Interview with Dana McCabe: Prepared by Johnathan Edward Robinson

For my social justice project directed towards the food industry, I interviewed one of the top registered dietitians in the San Francisco Bay Area: Dana McCabe. Mrs. McCabe provides private nutrition counseling to clients and helps develop strong nutritional lifestyles where individuals can enjoy the food they love while living a healthy lifestyle. We met on April 7, 2010 at Starbuck’s Coffee on 4th Ave in San Mateo. We met at approximately three in the afternoon because she had a client at four. We took about fifteen minutes to prep for the video recorded interview and the actual interview took about another fifteen minutes to execute.

I first contacted Mrs. McCabe two days beforehand via phone and asked if she would be interested and she responded the day of showing great interest and enthusiasm. I sent her the questions I would be asking her through email. She gave me her personal email over the phone. Within my questions I quoted Marion Nestle’s book in order to elaborate on my questions. She responded back to me and was extremely impressed by the fact I read such a complex book for being a high school student.

When the interview date came, I dressed in formal attire because I just came from a scholarship interview. We quickly chatted up on my high school experiences and future plans. She was very graceful and was enthused about doing an interview with a high school student who treats his work like a college project. For the first fifteen minutes of prep we discussed the questions which allowed me to prepare for further questions about the topics in order to have her elaborate on the issues.

I expected to learn from her how people should properly diet because as a food professional, she knows the in’s and out’s of how to properly diet in America’s fast food culture. She acknowledged the fact nutrional advice is often political and corporate America feeds only on profits and not always the general welfare for the American public. She also elaborated on the issue of how the food industry uses cartoon characters for children to lure them into buying their products. She mentioned how a study was done where more children recognized Ronald McDonald versus former president George W. Bush.

I gained some great insight, however, some diabetes and statistics with children. One thing she talked about was how the grocery store is organized. She said all whole foods are located around the perimeter of the store. Everything in the center is all processed food. So for her clients, she advices people to shop around the perimeter of the store and avoid the center as much as possible. She was filled with information about America’s health which included the health of children and how to avoid such clashes.

After the interview she told me how she had been asked to interviewed by many students and she only accepted my request because of my professionalism and polite behavior. I felt highly commended and I enjoyed every moment of being apart of this interview. The experience as a whole to me was a preview of my professional life. Being able to perform an interview with an individual to whom I had no prior relationship to was something that would be the cornerstone of my professional career. It was a highly enlightening experience.