how
to communicate with the people
they are trying to serve, Smarte
says. Communication, he points
out, is a very subtle thing .
An Indochinese may nod his
head, which to a Westerner means
agreement or understanding. For
the Indochinese, it may only be an
acknowledgement of the authority
of the person who is speaking. It
doesn't necessarily mean that what
is being said is understood.
"These are the unique kinds of
subtle support that can be provided
by caseworkers who are drawn
from their own communities,"
Smarte says.
As a result of the recently com­pleted
study on the needs of refu-
Food and Nutrition
gee populations, Smarte expects to
be doing more in the future to pro­vide
written translations of materials
and make people aware of help that
is available.
The report itself notes that a high
percentage of refugees do seek
food help and are satisfied with the
assistance they receive. Housing,
health care, employment, and edu­cation
continue to be challenges for
refugee populations and high priori­ties
for Arlington County people
trying to help their new neighbors
in need.
Due Do is a Vietnamese refugee
who came to this country in 1967.
He has worked as a caseworker for
Doug Smarte and agrees that
Arlington is very sensitive to refu­gees'
needs.
"As a worker, I am very com­fortable-
very happy-with the way
special populations are being
treated ," he says. The translators
and translated materials that Arling­ton
provides are invaluable, accord­ing
to Do. But most important to
the refugees, he says, are the native
caseworkers.
"Native workers can help refu­gees
understand the steps they
July 1985
Left: A caseworker explains application
procedures to a client at the Arlington
Department of Human Services. Center:
Due Do (right) and Doug Smarte look
over some records.
need to go through to get help as
well as the documentation they
need to verify information," he says.
Native workers are also helpful in
filling out forms. "Not all refugees
are capable of handling forms,"
says Do, "and some of the ques­tions
are difficult for them to under­stand
by themselves."
Getting the word out to refugee
populations is not much of a prob­lem,
according to Do, "because
refugee communities are small and
tend to stick together."
Refugees are
managing well
Do feels that most of the refugee
populations manage very well , "tak­ing
into consideration they are in a
strange country and most of them
do not speak English ."
Part of the Indochinese ability to
adjust, he feels, is inherent. "They
have come from an area of the
world where people have to be very
aggressive as well as very patient
and very enduring in order to
survive. I think that taught them the
art of survival.
"We've learned how to look out
for each other, ask for advice,
where to get help, where to go for
jobs. Refugees are also very willing
to take in their relatives or friends.
"What we are really looking for­ward
to , though ," says Do, "is
having our population be successful
like previous American immigrants.
I am looking forward to seeing in
government and business names
like Yen and Duong.
"Taking people in is one of the
things that has made this country
unique. I am very proud of this
country," he says.
"Sometimes it seems a little cold ,
but it encourages people and
motives people to·work hard and
come up with new ideas. It has
permitted all kinds of citizens to
come in and show off their
strengths and compete against each
other-but we are still united under
one flag ."
F.,r more information , contact:
Doug Smarte
Bureau Chief, Assistance Programs
P.O. Box 7266
Arlington, Virginia 22207
Telephone: (703) 558-2203
article by Dianne Durant
photos by Larry Rana
13
School Lunch
In Memphis Is
A Commun... ity
Affair
Shirley Watkins, director of food
and nutrition services for the Mem­phis
City Schools, believes that the
only way t.o have a good, strong
school lunch program is to have the
support of the whole community.
"My primary concern is that we
do what is necessary to provide
nutritious meals that children like
while we develop a good relation­ship
with the parents. If the pro­gram
is to be effective for children,
then we have to involve the parents
as well ," Watkins says.
She encourages and receives
strong community support for the
156 schools and more than 95,000
students served in Memphis school
meal programs. Parents respond
because Watkins gets them inter­ested
in school lunch. Parent meet­ings
are held often to explain the
program's nutrition requirements
and rules, such as the verification
of household income to confirm
eligibility for free or reduced-price
school meals.
Parents' input
is important
"We listen to what parents tell us
because their input is important,"
says Watkins. " If we get any criti­cism,
we invite parents to get
involved in some advisory capacity,
such as helping on a committee.
Most of the time we win parents
over once they see what require­ments
must be met and what we are
trying to do for their children ."
Parents have been helpful in dis­tributing
information on free and
reduced price school meals, show­ing
other parents how to fill out
application cards correctly.
" In addition ," says Watkins, "par­ents
told us how we could change
the verification process to get the
information we needed. As a result
of their advice, we now provide
information to low-income parents
through housing projects and com­munity
groups to let them know
about income verification."
