School lunch in Memphis is a community affair

Food and Nutrition, July, 1985 by Kent Taylor

Shirley Watkins, director of food and nutrition services for the Memphis City Schools, believes that the only way to 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 veritication 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 veritification 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."

"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 volunteered 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."

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 in cludes 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 Nutri-Duck after seeing how children respsonded to the song "Disco-Duck," made popular by Memphis singer Rick Dees.

"Our first Nutri-Duck outfit consisted of feathers glued on terry-cloth," 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.