DEAR ABBY: I would like to comment on something in Donna Williams' letter to you about guests in restaurants. She said, "Guests are our livelihood! Without them, we might as well be dishing out food at a school cafeteria, instead of practicing the fine art of restaurant service, one in which many of us take a great deal of pride."
Abby, I have been employed in school food service for 25 years. In every school cafeteria I have worked, the fine art of service to our customers has been practiced. We, too, take a great deal of pride in our work and in servicing our customers.
I am an assistant manager in one of the largest high schools in Alabama. We serve almost 2,700 students plus faculty and staff. We do not just "dish out" food. We service all our customers in a two-hour shift at eight food bars with a total of 16 to 18 entrees, plus fruits, vegetables, salads, milk and about 15 other beverages. We do take pride in our work, and we do serve good food.
Satisfied customers are as essential to us as they are to restaurants. Remember, if we don't satisfy them, they won't buy from us. I invite Donna Williams to our cafeteria any day, and I'll be happy to treat her to lunch. -- MARGARET SELLERS, BIRMINGHAM, ALA.
DEAR MARGARET: Perhaps when Donna sees your letter, she'll stand corrected. She may harken from a time, as do I, when the choices in the school lunch program were fewer and less imaginative than they are today.