14
"Offer versus serve," a plan that
allows students to select any three
of the five available lunch compo­nents,
has been used for a number
of years in Memphis city schools.
Shirley Watkins also allows kinder­garten
children to serve themselves
family style at the lunch table.
"There was one parent who was
very concerned that her child was
going to serve herself. After observ­ing
for several days, she volun ­teered
to help with the program and
eventually became a school food
service employee. That's one parent
we thought we'd never win over,"
Watkins laughs.
Parents involved
in learning, too
Watkins and her staff make
school lunch an integral part of the
educational program . A comprehen­sive
nutrition education plan, the
Memphis Nutrition Information Pro­gram
(NIP), reaches students,
teachers, cafeteria personnel , par­ents,
and the community through
school assemblies, faculty and par­ent
meetings, classroom demon­strations,
food service training
workshops, teacher training , and
coordinated community projects.
NIP is part of the statewide
Tennessee Educates for Nutrition
Now (TENN) program, a sequential
nutrition education plan for kinder­garten
through grade 12 that
encourages sensible eating habits
by teaching the fundamentals of
good nutrition .
Other goals of TENN include:
• training educators and food serv­ice
personnel in nutrition;
• promoting school and community
support for a coordinated nutrition
education program;
• promoting proper diet, exercise,
and health habits for the mainte­nance
of " ideal" weight and opti­mum
health;
• providing training in menu plan­ning
, quality food preparation , and
merchandising.
In Memphis, many "hands on"
experiences are provided to stu­dents
and parents. Kitchen tours,
tasting parties, and food demon­strations
complement classroom
activities.
"We want the cafeteria to be a
true learning laboratory," says Wat­kins.
"Children help us design
cafeteria layouts and decide what
foods are served. One of the par­ents'
favorite activities is making
different nutritious snacks for
children ."
Food and Nutrition
Activities reach
people of all ages
One of the people helping Mem­phis
students know the right foods
to eat is nutrition consultant Helen
Royer, who supervises Memphis
City Schools' Nutrition Information
and Training Center. The center,
which Shirley Watkins set up in the
fall of 1978, houses more than 550
publications and resources on
nutrition-more than· the public
library.
The center is located in a voca­tional
center and includes audio­visual
materials, posters, and pam­phlets
on topics such as low-cost
meal preparation and menus,
including menus for meals that
pre-adolescent children prepare.
"We encourage parents to check
out materials and discuss nutrition
with their children at home," says
Royer.
Probably the best known and best
loved nutrition teacher in Memphis
is Nutri-Duck, a costumed mascot
that has been making public
appearances at schools, parent
meetings, and community activities
since the spring of 1978. Watkins
came up with the idea for Nutri­Duck
after seeing how children
responded to the song "Disco­Duck,"
made popular by Memphis
singer Rick Dees.
"Our first Nutri-Duck outfit con­sisted
of feathers glued on terry­cloth,"
says Royers. "This didn't last
too long since the children tended
to pull off the feathers." The pres­ent
Nutri-Duck costume was
designed by the company that
makes costumes for Walt Disney
characters.
Royer tries to present nutrition
tips at all Nutri-Duck appearances
and often gets parents and students
to wear the costume. Nutri-Duck
also goes to senior citizens' and
child care centers to lead exercises
or talk about diet and health.
Community served
in various ways
Helping in community nutrition
education are student youth advi­sory
councils (YAC's) , which in
Left: Shirley Watkins, director of food
and nutrition services for Memphis
schools, talks about her lunch program.
Right: Nutrition consultant Helen Royer
dresses as Nutri-Duck.
July 1985 15
elementary schools are called Nutri­Duck
clubs. The clubs are involved
in a number of nutrit~n-related
activities, including assembly pro­grams
held in conjunction with
National School Lunch Week,
National Dental Health Week, and
Nutrition Month. According to Wat­kins,
these activities are a good way
to invo~ve parents as well as .
children.
"If the children get involved at
school," she explains, "the parents
are going to come to these pro­grams.
This gives us an opportunity
to promote the school food pro­grams
and good nutrition at the
same time."
While involving parents is a high
priority for Watkins, she doesn't
stop there. Other activities, such as
the senior citizens' day luncheon ,
are held to honor different com-
Below: During a visit to the Nutrition In­formation
and Training Center, some
parents look over nutrition resource ma­terials
and meet with Helen Royer. The
center has more nutrition education ma­terials
than the local library.
