[nabs-l] Serving Yourself Food

Wed Nov 12 23:22:54 UTC 2008

Good thinking, Heather.  Trick is to get someone with a car to bring
me down there.
Beth

On 11/12/08, H. Field <missheather at comcast.net> wrote:
> Hi Beth,
> Take your own tray to the dining hall with you.
>
> Places like Walmart have a huge array of tray choices, many of them
> value for money. Spend half an hour choosing the inexpensive tray that
> would most fit your needs. Then, simply take your own tray with you to
> all of your meals in the dining-hall. This will improve your ability
> to be independent and will lessen the ability of others to impact your
> day.
>
> Regards,
>
> Heather Field
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: "Beth" <thebluesisloose at gmail.com>
> To: "National Association of Blind Students mailing list"
> <nabs-l at nfbnet.org>
> Sent: Wednesday, November 12, 2008 4:02 PM
> Subject: Re: [nabs-l] Serving Yourself Food
>
>
> Thank God I found this e-mail, Arielle.  I'm having a huge problem
> with staff at my dining hall who are not willing to help me get my
> food or serve myself.  Since I have to hold a cane in my right hand
> and since they don't have trays and since the stations are mre than
> one and helter-skelter and since nobody taught me how to maneuver
> around that big cafeteria, I'm blown away by how rude the staff has
> behaved lately.  During peak hours, I'd walk in and say that I needed
> some help, and nobody helps out.  Their excuse?  Short staff.  I spoke
> to a few people on the matter, and since the cafeteria people aren't
> willing to help, they say I should talk to a manager about this.  I
> wish I could see now so that I could serve myself and not have to hold
> a cane in my right hand and not have to be so precise with holding
> stand-alone bowls and stuff.
> Beth
>
> On 11/12/08, Arielle Silverman <arielle71 at gmail.com> wrote:
>> Hi all,
>>
>> With serving food as a blind person there are two issues. The  first
>> is knowing what you're dishing out without seeing it, and the second
>> is properly maneuvering the food with the utensils from the serving
>> container to your  plate and ensuring that you are dishing up an
>> appropriate  amount.
>>
>> To resolve the first issue, since touching is not really an option,
>> the best thing is to get information--either from people ahead of
>> you
>> in the buffet line  or  from whomever is serving the food/setting up
>> the buffet. Obviously once you've learned the  order of the buffet
>> once,  it'll be easier to go back and serve  oneself independently
>> the
>>  second time  around. When serving "family-style"  and passing
>> dishes
>> around the table,  this problem is virtually nonexistent since it's
>> easy to find  out  what someone has passed  you before serving
>> yourself from it.
>>
>> The second issue, though, is one that does take practice to overcome
>> especially for those of us who  were not expected to serve ourselves
>> growing  up. I wasn't really expected to do it at all until I was a
>> teenager, which  caused  me to struggle a bit with the mechanics of
>> maneuvering  the food and  gauging the portion size. I improved at
>> this  a lot when I was in training at  the Louisiana  Center where
>> we
>> had to serve ourselves in a buffet line (with sleepshades  on)
>> whenever someone prepared their final cooking project (a meal for
>> forty). Like others  have said, operating the utensils correctly
>> does
>> take practice and trial and error. A training center is a great
>> place
>> to develop this skill because everyone else is practicing, too, and
>> so
>> there's  not  as much pressure to do it exactly right or move
>> quickly
>> through the line. You can also  practice by  cooking yourself
>> something and transferring some of it from one  container to
>> another
>> (even if  it's just Ramen or  Easy Mac).
>>
>> To gauge portion sizes  I've used two techniques.  One is  to feel
>> how
>> much weight I've added to  my  plate  or  bowl and how the weight is
>> distributed. The other,  if it's  hot or steaming food that  I'm
>> serving, is to hold my hand a little above the  plate/bowl and  feel
>> how much heat is rising from the food  and how far  it is spreading.
>> If I don't have enough food, there won't be much heat and it'll be
>> confined to one little spot instead of spreading across a wide area.
>>
