Teacher Education and Professional Development Commons^™

Alberta Frost, Alberta Frost, Institute Of Child Nutrition

Oral History Project (all interviews)

Alberta Frost has worked for the USDA’s Food and Nutrition Service since 1967. She started out working in the Food Stamp Program for several years before moving into child nutrition programs. She has in fact worked in all of the FNS programs at some point or another, including food distribution, child nutrition, and the WIC Program.

Bob Eadie, Bob Eadie, Institute Of Child Nutrition

Oral History Project (all interviews)

Robert M. (Bob) Eadie served as Chief of the Policy and Program Development Branch, Child Nutrition Division, of the USDA Food and Nutrition Service. This branch is responsible for publishing regulations that deal with the National School Lunch, the Child Care Food Program, the Summer Program, the Special Milk Program, and other Child Nutrition Programs. They write regulations, issue policy interpretations, and provide guidance, materials, handbooks, instructions, and anything necessary for a state agency or a school district to have in their hands to operate the program. Mr. Eadie was “an Army brat.” His father was a military officer and …

Stan Garnett, Stan Garnett, Institute Of Child Nutrition

Oral History Project (all interviews)

Stan Garnett grew up in Kansas City, Missouri. He served in the Peace Corps and worked for the Catholic Relief Service early in his career. He joined the United States Department of Agriculture Food and Nutrition Service in 1971 and worked in child nutrition programs there for thirty-six years. He retired as the Director of Child Nutrition Programs in December 2007. Stan is currently the Executive Director of the Global Nutrition Foundation.

Gertrude Applebaum, Gertrude Applebaum, Institute Of Child Nutrition

Oral History Project (all interviews)

Gertrude Applebaum devoted forty-seven years of her illustrious career to the Corpus Christi School District, forty of which were spent as Food Service Director, and then seven as Assistant Superintendent. Soon after becoming a member of the child nutrition profession Ms. Applebaum attended the meeting in Chicago where Food Service Directors and the National School Cafeteria Association voted to merge and form the American School Food Service Association. She served as President of this organization, now known as the School Nutrition Association, in 1981-82.

Betty Bender, Betty Bender, Institute Of Child Nutrition

Oral History Project (all interviews)

Betty Bender, a native of Kentucky, was educated at the University of Kentucky, the University of Montana, and Duke University. After working in Massachusetts and Indiana, Bender married and moved to Dayton, OH, and worked for the Dayton School System for thirty years. While there she earned her master’s in Food Management. Betty was ASFSA President in 1983-84.

Sylvia Elam And Paul Mcelwain, Sylvia Elam, Paul Mcelwain, Institute Of Child Nutrition

Oral History Project (all interviews)

Sylvia Elam’s involvement with the child nutrition profession goes back over thirty years. She is a native Kentuckian and holds an undergraduate degree in Home Economics from Morehead State University, with graduate work in Education. As a home economist she has worked in business and also taught at the secondary level. In the early 1970s she began work for the Kentucky Department of Education as a consultant in child nutrition. Since that time she has held various positions within the department from consultant all the way up to Assistant Director of Nutrition Services. She is now retired.

Paul McElwain has …

Rene Weber, Rene Weber, Institute Of Child Nutrition

Oral History Project (all interviews)

Rene Weber became Director of Lunch Program for the Catholic Diocese of Cleveland, Ohio, in 1978, after working as a teacher for eleven years, and remained in this position for 22.5 years, starting with five schools and ending with 119. An active member of both the Ohio School Food Service Association and American School Food Service Association, she served as Legislative Chair for Ohio for eighteen years and three terms on the National Advisory Council for the USDA.

Sue Greig, Sue Greig, Institute Of Child Nutrition

Oral History Project (all interviews)

Sue Greig is a native of Arkansas. She holds a bachelor’s degree in Education and Nutrition and a master’s degree in Hotel, Restaurant, and Institutional Management and in Dietetics. She and her husband moved to Manhattan, Kansas, in 1951. Greig worked in housing and food service at Kansas State University for 13 years and then served as Food Service Director for Manhattan Kansas Schools until her retirement in the 1990s. She served as President of the American School Food Service Association in 1991-1992.

Sharon Gibson Barksdale, Sharon Gibson Barksdale, Institute Of Child Nutrition

Oral History Project (all interviews)

Sharon Gibson Barksdale grew up on a working farm in Calloway County, Missouri. She attended the University of Missouri at Columbia where she earned a bachelor’s degree in Home Economics. After teaching briefly she went on to serve for twenty-seven years as Director of School Food Services for Columbia, Missouri. She has been active in the Missouri School Food Service Association and also in the American School Food Service Association, serving as President from 1985 – 1986.

Eleanor Pratt, Eleanor Pratt, Institute Of Child Nutrition

Oral History Project (all interviews)

Eleanor Pratt began her career in the child nutrition profession as food service director for Clarksville, Tennessee, schools in 1957. With a master’s degree in Home Economics she went on in 1960 to a career with the USDA Southeast Regional Office as Home Economist. She retired thirty-four years later in 1994. Ms. Pratt died at the age of 88 on August 18, 2014.