16
munity groups. Memphis schools
also serve the community by spon­soring
nutrition sessions and sports
activities, such as weight control
seminars and "fun runs."
The Memphis City School Sys­tem
was one of the first to start an
"Adopt-A-School" program, which
creates a special partnership
between schools and the commun­ity.
Through this program, local
businesses "adopt" a school and
provide financial aid, career guid­ance,
or other voluntary services for
students. Watkins and her staff
work closely with the program and
usually honor sponsoring busi­nesses
with a luncheon .
Working for
school lunch
Watkins believes in the National
School Lunch Program and shares
her enthusiasm and ideas with
school food service directors
throughout the country. An active
member of the American School
Food Service Association (ASFSA),
she has been head of ASFSA's
Major Cities School Section,
worked on the Youth Advisory
Committee, and served on numer­ous
other panels and committees.
Her success in involving and
serving her community is well
known. So is her devotion to child­ren,
which is at the center of
everything she and her staff do.
"We've done a number of innova­tive
things, remembering that
school lunch should be fun," Wat­kins
says. "We also know that this
is the only meal for some of our
children, and we want to make it a
good experience for them."
Under Watkins' leadership, Mem­phis
City Schools will continue to
make school food service an innov­ative,
community affair.
For more information , contact:
Shirley R. Watkins
Director, Division of Food and
Nutrition Services
Memphis City Schools, Room 120
2597 Avery Avenue
Memphis, Tennessee 38112
Telephone (901) 454-5250
article by Kent Taylor
photos by Larry Rana
Food and Nutrition
Special
Activities
In Kansas
Bring Nutrition
To Life
The Kansas State Department of
Education is undertaking three
separate activities to bring the mes­sage
of good nutrition to young
Kansans and their parents. In each
case, the department has involved
other groups in the state in cooper­ative
efforts designed to spread still
further in coming years.
Food and history
a winning mix
In one project, called "Kansas
Foodways," state education staffers
have worked with staff from the
state's historical museum in Top­eka.
Starting this fall, docents at the
brand-new museum will be leading
special tours and telling school
children about the nutritional habits
of Kansans in earlier historical
periods.
In addition, there will be an
outreach program for schools at too
July 1985
great a distance to undertake Top­eka
field trips. The outreach pro­gram
will consist of a slide/tape
presentation entitled "Enough to
Eat: Kansas in the 1860's." It will
include a packet of teaching mate­rials
focusing on food and nutrition
habits of Kansans during the Civil
War and Reconstruction periods.
According to Katie Armitage, who
has been the program specialist for
the project under the direction of
Jim Powers, head of the museum's
educational division, this period
was chosen for several reasons.
For one thing, it was an important
decade in the history of this food­producing
state. "The period from
1860 to 1870 saw the beginnings of
dietary change," she explains.
"Settlers-mostly from Ohio, Indi­ana,
Illinois, and Missouri-brought
food-ways based on a pork-and­corn
diet."
The end of this period also
marked the beginnings of the Kan­sas
beef industry. "After the Civil
War," says Armitage, "the Texas
longhorn herds had built up, and
surplus beef cattle were driven to
market in Kansas.
"An entrepreneur, Joseph McCoy,
got the idea of putting cattle on the
new railroad and shipping them
back East. For the first time, beef
became inexpensive enough to be
within reach of working people.
Kansas played an important role in
this time of dietary change."
Other historical highlights from
the decade illustrate the direct rela­tionship
between diet and health, a
message project coordinators want
to get across to children.
As Armitage explains, researchers
working on the Foodways project
found that soldiers stationed in
forts in the western part of Kansas
immediately after the Civil War
(around 1865-1867) had a problem
with scurvy, due to the lack of fresh
foods. Potatoes and onions were
about the only transportable fresh
foods they had.
Project will
be used widely
The project has been planned to
provide a state and regional focus
for American history courses and
nutrition classes at the junior high
school level. It will also be used in
Kansas history courses at all levels.
Project materials contrast diet
and health in earlier periods with
today. One contrast, for example, is
the underconsumption of calories in
the 1860's and the common over­consumption
of calories today.
Availability of foods is another con­trast.
Included in teachers' materials
is a selection of recipes from the
earlier time (hardtack, for example),
to provide opportunities to discuss
dietary contrasts.
The Kansas State Historical
Society expects to have an easy job
introducing these materials to
schools. Kansas schools now make
great use of other materials fur­nished
by them, and an announce­ment
will be circulated to all Kansas
schools to introduce the new project.
