Nurse-in at Olive Garden this Monday

I e-mailed my friend this thread and hope she will reply to provide more information.

This is the e-mail reminder of the nurse-in I got yesterday:

"well... we're all set to go! the date is june 14th.. this monday!! i look forward to seeing as many of you as possible at the olive garden in mckinney [texas]. the address is 1700 n. central expwy and we'll be meeting there at 1pm! i have spoken with online friends of mine from across the country who are coordinating similar nurse-ins all over the place! how exciting! anyway, get your babies/kids ready and see you there!! if u need anything else, u can contact me at either [phone numbers].

Dani
Granola Mom to 4 fabulous kids
Briana-12 Anisa-9 Gage-5
And my home waterbirth nursling... Karma Sim
Born on September 12th!!!

hi there! this is dani.... the one who is organizing the nurse-in at the olive garden. to clarify.... a woman in kentucky was asked to use the restroom or leave her local olive garden to nurse her baby. she was not interested in pursuing the matter and at this point, we've been unable to track her down. however, i was upset enoughto email them immediately and after 2 weeks and an additional email, i received no response. i wrote letters to both the manager of my local olive garden in dallas and the corporate office. finally, i received an email response.... a form letter that others had received. here's a copy of what i got....

Dear Dani:

Thank you for your feedback.

We cannot substantiate the comments that you have shared with us nor do we take a position on breastfeeding.

We are interested in the comfort of all of our dining guests. Olive Garden strives to provide a combination of food, service, and ambiance that adds up to a special dining experience. We appreciate that you have selected Olive Garden in the past for this reason.

We trust that all of our guests would respect others in the dining room, use sound judgment and accepted community standards regarding their individual decorum. This regard for others extends to the use of cell phones, conversation volumes, feeding infants and restless children. If you have a specific concern while dining with us, one of our managers would be pleased to discuss the matter and make any reasonable accommodation.

Again, thank you for your interest in Olive Garden.

Darlene
Olive Garden Guest Relations

now, after reading this email, i was even further disappointed.... comparing children and nursing infants to cell phones and noisy customers???? ugh.... for a family restaurant, that sure sounds anti-child!! so, i began organizing the nurse-in and have had a very good response. my intent is not to cause a scene. my intent is to encourage the olive garden, as a national restaurant chain, to create and implement a breastfeeding policy so that any nursing mom across the US will feel safe to nurse her child there. i have been speaking with the local newspaper who will be running a front page article on the nurse-in. it would be incredible if there were nurse-ins across the country. already, i have heard about nurse-ins in nebraska, ohio, pennsylvania and of course here in texas.

here's our plan.... we will meet at the olive garden on monday at 1pm. we will sit down and enjoy a meal. we will request to speak with the manager. i will have letters ready for him as well as plenty of questions, suggestions and concerns. we want to let the olive garden know that we ARE customers and that most of us have been treated well there, with no problems nursing our children there over the years. however, we want them to create a policy that affects EVERY olive garden across the country. if this problem can happen at one location, it can happen anywhere. i could just boycott them, but how would that be helping? and if we cause a big scene, we're only going to come off as fanatical, militant breastfeeders. i believe there is a time and place for getting loud and quite honestly, if this approach doesn't work, we'll see what we need to do next. no nursing mom should ever be harrassed and my hope is that this nurse-in will ensure that.... if nowhere else, at least at her local olive garden.

feel free to email me with questions or if you want to report a nurse-in. thanks so much for reading and for being interested in helping change how breastfeeding is perceived in our country!!

Quote:
i'm sincerely curious here.... how does a boycott serve here? they haven't responded to my letters -- do you think they'll even notice if you boycott? the purpose of having a nurse-in where money is spent is to let them know that hey.. we 're paying customers! we've enjoyed dining there in the past and would like to continue dining there in the future! i don't know if they deserve it, but i'm giving them the benefit of the doubt and for now, i'm going to assume that they're being ignorant and in need of education and information. i plan on providing that. if, after being provided information, they choose not to make any changes, we'll figure out what comes next.... if that means standing outside with big signs shouting at all who enter, then so be it!! i don't see myself just withdrawing and boycotting, though. if they're not willing to change, obviously, i don't want to give them business or money, but i won't sit quietly.... in my opinion, its the easy way out. if we don't handle this, who will? they're not going to do this on their own and your average citizin certainly won't! its up to us.

anyway, i'm sure you'll do as you like, but i have carefully considered EVERY option i can think of and what's funny is that i've heard from many people on every side of this. i've heard from those who think i should sit home and write letters. and some who think that doing anything is idiotic because after all, kentucky has no breastfeeding laws and they were within their rights to ask the mom to leave. there are many who will join me on monday. and then some here who think that a nurse-in is too nice and that the only thing to do is make sure that the olive garden receives nothing from us until they change their policy. i'm grateful for every viewpoint as its given me a lot to consider. i hope, however, that you will consider my ultimate goal here.... to change the perception of breastfeeding mothers and breastfeeding in public. i believe that starts when family friendly establishments create and implement breastfeeding policies so that families feel safe and comfortable whenever they enter. wouldn't it be great to know that no matter where you travel, you could go into any olive garden and know that their employees have been trained in how to treat breastfeeding mothers??