Mary Nix, Mary Nix, Institute Of Child Nutrition

Oral History Project (all interviews)

Mary Nix grew up in Gordon County, Georgia during the late 1930s and 1940s. She started work in the School Lunch Program in the ninth grade, washing pots and pans at her high school. After graduating she went on to become School Food Service Supervisor for Gordon County, and later, after graduating from the University of Georgia in 1969, she became Bartow County’s first School Food Service Director. She worked for Georgia’s Department of Education for a number of years and then served as Assistant Director of School Food Services in Cobb County Georgia, where she resides. Nix was President …

Lucille Barnett, Lucille Barnett, Institute Of Child Nutrition

Oral History Project (all interviews)

Lucille Barnett grew up in Union County, South Carolina, in the 1930s and 40s. She earned a Bachelor of Science degree from Lander University in Greenwood, South Carolina. She served as Supervisor of County and City School Food Service in Spartanburg, South Carolina, for thirty-three years. From 1973-1974 she served as American School Food Service Association President. She resides in South Carolina. See also the Lucille Barnett Photograph Collection and the Lucille Barnett Manuscript Collection.

Vivian Pilant, Vivian Pilant, Institute Of Child Nutrition

Oral History Project (all interviews)

Born in 1941, Vivian Pilant grew up in Martin, Tennessee. She holds a bachelor’s degree in Home Economics from the University of Tennessee at Martin, a master’s degree in Institution Management and a doctorate in Nutrition from the University of Tennessee, Knoxville. She began her career as Director of School Food Services and Nutrition Education for Weakley County, Tennessee. In August 1970, she went to work as a Coordinator of School Food Services in Jacksonville, Duval County, Florida, where she remained for five years. In 1975, Dr. Pilant began work with the South Carolina Department of Education Office of School …

Gene White, Gene White, Institute Of Child Nutrition

Oral History Project (all interviews)

Gene White grew up in Ohio and attended Miami University of Ohio, graduating with degrees in Home Economics Education and Nutrition, which was called Dietetics at that time. She then continued her graduate education at Ohio State University. She worked more than twenty years as Food Service Director in China Lake, California. She went on to become that state’s Director of Nutrition Services in the late 1970s and while in that position she served as President of the American School Food Service Association from 1977-1978. Currently she is involved with international feeding programs.

Gene White’s oral history interview was updated …

Marilyn Briggs, Marilyn Briggs, Institute Of Child Nutrition

Oral History Project (all interviews)

Marilyn Briggs began her career in child nutrition as School Food Service Director for San Juan Unified school district in Sacramento, California, during the 1970s. Later she served as Coordinator of the Nutrition Education and Training Program and worked on what became the prototype for the National Nutrient Standard Menu Planning System. She recently stepped down as state Director of Nutrition Services for California to work on her doctorate in nutrition science. She has held offices in the Society for Nutrition Education, the American School Food Service Association and American Dietetic Association.

Shirley Watkins Bowden, Shirley Watkins Bowden, Institute Of Child Nutrition

Oral History Project (all interviews)

Shirley Watkins served as Under Secretary for Food, Nutrition, and Consumer Services at the U.S. Department of Agriculture from 1997 – 2001, the first African-American woman to hold that position. Prior to that she was Director of Child Nutrition Programs for Memphis City Schools for seventeen years. She served as president of ASFSA from 1988 – 1989. She now works with Southern Educational Services, a consulting business concerned primarily with environment friendly school food service cafeteria operations.

Shirley Watkins Bowden sat for an update to her oral history interview with Jeffrey Boyce on May 22, 2014, at the National Food …

Beverly Lowe, Beverly Lowe, Institute Of Child Nutrition

Oral History Project (all interviews)

Beverly Lowe is a registered dietitian and is certified by the School Nutrition Association (SNA) as a School Nutrition Specialist (SNS). She has served as a Cafeteria Manager, Nutrition Specialist, Food Service Director, and Consultant during her career in School Food Service. Beverly’s notable honors and accomplishments include USDA Best Practices Awards, IFMA Silver Plate Award as School Food Service Operator of the Year, Ivy Award from Restaurant & Institutions Magazine (only SFS Director), Outstanding Civilian Service Medal, Golden Star FAME Award, and many others. Beverly has provided training and technical assistance for numerous school districts and organizations. Her professional …

June Crews, June Crews, Institute Of Child Nutrition

Oral History Project (all interviews)

June Crews was a School Lunch Program Supervisor in Charlottesville, Virginia, from 1965– 1966.

Earnestine Camp, Earnestine Camp, Institute Of Child Nutrition

Oral History Project (all interviews)

Earnestine Camp has been actively involved with school food service programs for over sixty years since she began teaching Home Economics at Yellville-Summit High School in Yellville, Arkansas, in 1942. In addition to teaching, she directed the school lunch program there from 1943 to 1951. She was an Area Supervisor in the School Food Service Section of the Arkansas Department of Education from 1953 – 1987. She served as Southwest Regional Director for the American School Food Service Association. Ms. Camp coordinated membership for the Arkansas School Food Service Association from 1986 – 1999. Since 1999 she has been active …

Thelma Flanagan, Thelma Flanagan, Institute Of Child Nutrition

Oral History Project (all interviews)

Thelma Flanagan was involved in child nutrition programs in the State of Florida from the 1930s until her death in 2001. She was a strong advocate in the national drive for professionalism in food services. She became the Florida School Food Service Director in 1943, served as school lunch consultant to the USDA, was President of the American School Food Service Association 1949-1950, served as Chairman of the Southern States Work Conference Committee, and was the author of numerous publications regarding school feeding programs.