Poster contest
held each year
Another project is an annual
nutrition poster contest for elemen­tary
school children that has been
held each of the past 3 years. Last
year's contest brought 6,500 entries
on the theme, "Nutrition is lmpor­tant...
Ask Any Body!"
Students compete in three separ­ate
divisions-grades K-2, grades
3-4, and grades 5-6-and every
contestant receives a certificate.
Each district selects three divisional
winners whose posters are then
submitted for state judging.
The three first-place state winners
are treated to an expense-paid trip
to Topeka for themselves, their
parents, and their teachers. They
stay overnight and tour the Capitol,
and each receives an engraved
plaque, usually presented by the
Governor.
The contest generates considera­ble
excitement throughout the state.
Copies of the three winning posters
are printed and distributed to all
elementary schools. This year's
theme echoes the American School
Food Service Association theme,
"Champions of Nutrition."
Folders help get
message across
Helping kids become "champions
of nutrition" is also the goal of the
third statewide effort, which enlists
the support of parents, teachers,
coaches, food service staff, nurses,
and counselors.
... In this project, state staffers have
developed a series of folders, tailor­ed
to particular audiences, to
17
supplement the "ABC's of Nutrition
Education" curriculum for kinder­garten
through sixth grade.
The first of these folders is
designed for use by high school
coaches. It includes a sample letter
to athletes' parents, stressing the
importance of diet during training
and competition. The folder also
includes information on nutrient
sources, pregame meals, fluid
intake, nutrient intake, and weight
gain and loss.
The Kansas State High School
Activities Association has distrib­uted
the folder to all coaches in the
state. Results of a postcard survey
conducted last spring indicate a
positive reaction from coaches.
Additional copies are being made
available to new coaches and to
other interested people.
Ruth Leahy of Kansas State Uni­versity
in Manhattan, Kansas, was
involved in producing the coaches'
folder. Her husband, Mike Leahy, is
varsity basketball coach at Manhat­tan
High School and president of
the Kansas Basketball Coaches
Association. Mike provided valuable
input during the planning stages
and is enthusiastic about the end
result.
"The only training we coaches
had had," says Leahy, "was what
we'd heard, and some of that was
just old gossip. A few of the
coaches may not pay much atten­tion,
of course, but most of them
18
want to know what's right to eat on
game day."
Leahy says that the folders are
used on Parents' Night. "Every
year," he says, "we have kids and
parents ask if what you eat makes a
difference." He can see the growing
importance of nutrition to high
school students, who are much
more aware of eating right than
they used to be.
Leahy runs off copies of the
information in the folder, so kids
can take it home. He thinks he's
getting better results than when
kids used candy bars for a quick
energy boost and ended up "going
hyper."
Joyce Dierking, Kansas nutrition
education and training coordinator,
says, "We had heard so many com­ments
about the misinformation
that coaches had and were provid­ing
to the athletes, the need was
evident."
Lunchroom folder
also distributed
A second folder was created for
food service personnel. It includes a
laminated poster with accompany­ing
nutrition symbol stickers identi­fying
the "A Team" (nutrients such
as vitamins A, calcium, iron, etc.) to
help students learn to identify and
analyze nutrients in their menus.
It also sparks interest with a
Riddle-a-Day pad, tying bad puns
to good nutrition concepts. ("What
food has vitamin BN-niacin-and
has ears but cannot hear? Corn, of
course!")
The lunchroom folder was distrib­uted
at back-to-school workshops
conducted in July and August 1984.
Materials are now being used in
elementary school lunchrooms, but
an evaluation has not yet been
done.
This year, two more folders will
be added to the series. One for
school nurses will cover diet and
health, and one for secondary
school counselors and nurses will
address eating disorders.
On three separate tracks, Kansas
is following a wholesome approach
to better nutrition for its citizens
through increased awareness for
children, parents, school food serv­ice
personnel, counselors, and cul­tural
providers. It's a multidimen­sional
reinforcement of an impor­tant
message, for healthier Kansans
tomorrow.
For more information, contact:
Joyce Dierking
Kansas State Education Building
120 East Tenth Street
Topeka, Kansas 66642
Telephone: (913) 296-2276
Katie Armitage
Kansas Museum of History
6425 South West Sixth
Topeka, Kansas 66615
Telephone: (913) 272-8681
article by Joanne Widner
Food and Nutrition
Teamwork
Is Key To
New Project In
South Dakota
Helping children with special
needs often requires careful coordi­nation
between schools and par­ents.
