Food allergy friendly colleges?

[Sierra Lin]

I am relatively new to posting and appologize if this is a thread out there somewhere. Does anyone have any experience sending a multiple food allergy student off to college? Do you know of any colleges that are very helpful in this regard? Thanks in advance.

[siliconvalleymom]

One option is an on-campus apartment where you can prepare your own food. Another is an off-campus apartment, like many students at UCLA have in Westwood.
Worst case scenario is a food option like the coops at Stanford, with group/nonprofessional food preparation.

[gadad]

There are basically two major companies that do campus food service - Sodexho and Aramark - though a small percentage of campuses run their own food service. If the student is attending a campus at which Sodexho or Aramark has the dining contract, s/he can meet in advance with the Director of Dining Services and arrange for them to specially prepare meals that will accommodate the allergy. In extreme cases, they may have to release a student from a board plan if they feel that they cannot make the accommodation, but that's quite rare.

[paying3tuitions]

I have no experience in this, but am wondering if a doctor can write a letter that would let the kid opt out of the regular freshman dining plan, to live with upperclassmen who might have more options for apartment living? Pros and cons there, obviously, since a freshman would want to meet other freshmen.

It just seems a shame to have to pay for a mealplan if a kid can hardly eat any of it.

Or try negotiating partial payment on the mealplan to allow some leftover money for the student to buy foods to fill in the gaps and ensure proper nutrition. Are you good at bargaining? I'd try (but only after the admission letter comes in positively of course).

I'm also wondering if a phonecall to the person on campus who handles Disability Accommodations might know how to address this, simply because those administrators help students with individual needs handle many other kinds of physical challenges on campus. Maybe they've heard of an approach.

I admire you for thinking about all of this in advance.

[lkf725]

I have several people in my family with multiple food allergies, some very severe. Those people (including me) have managed to eat safely at college and workplace cafeterias as well as restaurants by making careful selections and above all...asking about food contents when there is any question at all. Maybe you could even get a list meal ingredients from the food service ahead of time. (I was surprised to find that many restaurants have binders with details of ingredients of every item they serve). Also, keep an epi-pen with you if the allergy is life-threatening. Not to be harsh, but people with a "food disability" need to learn how to get along in the real world.

[historymom]

many of the schools we have visited have kitchens in the dorms. Depending on the severity of the allergy you may want to eliminate schools from your list that don't offer cooking options in the residence halls. I had a gal in my Girl Scout troop who can react even to the smell of peanuts. She is very much in control of her condition now as a 16 y/o living at home but I know that she and her parents are concerned enough to talk to admissions officers and food service coordinators up front re. her ability to prepare her own meals on campus and eliminate any that don't have the facilities or a plan to accomodate her.

Food allergies that can lead to anaphilaxis seem to be far more common than they were when I was a kid. I am sure that many schools are adjusting to allow incoming freshman to remain healthy and live a normal freshman life.

[paying3tuitions]

I didn't mean to suggest that multiple food allergies is a Disability! Not at all.

I only meant that the administrator on campus who deals with disabilities is a person to contact because s/he just might know of an approach or ideas on that particular campus. She's on the phone with directors of housing, dining, deans of students and so on. She might know where to begin to ask within the bureaucracy, and who is most responsive. As I wrote above:

Maybe they've heard of an approach.

The adult who administers disabilities issues listens constantly to students with individual needs and interacts with others throughout the college/uni to set up and monitor accommodations. I was more suggesting the OP contact that person to "pick her/his brains" about what's possible, whom to approach and so on.

I don't think this is a caseload item for the Disabilities administrator, although if a particular administrator wants to take this on, by all means let him! Either way, that administrator could be an information resource within each university to this OP.

Some schools have a department, while others assign it to a faculty member, but there must be someone to contact for "disabilities questions." If the school receives federal funding, and the vast majority of schools do, they have to answer and address these questions, so it's assigned to somebody on campus, even if there's no large Office for Student Disabilities. Ask hard and you'll find the person.

[Marian]

I have two kids at different colleges.

One college has a pay-as-you-go meal plan. Much of the food is preportioned or served onto plates by the serving staff. Assuming reasonable staff competence, I think that a student with food allergies could eat in the dining halls provided that he or she was provided with a list of the ingredients of every dish.

The other college has an all-you-care-to-eat meal plan. Students serve themselves most foods from large serving containers. It is extremely easy for serving utensils to find their way back into the wrong container, or for a serving utensil to accidentally touch another food that the student has already placed on a plate and then be placed back in the serving dish. I have eaten in the dining halls at this college, and I have seen visible examples of cross-contamination in various serving containers (e.g., streaks of red tomato sauce, obviously derived from the adjacent serving dish of ziti, in the macaroni and cheese). I cannot see how a student with severe food allergies could be accommodated in such a setting unless there is some arrangement where the kitchen personnel remove a portion of food for the allergic student before the food ever makes its way out into the open dining hall.

Certainly, a student with food allergies would need to ask detailed questions about how his or her needs can be accommodated before making a decision to attend a college. My point is that it's important to know the food service style as well as the types of food served. The college that my daughter attends -- the one where the kids serve themselves -- has an extremely large variety of items available in its dining halls. On the surface, it would seem as though any dietary restriction could be accommodated easily. But because of the potential for cross-contamination caused by students serving themselves, this may not be the case.

