[nabs-l] Serving Yourself Food

Linda Stover liamskitten at gmail.com
Thu Nov 13 01:42:42 UTC 2008 

Beth,

What about paratransite?  I have a friend who schedules them to take
him to a particular place, and then pick him up in their next window
of opportunity.
Courtney

On 11/12/08, Beth <thebluesisloose at gmail.com> wrote:
> 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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