[Congressional Record Volume 145, Number 134 (Wednesday, October 6, 1999)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Pages E2041-E2042]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




           HONORING SCHOOL FOODSERVICE DIRECTOR HELEN RANKIN

                                 ______
                                 

                        HON. JOHN ELIAS BALDACCI

                                of maine

                    in the house of representatives

                        Tuesday, October 5, 1999

  Mr. BALDACCI. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to call my colleagues' 
attention to National School Lunch Week which we will celebrate next 
week. Having grown up in the restaurant business, I feel a special 
camaraderie with school food service professionals. Every day, 
professional across the country ensure that our students have at least 
one hot, nutritious meal to help them grow and learn.
  Maine is blessed with many extraordinary school food service 
professionals. But one in particular stands out--Helen Rankin, 
foodservice director for Maine School Administrative District 55, based 
in Hiram, Maine. Hiram is not what anybody would describe as a 
metropolitan area. It is a small, rural area much like most of Maine.
  Helen has brought a degree of professionalism to her operation that 
belies the small size of the school system. Her commitment to quality 
and top performance by herself and her staff has made her a leader in 
Maine and across the nation.
  Earlier this year, Helen was featured in the national publication 
School Foodservice & Nutrition. The article just scratches the surface 
of Helen's activities on behalf of her clients--school children in the 
Hiram area and beyond. She recognizes that school food services are a 
crucial building block in a child's education. We all know that hungry 
children cannot learn and that their bodies cannot grow and develop as 
they should.
  Helen Rankin is a dynamic, dedicated professional. Maine students 
have benefitted tremendously from her leadership. I am proud to have 
the opportunity today to pay tribute to her, and to all of Maine's 
school foodservice professionals. I hope that next week, during 
National School Lunch Week, all of my colleagues will take the 
opportunity to recognize these hardworking individuals.
  Mr. Speaker, I insert the School Foodservice & Nutrition article 
about Helen Rankin to be printed in the Congressional Record at this 
point.

                              Helen Rankin


       Bringing big-time professionalism to a small-town district

                          (By Mark Ward, Sr.)

       Try to find Hiram, Maine, on a road atlas and it might take 
     you a while. But while the town may be off the main highway, 
     it's squarely on the map of leading school foodservice 
     operations.
       ``We don't have the facilities of a larger district, but 
     we're still on the cutting edge. And even if we don't have a 
     lot of students, we do a lot for them,'' reports Helen 
     Rankin, foodservice director for Maine School Administrative 
     District No. 55, based in Hiram and serving five rural 
     communities in the southwest corner of the state.
       What puts Hiram on the school foodservice map is a simple 
     maxim: ``I insist on professionalism,'' declares Rankin of 
     her school nutrition team. For example, though the district's 
     six schools serve just 800 lunches a day, each member of 
     Rankin's staff is an ASFSA member, has taken a sanitation 
     course and is a ServSafe certified food service handler. And 
     despite an annual budget of just $400,000 (which includes a 
     district appropriation of just $11,000), the department pays 
     the expenses for its employees to attend state association 
     conferences.
       That commitment to professionalism and continuing education 
     starts with Rankin herself. After 40 years in school 
     foodservice, including 30 years in her present post, she's 
     not resting on her laurels. At the state level, she has 
     helped to transform what was a small association into a 
     professional organization that now boasts 700 members and 
     conducts a statewide peer review program. And, as a former 
     Maine School Food Service Association (MSFSA) president, 
     Rankin enjoys respect and clout with state and local 
     policymakers.
       And though Hiram may be a small dot on the roadmap, Rankin 
     sees no limit to her own professional horizons. She has 
     spoken at conferences across the country, been nominated 
     twice for ASFSA national office and served as Northeast 
     Regional Director on the National Association's Executive 
     Board. Throughout the 1990s, Rankin's influence has been felt 
     on the ASFSA Public Policy and Legislative Committee and, 
     more recently, its Political Action Committee (PAC).
       ``By making a commitment to get involved with my 
     profession,'' Rankin reflects, ``I've had opportunities that 
     a person from a small rural town, who started out with only a 
     9th-grade education, might only have dreamed of.''


