THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Wednesday, August 7, 1996 TAG: 9608070351
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B1 EDITION: NORTH CAROLINA
SOURCE: BY ANNE SAITA, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: POPLAR BRANCH LENGTH: 72 lines
The food-service workers eyed every offering as they shuffled through the long line of entrees and side dishes that are now standard fare at public school systems.
All 175 of them were easily wooed into trying what the food vendors were hawking: chicken patties and nuggets, pizza, sloppy joes, barbecue sandwiches, funky shaped fish sticks, turkey sandwiches, fried onion rings and a few varieties of egg rolls.
Lunch, as always, was a highlight at Tuesday's Albemarle Area Child Nutrition Conference, held this year at W.T. Griggs Elementary School in Currituck County.
Adding to the weight of the square foam plates were mounds of cookies, fruit pies, snack cakes, hot dogs, burritos, cartons of fruit juices, cans of soda and glasses of iced tea.
A dish of carrots reared its ugly head at one table, but only to play a supporting role for a honey-dijon mustard dip.
No peas were sighted, nor green beans or broccoli.
``I wouldn't have picked it up anyway,'' admitted Gail White of Perquimans County High School, ``because I have no more room on my plate.''
White and her colleagues from seven county-school systems learned how to make their jobs more meaningful and how to make their products more appealing to often-picky patrons.
``It makes me take more pride in my work. I feel better performing on the job,'' said Frances Collins, who has prepared meals at Elizabeth City Middle School for six years.
John Caddy of the Bank of Currituck and keynote speaker Glenda Doles of Duke Power extolled the importance of customer service.
Also providing food for thought were mini-sessions with titles like ``Say Yes To Breakfast'' and ``Make It Take It.''
``We're kind of the bottom of the totem pole, so we have to keep telling them how important their job is,'' said Sandy Midgett, the child-nutrition director for Currituck County schools.
``And when you feel good about yourself, you treat your customers better.''
Customers - namely schoolchildren - now have more choices than when the national school-lunch program began 50 years ago this fall.
Elementary-aged children still have daily meals selected for them, but the menus are more varied. And more items become available a la carte beginning in middle school.
``We try to give them what they're used to eating at home. With more mothers working and kids doing their own thing, that's usually more fast-food oriented,'' said Karen Tynch, a child nutritionist in Chowan County who led one of the mini-sessions Tuesday.
``We have a lot of kids today, too, that, if it wasn't for a school lunch, they wouldn't get a balanced meal,'' she added.
But even if schools help provide the daily recommended allowancefrom various food groups - prepared these days with more health-friendly ingredients - there's still no guarantee kids will eat.
Put a pizza on the plate, and it's a hit. French fries, hamburgers and hot dogs all go quickly as well.
But, workers said, many children still throw away plates containing the vegetable component of the meal.
``Peas - don't push it on them. Broccoli - don't push it on them, either,'' Collins warned.
Added Collins' co-worker, Lucille Mallory, ``You can give them corn. They'll eat the corn for some reason.''
In addition to the speeches and sessions, workers were treated to a fashion show of the latest in uniforms, modeled by Currituck County employees. ILLUSTRATION: Color photo by DREW C. WILSON, The Virginian-Pilot
Food-service workers Hilda Boone, left, and Sarah Williams of the
Gates County Schools debate whether to add to their trays at the
Albemarle area Child Nutrition Conference, held Tuesday at W. T.
Griggs Elementary School in Currituck County. by CNB