Back in time: Children's Nutritional School

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Re: Back in time: Children's Nutritional School

by Janelle » Wed Jan 10, 2024 8:10 pm

My grandma lived in this home for 5 years from the age of 4-9. She was beaten with a rose bush. She was told to go pick it just to be beat with it. She was kept in the basement with rats. She had her toys held from her where my great grandma found the buggy in the attic that she had gifted her daughter. Ms. Blackmon hid toys that were given to the children. She made her sleep on their stomachs with their head to the right and arms straight down. If they weren't sleeping that way, she whipped them. My grandma has told me many more stories. She wasn't fed or fed very little. She was fed milk and bread and sometimes just bread and water. Ms. Blackmon was an alcoholic. She would eat a steak in front of them while they ate their bread and water/milk. She would threaten to beat the kids more if they told their parents. In fact, she is in the middle of writing her story about it. She was eventually fired after my great grandma turned her in. My geandma only weighed 45 lbs when she was 9 years old when she left this place. This lady got away with so much. It breaks my heart for these kids and what they had to deal with during and afterwards.Please let me know if anyone has more information

Re: Back in time: Children's Nutritional School

by Guest » Fri Jan 20, 2023 1:23 pm

My stepfather speaks of horrifying things at the Nutritional Home and his hatred for Ms. Blackmon is intense. He said the kids were starving. He was given cereal with bugs in it. He was separated from his sister and was not allowed to see her for years. Ms. Blackmon was loved by the ladies in the community and he said she had everyone fooled. People would donate candy for the kids which was kept in barrels in the basement and they couldn’t have it. He says she hated children. She wouldn’t let the kids have the things sent to them by their parents. She loved The attention she’d got from the community. He said every day was hopeless and he hated her guts. He says someone who worked there finally turned her in and she was committed. I don’t know how much of this is true, but these are his memories.

Re: Back in time: Children's Nutritional School

by ChelyWely » Sat May 21, 2022 2:27 pm

The school was located at 3774 W Belmont. From a group I follow, someone posted and said bad things would happen to the kids who lived there?

Re: Back in time: Children's Nutritional School

by Fishpop1 » Mon Feb 07, 2022 9:43 pm

My parents helped manage the Nutritional Home for a few years. I believe it was supported in part by several women’s guilds from Valley Children’s Hospital. At the time we lived there maybe 1962-1966 it was a home for physically and emotionally handicapped children.
I was very small when we left, but for several years my parents would host a reunion and kept in touch with a few of the residents for several years .
The Fresno Bee did several stories about it

Re: Back in time: Children's Nutritional School

by Kermanite » Mon Jun 21, 2021 7:12 pm

My sister was a candy striper out of Kerman high school in the mid 60s. They would volunteer once a week at the Fresno nutritional home. It was located on the North east corner of Belmont and Brawley. The building is still there, but I don’t know if it’s still functioning. She said that it was for severely handicapped children. She mentioned taking a girl with no arms or legs under her wing and was chastised by the management for paying too much attention to one patient. This was shortly after the thalidomide travesty and it’s possible that those were some of the children housed there?

Re: Back in time: Children's Nutritional School

by Linkslady » Thu Aug 20, 2020 3:39 pm

In the fifties my mom had a friend who introduced us to the Nutritional Home. I remember visiting it a couple of times with her (I was about 9) and going thru the kitchen where we were told the children could have cereal anytime they wanted. I remember a long room with many twin beds & being told there was a little girl there whose lip had been chewed by a rat prior to being placed there.

Though I was from a big family who had little, I think the purpose was to show us that others had it worse. For several years after that I remember, as a family, making gifts for the kids- a bar of soap with a folded washcloth pinned on to it to look like a little dog and a beanbag game (like corn hole) where my dad made a round wooden clown face with a big hole for the mouth, my mom sewed cloth bean bags & we kids filled them with the beans were a couple of our projects.

Re: Back in time: Children's Nutritional School

by Jabney18@yahoo.com » Thu Apr 30, 2020 8:49 am

Please go to Facebook page for Fresno's Past. There is a recent thread on this information

Re: Back in time: Children's Nutritional School

by Lanie68 » Fri Jan 25, 2019 8:42 pm

Thank you all for responding with your memories....Ive been researching for info on FRESNO NUTRITIONAL HOME for a few year.....As I previousley stated my mom and aunts were placed in this home for several years, and their memories are actually nightmares.......I found very little info online. Seems alot of the homes records are part of many different " Social Welfare Programs" catalogs and files....Through Fresno County Library Geneological/Historical records Ive been able to locate more records....This "home" ran as part of a county/state funded program from 1922-1968. Even though it was called a "Nutritional Home", there was NO ACTUAL physician, physical therapist, nor nutritionist on site as part of there staff..Over the years many have wondered how did this place even exist, who was responsible for credentialing, placement of children etc......So many questions, much more to find out......I will post the articles that Ive recovered for you to view........Id really like to converse with those who have attended this place, as Im trying to find out as much as I can......

Re: Back in time: Children's Nutritional School

by jeffhanna » Sun Dec 09, 2018 10:52 am

I recall visiting the Children's Nutritional Home, which I believe was an orphanage, as a child with my mother (late 1950's or early 1960's). Mom had been invited there to visit the children. I just recall a large old house - and yes, West Belmont sounds familiar.

Back in time: children's Nutritional School

by aniwaya4@gmail.com » Sun Nov 04, 2018 8:18 am

I was placed in that children’s home, nutritional home on Belmont, Fresno, California.

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