Stu wrote:
> On Mon, 7 Jun 2010 14:46:47 -0400, "Dora" > wrote:
>
>> Melba's Jammin' wrote:
>>> Are you sh*****' me? Your potluck supper has become a juried event?
>>> I'd be in her face, Minnesota Nice be hanged! Da noive! She puts
>>> it
>>> in the garbage? Sends it back with a big red X on the lid? Holy
>>> balls.
>> I've encountered something similar (potluck, by a different
>> organization) and not, fortunately, to me. "Oh, another one - we
>> don't need it, we have two of those already." The person was left
>> hanging, with her dish in her hand.
>>
>> Dora
>>
>
> Us as well, we took the dish and left. We got a call from the minister
> a few days later. He said that he wondered why the numbers for the
> potluck were dropping, and after someone mentioned to him what had
> happened he understood why. A week later she was off the committee.


Smart man.

Back in the late 70s when the Senior Citizen mealsite program was
first set up (USDA, maybe?) a friend and I volunteered once a week to
serve the hot lunch that was made at a central site and shipped to us
daily, and clean up afterward.

In our small town, lunch was held at the Rec Center, a beautiful old
Victorian house on huge acreage that had been donated by a wealthy
family. Leftover full meals were available in take out containers for
anyone who wanted the food for dinner or the next day. We served food to
all who arrived at noon and collected a donation ($1) from all who were
able. We ate there on the days we volunteered and the meals were
surprisingly good (except the once-a-quarter liver-and-onions meals, but
that was my personal dislike--the Seniors who came that day loved it.)

There were two paid employees. The assistant was an older lady who was
a real control freak and had everyone under her thumb. After a few
weeks I noticed she was saving the vegetables (already on the verge of
being overcooked) in the refrigerator and adding them to the following
day's soup, whatever we were sent, instead of letting us pack them in
the takeout meals. We had been trained to give it away or throw it out,
not saving anything because of the risk of contamination. She was
adamant that the veg should be served again in this way and were "still
full of good nutrition." (You haven't lived till you've tried her clam
chowder with leftover string beans.)

We finally gave up trying to change her mind and get in touch with the
state program director. She was relieved of her duties. Later we
discovered that she had been embarrassing some of the lunch bunch into
donating even if they were really unable to, causing some of the
neediest to stop coming for their only decent meal of the day/week.

Control freaks are really hard to deal with.

gloria p