This is as true in the school
lunchroom as it is in the classroom.
In a project now underway in
South Dakota, a task force of
parents, school lunch supervisors,
and health professionals is working
on a food service manual that en­courages
this kind of coordination.
The manual will address some of
the specific nutritional needs of
children with such problems as
cerebral palsy, epilepsy, and au­tism,
as well as overlapping dietary
problems that may affect learning
and behavior.
The manual is being edited by Dr.
Cecilia Rokusek and Dr. Eberhard
Heinrichs of the Center for the
Developmentally Disabled , which is
part of the South Dakota University
School of Medicine. It is being
produced under contract to the
State Department of Education and
Cultural Affairs, under the di rection
of Carol Davis Axtman, South
July 1985
Dakota's director of school food
services.
Survey showed
need for manual
Two years ago, Axtman and her
staff did a survey of South Dakota
school food supervisors to see if
there was a need for training in this
area. The survey showed that most
supervisors felt I ittle training had
gone on to date, and most had
many questions about the proper
procedures to follow.
School food service staff were
trying to cope the best they could ,
but with little actual knowledge of
nutrition for the developmentally
disabled. One institution had a full
page of questions. A couple of
schools said they were sending
children home when they had
problems.
Axtman , Rokusek, and Heinrichs
feel it's crucial for parents and
school food service staff to work
closely together. According to Dr.
Rokusek, schools see a lot of
underweight and overweight
extremes among handicapped
child ren. While the lunch program
alone isn 't the entire solution , it is
important.
" It should be a hand-to-hand
cooperative effort," Rokusek says.
Parents and school personnel must
both know what they're doing in
order to know when to call on
medical professionals for further
advice and help.
The information in the manual
will include instructional guidelines
for food service personnel , parents,
and health professionals. It will
consist of 18 chapters in an 8%- by
11-inch three-ring format so that it
can be adapted by other states to
their own specific needs. For exam­ple,
the final chapter will be a South
Dakota resou rce listing that may be
eliminated in favor of another
state's resource list.
The manual will include informa­tion
on dietary aids for specific
disorders (or what to feed the child,
listing several options), and feeding
techniques for specific problems.
Some of the. specific areas to be
covered will be: slow-growing and
underweight children , overweight
children, special diets for special
conditions (such as cerebral palsy,
Down's Syndrome, and epilepsy),
lack of appetite or excessive appe-tite,
refusal to eat certain foods,
abnormal mealtime behavior, and
specific physiological difficulties
that interfere with eating . Needs of
both preschool and school-age
children will be included.
"Every effort should be made,"
says Rokusek, "to understand the
feeding abilities and food toleran­ces
of the developmentally disabled
person and to produce a widely
varied diet within those parameters."
Physicians and nutritionists
were recruited from around the
state to contribute specific chapters
dealing with their fields of expertise.
When editing is complete, the
manual will be reviewed and
approved by the South Dakota
Medical Association 's Research and
Science Committee and by the
Nutrition Education and Training
Task Force of the South Dakota
Division of Elementary and Second­ary
Education. Although it will
undergo a thorough scientific
review, it will be written in generally
understood rather than scientific
terminology.
Manual will
be used widely
Upon publication, the manual will
be made available to all of South
Dakota's 195 public and 78 private
schools, most of which participate
in the National School Lunch
Program.
It will also be available to other
states upon request. The State of
Minnesota has already expressed
an interest and has initiated a
training project for parents, school
staff, and developmentally disabled
students.
Axtman expects the manual to be
used widely. "We're making it part
of our certification training ," she
says, "and we will have a class
incorporating the manual as part of
the training prog ram; so I would
expect it to end up in virtually all of
our schools."
For more information on the man­ual
and its development, contact:
Carol Axtman
Division of Elementary and
Sec@ndary Education
Richard F. Kneip Building
700 N. Illinois
Pierre, South Dakota 57501
Telephone: (605) 773-3413
article by Joanne Widner
19
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Published fou r times a year by
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Food and Nutrition Service
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(o)lbod
~Nutrition
Yearly subscription: $11 .00 domes­tic,
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Food and Nutrition is a magazine of
the U.S. Department of Agriculture.
In it you'll find articles on the fam ily
food assistance and child nutrition
programs administered by USDA's
Food and Nutrition Service in coop­eration
with state governments and
local agencies.
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