An adventure in applied science - IRRI books - International Rice ...

72 History of the International Rice Research Institutewould also have to employ secretarial staff and research assistants, many ofwhom would be unmarried and would require living accommodations in LosBaños, a community already overcrowded with students and faculty. Consequently,included among IRRI’s original structures was the cafeteria-dormitorybuilding.The decision was to hire a manager of Food and Dormitory Services and togive that person responsibility, also, for operating the guesthouse and forproviding assistance to the residents of the staff housing area with their dayto-dayproblems of obtaining household help, maintaining furnishings, andthe like.To find a suitable candidate, the assistance of Presentacion Perez, then headof the Department of Home Economics on the Quezon City campus of theUniversity of the Philippines, was sought. She strongly recommended RebeccaC. Pascual, one of her former students who had majored in food andnutrition and who had gone on to obtain her MS in institutional managementat Purdue University. In 1961, Pascual was administrative dietician at theJohns Hopkins University Hospital in Baltimore.Pascual was interviewed by Parker of the Rockefeller Foundation, whoreported that she was well qualified for the post and had an interest inreturning to the Philippines. Offered the position of manager in June 1961, shereplied that she would accept if IRRI could wait until November for her arrival.When IRRI replied that someone was needed sooner than that to get theguesthouse in operation and to order the equipment and supplies for thecafeteria, Pascual suggested the hiring of Nenita Esguerra as an assistantmanager. Esguerra had worked in the Food Services Department at the JohnsHopkins Hospital along with Pascual but had returned to the Philippines.Esguerra was interviewed, was offered the post, and began work in August1961.Pascual and Esguerra did an outstanding job of organizing and operatingthe Food and Dormitory Services and the guesthouse. I recall that even whenI would ask for an official luncheon, banquet, or other dining service, on veryshort notice, it would be provided well and cheerfully.Because of budgetary restrictions and the rather modest income of thosewho used the facilities daily, the fare in the cafeteria had to be rather simple.Yet it also had to be varied in order to meet the requirements of the many ethnicgroups represented in the training program. Their dietary restrictions werealways a source of concern (no pork for the Muslims, no meat for the vegetarianHindus, no beef for even nonvegetarian Hindus). When the diners of thevarious persuasions as well as those merely accustomed to their own nationalfare voiced their needs, Pascual and her staff did their best to meet therequirements and to provide a satisfactory menu for the international group.This was not always accomplished without incident. For example, when A.Colin McClung, then the associate director and in charge of training and theoutreach international activities, was at his desk shortly after noon one day, arecently arrived Muslim research scholar from Malaysia appeared at his officedoor, walked in, plunked his loaded cafeteria tray on McClung’s desk and