The paper describes a special education staff's problems with teaching a severely handicapped institutionalized population and reports on observations of seven multiply handicapped (blind-mentally retarded) students. The students' feeding skills performance in the institution and the school was compared in such terms as diet, utensil use, special equipment, self help activities, communication, interaction, feeding skills, and inappropriate behaviors. Analysis led to the conclusion that Ss distinguished between environments, behaving differently according to the expected contingencies and reinforcement. Two case studies of a self abusive and an incontinent severely handicapped adult are provided to illustrate the effect of different handling by staff at the institution and the school. (CL)