                        from PTA to professional

       Forty years ago, the notion that a school cafeteria worker 
     could be a ``school food-service professional'' was rarely 
     encouraged--or even understood. Back then, Rankin says, she 
     first became involved with school meals ``because the PTA, 
     which I was president of, was responsible for the hot lunch 
     program.'' When the group hired a new cook who quit after 
     just one day, it was up to Rankin to fill the gap. ``We had 
     75 students at that school and, after volunteering at first, 
     I ultimately got paid $15 a week to cook the meals and clean 
     the kitchen,'' she recalls.
       Over time, Rankin received her own high school equivalency 
     certificate and went on to earn a bachelor's degree. Then in 
     her ninth year as de facto school foodservice manager, the 
     school was incorporated into a newly formed district. In 
     turn, that brought the hiring of a district foodservice 
     director. Like the cook a decade earlier, the person who 
     filled this position resigned after a brief stint, which 
     paved the way for Rankin to assume the post.
       ``In those days we had no free lunch program, and I can 
     remember kids who would bring in a jar of water and a piece 
     of bread to eat,'' Rankin continues. Now, 30 years later, 
     ``We have reimbursable meals, a breakfast program, a la carte 
     service--plus marketing and promotion, and the expectation 
     that we have to be financially self-supporting. Times 
     certainly have changed,'' she adds.
       It also was 30 years ago that Rankin was introduced to 
     ASFSA and the concept that school foodservice could be a 
     professional pursuit. ``MSFSA's conference were small,'' she 
     recalls, ``So I went to my first state meeting in 
     Connecticut. That got me fired up and, along with some other 
     foodservice directors from Maine, we decided to start 
     building up our own state association and making it more 
     active.''
       Professional involvements ``are hard work'' Rankin admits. 
     And many times her volunteer commitments require extra hours 
     at work because, lacking funds to hire a full central office 
     staff, Rankin first must handle all the business affairs of 
     the district office. ``Yet you learn so much by going to 
     meetings and participating in your profession,`` she remarks. 
     ``Every time I go to a conference or event, I find out what's 
     going on in the industry and the profession. Best of all is 
     the exchange of ideas you get, because you can talk with 
     other professionals one-on-one.''


                       preservation and progress

       And while Rankin is a firm believer in the need for school 
     foodservice professionals to meet with and learn from one 
     another, she also emphasizes the need for the profession to 
     build relationships with government, industry--and the 
     public.
       That realization came to Rankin--and many other school 
     foodservice operators--in a big way, five years ago, when a 
     push was made in Congress to eliminate the National School 
     Lunch Program. As a result, child nutrition advocates from 
     both large urban districts and small rural schools joined 
     with politicians, industry partners and others to make their 
     case for the need for school nutrition programs to remain a 
     federal program.
       Today, ending the National School Lunch Program is no 
     longer an issue. The visibility and respect that the school 
     food-service profession earned on Capitol Hill during the 
     debate remains in force.
       To preserve these gains and secure more victories, Rankin 
     reports that the goal of the ASFSA PAC is to ``ensure that 
     supporters of child nutrition are re-elected to public 
     office.''
       Like school foodservice directors across the country, 
     Rankin also has focused attention on building bridges at the 
     state level. Back home in Maine, she has helped the 
     profession establish a presence in the state legislature, 
     governor's mansion and in city and county councils statewide. 
     Currently, school food-service directors in Maine are 
     pressing for increased support of nutrition education 
     programs.
       In a career that already has spanned 40 years, Rankin has 
     set a personal goal she hopes to achieve before retirement. 
     ``School foodservice should be respected enough to be 
     recognized as an integral part of the education process, and 
     therefore included in school planning,'' she asserts. ``For 
     example, determining how much time is allotted for lunch 
     should have the same weight as planning for class periods, 
     rather than just giving lunch whatever time is left over.''
       Because Rankin is employed in a small district, she 
     enjoys--in a way not available to directors in many large 
     districts--personal and daily contact with school officials. 
     Therefore, she's enthused about the prospects of realizing 
     her goals and seeing her district become a national model for 
     integrating nutrition and education planning.
       ``Whether your district is large or small, the basic 
     challenges are the same,'' Rankin concludes. ``For example, I 
     may not have the

[[Page E2042]]

     same computer system that a large district has. But that's 
     okay, because the real issue is that, with kids, you always 
     need the human touch. Whatever your district's size, whether 
     it's large or small, city or country, the most important 
     thing we serve our students is a smile.''

     

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