>> One more thing that hasn't come  up yet is the  proper way to serve
>> soup, stew, etc. with a ladel. I used to have the toughest time with
>> this  until I went to the center and figured  out what my problem
>> was.
>> Because ladels have a sharp curve in the middle, when I was holding
>> the  handle straight, the bowl part of the ladel was actually
>> tipped
>> and I was spilling stuff before I could get it in the bowl. I had to
>> figure out how to angle the handle (so it felt crooked) but the bowl
>> was actually facing straight up. I think other  blind  people have
>> been fooled by this deceptive handle as well which is why I bring it
>> up. You can practice this by playing  with an  empty ladel (like
>> while
>> you are doing dishes) and hold  the bowl in your non-dominant hand
>> while  you  angle the handle with your dominant one. Bend the handle
>> until you can feel that the  bowl is  facing straight up (even
>> though
>> the handle will feel crooked) and then try to remember the angle
>> when
>> you are serving things with the ladel.
>>
>> HTH,
>> Arielle
>>
>>
>> On 11/12/08, Serena <serenacucco at verizon.net> wrote:
>>> I pretty much use the same type of bowl, what we Italians call a
>>> maccaroni
>>> bowl, so i usually just put as much maccaroni in there as will fit.
>>> I
>>> love
>>> to eat! lol  Meat is trickier, but I usually have only one piece of
>>> that,
>>> anyhow.
>>>
>>>
>>> ----- Original Message -----
>>> From: "Harry Hogue" <harryhogue at yahoo.com>
>>> To: "National Association of Blind Students mailing list"
>>> <nabs-l at nfbnet.org>
>>> Sent: Monday, November 10, 2008 9:53 PM
>>> Subject: Re: [nabs-l] Serving Yourself Food
>>>
>>>
>>> Serena, this may sound like a slightly silly question, but do you
>>> learn
>>> what
>>> an appropriate portion size is by weight, etc, or by how many
>>> ladle-fulls,
>>> spoon-fulls, etc? I have never really wanted to do that because I
>>> didn't
>>> want to slowly anybody down or look awkward, etc. But I agree it is
>>> important...
>>> Harry
>>>
>>> --- On Sun, 11/9/08, Serena <serenacucco at verizon.net> wrote:
>>>
>>> From: Serena <serenacucco at verizon.net>
>>> Subject: Re: [nabs-l] Serving Yourself Food
>>> To: "National Association of Blind Students mailing list"
>>> <nabs-l at nfbnet.org>
>>> Date: Sunday, November 9, 2008, 6:47 PM
>>>
>>> Hi Harry
>>>
>>> I always serve my own food at home with immidate family.  I think
>>> it's
>>> important to learn that skill.  At family gatherings and on buffet
>>> lines,
>>> however, others do it for me cause we're all having pretty much the
>>> same
>>> things.  Even at State Convention this weekend, there was a survor
>>> serving
>>> the
>>> breakfast buffet to everyone.
>>>
>>>
>>> ----- Original Message ----- From: "Harry Hogue"
>>> <harryhogue at yahoo.com>
>>> To: <nabs-l at nfbnet.org>
>>> Sent: Sunday, November 09, 2008 5:39 PM
>>> Subject: [nabs-l] Serving Yourself Food
>>>
>>>
>>> Hello everyone,
>>> With the holidays coming up, here's an interesting point for
>>> discussion.
>>>
>>> At family gatherings, or perhaps even at home with immediate
>>> family, do
>>> you
>>> serve your own plate or do you have someone else serve the plate
>>> for you?
>>>
>>> As for me, I have always had someone else always serve my plate at
>>> family
>>> gatherings and at home with my family, for that matter, simply
>>> because it
>>> is
>>> quicker and there is less risk of spilling, etc. I am, however,
>>> reminded
>>> of
>>> the
>>> importance of being comfortable with this task by my Costa Rica
>>> experience.
>>> My
>>> host mother told me what was where and even made sure I knew where
>>> the
>>> serving
>>> spoon was--but I was not comfortable at 20 years old to serve my
>>> own plate
>>> and
>>> had to ask her to serve the plate for me. This, then, set up a
>>> precedent
>>> that as
>>> a blind person I needed help with getting food.
>>> 'm interested in hearing ohter thoughts. And if we serve ourselves
>>> at
>>> home/at family gatherings, I then have to ask what is so diferent
>>> about
>>> buffets,
>>> especially if you're with someone else and they're getting rice,
>>> chicken, potatoes, etc. and it's likely you would want some of the
>>> same
>>> things.
>>>
>>> Just some thoughts to consider.
>>>
>>> Harry
>>>
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>>
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