Former and Current Local Child Nutrition Program Managers

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  Sadie Booker

  Sadie Booker and Institute of Child Nutrition

  Sadie Gilmore Booker has been actively involved in the education process since graduation from Louisiana Tech University in 1945 with a BSE in home economics followed by an MS-R.D. in 1969. Her first job was as an extension home economist teaching nutrition to 4-H and Home Demonstration Club women. After a 10 year hiatus during which she married and had three children, she returned to her career from 1959 to 1995. She taught elementary school, Jr. High Home Economics and science and high school Home Economics for the El Dorado School District #15. She taught the first Occupational Home Economics class in the state of Arkansas and continued to do so while being School Food Service Director for 25 years. At the college level she taught Catering for Special Occasions for Southern Arkansas University, Nutrition Education for University of Arkansas, and Occupational Home Economics for the University of Southern Mississippi. Mrs. Booker was actively involved in professional organizations serving as President of Home Economics section of Arkansas Education Association in 1968; President of Arkansas Vocational Association in 1969 and President of Arkansas School Food Service Association in 1980-81. She served on the legislative committees of Arkansas School Food Service Association in Washington, D.C.

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  Earnestine Camp

  Earnestine Camp and Institute of Child Nutrition

  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 with the Association’s Foundation Program. The Arkansas School Food Service Association established the Earnestine Camp Manager’s Award and Ms. Camp has also been named a life member of both the American School Food Service Association and the Arkansas School Food Service Association. Sadly, Ms. Camp passed away on December 6, 2012.

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  Arlene Colston

  Arlene Colston and Institute of Child Nutrition

  Arlene Colston is a food service manager at McAdory High School in McAdory, Alabama.

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  Idella Dial

  Idella Dial and Institute of Child Nutrition

  An Alabama native, Idella Dial has worked in Alabama school nutrition programs for forty-five years.

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  Annie Drake

  Annie Drake and Institute of Child Nutrition

  Annie Drake is the manager of school food service at Shelby County High School in Columbiana, Alabama.

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  Tanya Dube

  Tanya Dube and Institute of Child Nutrition

  Tanya Dube was born and raised in Massachusetts, and after high school joined the military, serving in the U.S. Marine Corps. She is now a school food service manager in Alaska.

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  Annette Dupard

  Annette Dupard and Institute of Child Nutrition

  Annette Dupard is a native of Vacherie, Louisiana. She is a graduate of Southern University and a retired Food Service Manager for the East Baton Rouge Parish Child Nutrition Programs.

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  Ramona Gaudette

  Ramona Gaudette and Institute of Child Nutrition

  Ramona Gaudette went to work in school nutrition at Southport School, Maine, in 1957. She was still working there in December 2012, when this interview was conducted.

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  Jane Jantz

  Jane Jantz and Institute of Child Nutrition

  Like many others who have made child nutrition into a career, Jane Jantz came to the profession in a roundabout way. She and her husband moved from California to Mississippi, where farmland is more affordable. She planned to work one year to tide them over from a bad crop – that was nineteen years ago, and Jane loves serving the children more each year as manager of the Okolona Elementary School cafeteria.

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  Katie Johnson

  Katie Johnson and Institute of Child Nutrition

  Katie Johnson has spent her entire life in Griffin, Georgia. Fifty-four of those years were spent working in school nutrition programs. This interview was conducted the day after her seventy-seventy birthday, and she has recently started her well-deserved retirement.

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  Offie Karnes

  Offie Karnes and Institute of Child Nutrition

  Offie “Mama” Karnes was born and reared in Bedford, Virginia, where she attended a one-room school. After working for the American Viscose Company in the Food Service department, Mrs. Carnes went to work for Roanoke City Schools in 1959. Her salary then was 62¢ per hour. “Mama” Karnes credits excellent training in the Roanoke City system with enabling her to work her way up to Manager and having a very successful and rewarding thirty-year career with this school system.

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  Janice Low

  Janice Low and Institute of Child Nutrition

  Janice Low is a former Food Service Manager who started her career on the island of Lanai. Janice now works with the School Food Authority for the State of Hawaii. Janice is based in Honolulu.

