By April Henry
Tucked behind the Health Sciences Center Healthy Café kitchen is a small, humble office. Inside it, Retail Manager Cindy Gay, R.D., L.D., is preparing to leave behind the kitchen’s refrigerators, freezers and ovens. She will bid farewell to the serving equipment, like the salad bar and the hot lines. She will exit the dining area, which is decorated with images taken by her husband Bob Gay, retired Dominion Post photographer.
On Friday, March 6, Gay will officially retire, but the seasoned dietitian will always remember the people and the food. In fact, it seems as though she can recall almost every detail of her career in Nutrition Services, stemming all the way back to 1973 when she was a WVU student.
“I worked 2:30-8 p.m. every day, five days a week, and every other weekend,” noted Gay, who reminisced on a recent morning in her office. “The first thing I did when I got here every day at 2:30 was make whipped potatoes. All of the potatoes for patients were made from scratch, from whole potatoes. I made four different kinds because there were three modified diets and the regular potatoes. Some days they were runny, and some days they weren’t.”
Beulah Hall and Mary Rohozen were two of Gay’s early mentors. Hall “was from Kingwood,” Gay said while displaying old picture slides with a projector. “She worked 11-8:30, and she rode the bus every day for her entire working career. I learned a lot from her.”
And, years later, Rohozen, pictured at left, was Gay’s first babysitter. “I was pregnant with my oldest son when she retired,” Gay recalled in her familiar, energetic voice. “She said, ‘Hey Cindy, I’ll watch your kid!’ He’s 28 now. How about that?”
Throughout the years at WVU Healthcare, Gay has worked as a clinical dietitian, research dietitian and production manager. She has held her current post for almost 20 years.
In 1985, the American Dietetic Association chose Gay as one of 13 dietitians to be profiled in a career brochure. “That’s me in front of the salad bar,” she explained. “We have different equipment now, but it was in the same place” as it is now.
When the Wellness Program was formed, Gay served on the first Wellness Committee. Her first son Greg masqueraded as the Wellness Character, handing out apples to staff members who walked the steps.
“I was working at Ruby when the childcare center was being built. I was pregnant, and I said, ‘Why don’t you let me do the menus there?’” Gay shared. “I did the menus. This is Chris (pictured at right), my now 22-year-old, at the head of the table. He’s got the little cornbread muffin, turkey and peas – the same things we feature here today. You can see how well those kids are eating.”
Serving healthy food has always been a vitally important part of Gay’s work. To eat a healthy diet, Gay explained, it’s crucial to know two pieces of information: nutrition facts and ingredients.
“One of the biggest successes that we’ve had here is, in 2004, we had nutrition labels placed at every point of service,” she added. “We’ve gone back to making all of our food from scratch so we know what’s in it. Because we make things from scratch, we’re able to keep sodium, fat and sugar at recommended levels. And all of the desserts we make have less than 12 grams of added sugar.”
Thanks to Gay’s leadership, the Healthy Café has been recognized nationally – in 2007 by the Whole Grains Council as a champion in healthcare and again in 2014 by Food Service Director magazine as one of the nation’s top 15 healthy examples of food service.
“That was across all markets,” Gay noted. “We’ve really gone above – more than at the cutting edge. We’ve gone beyond that.”
Gay thanked her staff, which now includes 20 team members with more than 400 years of combined service, as well as HSC Facilities Management crews.
“I was fortunate that I got to work in institutional food service,” Gay said. “We’ve had such a good audience here. This is a health sciences center, so many of the people, especially the students, want to eat healthy. It’s the people I want to remember.”
Two more people who will live on in Gay’s memories and in the food at the Healthy Café are Martha Nesser and Joe Sestito. They are the namesakes for two of the cafeteria’s most beloved recipes – Martha’s Chili and Joe’s Vegetable Lasagna.
“Martha Nesser was a local wellness champ,” Gay said. “She taught me to promote the good things you do and to practice good sanitation techniques.”
A local restaurateur, Sestito first shared his vegetable lasagna recipe with Gay in the 1980s. “Then he came back twice to show our staff how to make it,” continued Gay, who still has Sestito’s business card in her office, even after he passed away a few years ago. “What he taught me was that you need to tell people how you made something and what’s in it. It’s fun to interact, especially when customers appreciate and want to know how to make a recipe.”
Gay will display a picture slideshow from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. Friday, March 6, in the Healthy Café dining area. Everyone is invited to stop by and say goodbye. To keep up with Gay and her recipes, follow her on Twitter @ScrappyRD or on her blog, Cindy’s Healthy Meals.
