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Re: Cafeteria Dilemma - College Freshman

 

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Hugs to you, Terrie! Your response is exactly the way many successful adults (and K-12 students) use when navigating a lunch room. Placing the arm around the tray and holding the tray close to the stomach (directly in front of the body) is perfect! Remember to keep the tray balanced so food/drinks do not slide. The arm acts as a bumper protecting the tray if anyone or anything is accidentally bumped. Since most college and work lunch areas have serve yourself fountain drinks (including water, tea, etc.), some adults prefer to fill two glasses 3/4ths of the way or to bring their own cup with a lid, typically a solid reusable cup and lid, not the fast food paper type cup and plastic lid. If getting a milk carton, placing the milk carton on its side also helps keep it from falling over.

Since this is a college situation (or work lunch area), some adults will talk with the servers and ask them to place their meal in a ¡°to go container¡± and then they will place the to-go-container on a tray. The tray is still easier to carry and the user can also carry a drink, utensils or other items.

Since we tend to be creatures of habit and sit in the same area with the same people, I do recommend learning the cafeteria area during an off time when it is not crowded. This is often a great time to explore not only the layout, but the actual food and drink stations, where to return trays and trash (and how that system works), meet and talk to the servers, etc. Once the servers know how to assist, they are a great resource and will call your name as you approach, and tell you what is available. Include learning the layout and routine for paying for your meal. Typically, the drink station is set up the same every day, so if you know your preferred drink is the second nozzle, then you can be completely independent on getting your cup, ice and drink. If you sit with the same people, educate those peers on how to minimally assist, when needed. Example: When you are walking towards the table, they can say hello, alerting you to exactly where they are and they can say that there is an empty seat on their right or across the table from them. This is a great way to make new friends in college too - lots of social interactions in the college cafeteria!

Most college and work cafeterias have an online menu that can be checked daily before going to the cafeteria. Review the choices and know what you want and where it is located before heading over to the cafeteria.

If needed, practice how to stand in line while holding your tray.?

As an O&M, I also spend time with my K-12 students on how to initiate conversations with cafeteria workers, including gentle ways to guide the workers on how to assist. Since your college student is not independent yet in the cafeteria, this may also be an important skill to model and teach!

Be sure to sample different types of food and try out the various stations! Don¡¯t get the same food each day just because it is easy!?

Happy Eats and hugs to all!

Diane

FYI: Did I mention how important it is to be totally comfortable and independent in the cafeteria when going for job interviews and when working? Peers will respect you even more for your independence!



On Aug 31, 2023, at 10:56 AM, Terrie Terlau <terrieter@...> wrote:

Hello everyone,
I am a blind 71-year-old who got two BA degrees, a Master¡¯s degree, and a PH.D. This info is relevant only because it shows that I went through a lot of university cafeterias. I got my first Seeing Eye dog in January of my senior year in college. I had learned to carry a tray in my left hand when I used a cane. However, the first time I went to the cafeteria with my new dog was fairly disastrous. I tried to heel her and use my limited light perception to find a table. As I walked, her face went to the floor and picked up all sorts of crunchy things. I could not correct as I had to keep my tray balanced. I realized I had to do something else.
Over the next few months, I figured out a way to carry a tray and work my dog. I will try to describe what I do.
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Of course, the tray is in my right arm. My right arm holds the tray on the side and my right hand comes around to the front of the tray and my hand wraps around the tray. I press the tray into my body so that my arm and chest help it stay balanced and take some of the weight. I also hold the tray totally in front of my body, ?not sticking out on the right at all. A dog? may not allow clearance for a few inches of tray sticking out to the right beyond my body. In this position, I can balance the left side of the tray with my left upper arm. Soa the tray is balanced on four sides, with my right and left upper arms, my chest, and my right lower arm and hand in the front. Nowadays I ask someone I¡¯m with to put my drink on their tray or ask someone working there to carry liquid as I follow them to a table. However, back in the day, I often carried my own glass on the tray, grasping the front of the tray with my middle, ring, and little fingers and raising my thumb and index fingers to circle the glass or at least partly circle it. To do this, I always put my glass on the right side of the tray near the front edge.
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I think it is very reasonable for your student to gain more independence. The bag idea is a good one. If you go this route, I would suggest a cloth bag with a bottom insert, the kind of bag that supermarkets sell for shopping. There needs to be something solid for the food to sit on. It would help if your student used a plate with a lid. This way, the sides of the bag would not interact with the food on the plate. I have a set of four Tupperware plates with lids. I love them because they are freezer, microwave, and dishwasher safe. I can freeze meals in them, pop them into the microwave, and then put them on the top rack of the dishwasher.
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I hope this helps. Please let your student know ?as many options as you can think of for handling the cafeteria and encourage her to pick a way that gives her more independence. Also, let her know that other blind people have figured out ways to carry trays.
With huge respect to all you O&Mers and hugs to those of you who like hugs,
Terrie Terlau and Seeing Eye Dog Pauline
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