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  Wendy Mangiaracina

  Wendy Mangiaracina and Institute of Child Nutrition

  Wendy Mangiaracina is a New Orleans native with thirty-three years of experience in child nutrition programs. She chose Southwest Louisiana University for her post-secondary education, where she earned a Bachelor’s Degree in Dietetics. She later attended Tulane University and obtained a Master of Public Health degree. After a long and dedicated career Wendy retired in the summer of 2009. Melba Hollingsworth interviewed Wendy in January 2009.

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  Doris (Yaeko) Mau

  Doris Yaeko Mau and Institute of Child Nutrition

  Doris Mau is a retired School Food Service Manager and a past president of the Oahu School Food Service Association. Mrs. Mau was President-elect of her association when Hawaii hosted the Annual National Convention in 1976. The youngest of Mrs. Mau’s three daughters followed her into the school food service profession and is currently a School Food Service Manager on Oahu.

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  Irma Maye

  Irma Maye and Institute of Child Nutrition

  A Birmingham, Alabama native, Irma Maye started out as a substitute in school nutrition kitchens before working her way up to manager. Retiring after twenty-nine years, she continues to sub when called upon.

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  Penny McConnell

  Penny McConnell and Institute of Child Nutrition

  Penny McConnell, a Canada native, had no experience in school nutrition until she moved to Virginia and took a job as food service manager in a local elementary school. McConnell has worked her way up through the Fairfax child nutrition programs, working as a manager in several high schools before becoming a supervisor, and eventually director of Food and Nutrition Services. She has also been active in the American Dietetic Association and the former American School Food Service Association, now the School Nutrition Association.

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  Peggy Nakamoto

  Peggy Nakamoto and Institute of Child Nutrition

  Peggy Nakamoto is a retired School Food Service Manager and a past president of the Oahu School Food Service Association. Peggy is very interested in child nutrition and continues to attend the School Nutrition Association’s Annual National Conventions.

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  Mary Nix

  Mary Nix and Institute of Child Nutrition

  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 of the American School Food Service Association from 1981 – 1982.

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  Sandra Ponte

  Sandra Ponte and Institute of Child Nutrition

  Sandra Ponte, a Michigan native, moved to Colorado after high school and worked for a decade in hospitality management. She is now a food service manager in rural Alaska.

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  Frances L. Self

  Frances L. Self and Institute of Child Nutrition

  Frances L. Self was asked to “sub” for a few weeks in the cafeteria of Dickson County Tennessee Schools back in 1973. She is still there, and has been Manager for the last thirty-two years. She credits her ability to adapt and her dedication to lifelong learning as keys to her success.

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  Shirli Self

  Shirli Self and Institute of Child Nutrition

  Shirli Self is an Idaho native who has worked in school nutrition both in Idaho and Oregon, in a unique position. The area where she currently works in Oregon is so rural and remote that Oregon pays for her students to finish high school in Idaho after they complete eighth grade in Oregon, because the nearest Idaho high school is much closer than the nearest Oregon high school. She has twenty-one years of school nutrition experience and is a one-woman show, having no employees and being responsible for feeding ninety-three K – 8 students every day.

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  Emma Sidney

  Emma Sidney and Institute of Child Nutrition

  Emma Sidney was a child nutrition program manager in Alabama.

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  Barbara Songy

  Barbara Songy and Institute of Child Nutrition

  Barbara Songy is a native of London, England, but has spent many more years in Louisiana feeding that state’s children than she ever spent in the United Kingdom. Barbara came to the United States as a war bride, having met and married a Louisiana airman during World War II. Displeased with what her first child was being served for lunch, she set about not only improving the menu, she raised the funds to build a new cafeteria. When the person who was supposed to manage the new cafeteria suddenly had to resign she agreed to take on the job temporarily. She retired fifty-five years later.

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  Martha S. Walker

  Martha S. Walker and Institute of Child Nutrition

  Martha S. Walker is New Orleans native and a graduate of Southern University. She has managed school feeding programs in East Baton Rough Parish for twenty-five years.

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  Julia Williams

  Julia Williams and Institute of Child Nutrition

  Julia Williams is a school nutrition manager in Alabama. Williams started as a part-time dishwasher, then worker, then assistant-manager, and after seventeen years had worked her way up to food service manager.