One other point: If the student's allergy is going to be accommodated by allowing the student to opt out of the meal plan, it's important to make sure that the student will have ready access to a supermarket. This is not always the case. At some colleges, including both of the colleges that my kids attend, there is no supermarket within walking distance of the campus. There are only convenience stores, which may not provide enough variety for a student, especially one with dietary restrictions, to plan a nutritious diet. It may be necessary for the student to have a car in order to get access to a reasonable variety of food and that, too, may require special accommodations since many colleges do not allow freshmen to have cars. The availability of refrigerators in college dorms is usually not a problem, but the availability of cooking facilities may be. You have to ask.

[paying3tuitions]

^^good post! Adding on: two of my kids went to colleges with many beautiful older dormitories (wooden bannisters, think "Little Women") but the wiring was older, so individual microwaves were absolutely forbidden as a fire hazard. Those schools all had retrofitted the dorms (since my days at one of them) with one group kitchenette per floor, but cross-contamination would be worrisome even there. The disabled students, however, were all given accommodations in the rare few new dorms, where there were adapted kitchens, where generally the students cooked for themselves. Some were in wheelchairs or walked with braces; others blind or deaf. The level of consciousness, awareness among disabled students might be much greater to respect her private stashes of food, separate utensils and so on.

Then my youngest went off to a different school with many shiny new dormitories. Imagine my surprise to receive in the freshman housing packet
a rental offer for a "micro-fridge" unit in each student room!

I'm throwing all this out there to suggest some of the range of things you might find all on the same campus. Perhaps if she were guaranteed access to a single, or living in the new dorm (and you'd have to ask about this) where she could have her own micro-fridge unit, she could augment what the dining room offers, or take home raw ingredients to cook for herself..

I'd even inquire what is the kitchen setup for physically disabled students, and if she could live near it or eat there. At one my student's colleges, there was a floor dedicated to physically disabled students and the kitchen was an important feature for them. In another college, an entire dorm first floor was reserved for disabled, but there was a second floor theme language house where more students lived. I'm thinking perhaps your D could live in a room anywhere (or near) but have access to EAT in the disabled students' kitchens. I believe the disabled students had a choice to eat in the large, fast-moving dining hall OR cook in the adapted kitchen, but I don't know the details. Nobody was trying to segregate them, it was just a choice they had so there was an alternative to the huge dining hall on a meal-by-meal basis. Each student could decide.

Personally I'd rather have a kid with important allergy needs working with a dozen or so highly conscious disabled students than risk what Marian describes in one of the two large cafeterias where students can put utensils back and forth into food.

In such a small group kitchen, among the physically disabled, her requests to keep her own labelled pots, utensils or dishes would not seem oddball at all. These are the students who deal constantly with individual needs and adapting themselves to function on the university. They'll understand her task very well.

Every campus handles things differently; am just giving you more questions to ask.

[Little Mother]

Sierra Lin -

The S of a friend can't have gluten products and attended Stanford without any problems. Once the dining service was made aware of his allergy, they were able to come up with alternative foods for him.

[seiclan]

My daughter is anaphylactic to peanuts and is allergic to all nuts (we had her tested for the rest since the risk of trial is too great).
At age 11 months, during skin testing for peanut, she had trouble breathing and had to be given Epinephrine and and injection of a corticosteroid followed by around the clock oral benadryl for two days (and she still had the hives for days). She also used to be allergic to milk (all dairy including casein and whey), eggs, berries and cherries. She outgrew her other food allergies at puberty but peanut does tend to be a life long allergy.
She is going to college this summer and for this among other reasons, she will be in a apartment-style dorm. She can make her own meals OR go to the cafeteria and swipe her card if she wants. Salad bars are usually a NO NO due to potential cross contamination issues. She is not afraid of restaurants though, she is very careful to inform the servers of the full extent of her allergy and waits patiently while they go back to the kitchen and check again if there was any peanut or peanut oil in the food. She will never eat at Chick filet or the New York French Fry company (peanut oil).

[lkf725]

Food Allergies in Schools - Do You Need a 504 Plan for a Food Allergy
Actually, maybe a severe allergy is covered under the Disability Act?

[Sierra Lin]

Wow, I wanted to thank everyone for their great suggestions of things to consider or watch out for at colleges. Luckily this concerns no. 2 so we have a bit of experience in visiting campuses for the 1st.

Oddly these reactions started around the time of puberty so not sure outgrowing them will occur. His list of foods to avoid includes wheat and soy so unless he starts eating lots of salads avoidance is tricky.

Besides trying to opt out of food plans I have thought about schools close enough that I can make some deliveries of ingredients and/or foods with the idea that as he becomes an upperclassmen he would move off campus. Then he could be in an apartment and slowly take over the total ownership of the problem. He is very careful and always reads labels of all foods in packages. Though I know he should have total ownership of the problem, I worry about the ability to handle preparation of one's own foods and studies too. But in a year or so perhaps there will be major leaps of growth!

As some posters suggest it could be that many campuses can help with fixing many dishes to be safe for him and then he could just supplement with the "breads/muffins/desserts etc.".

Thank you again for the many suggestions and things to consider in our upcoming searches.

[rocketman08]

I imagine most colleges will do what they can to accommodate the situation. In addition to allergies there are a lot of other factors that the dining halls must consider such as religious limitations of food ingredients and preparation. Most college dining halls have tons and tons of different options available each day so with a bit of careful planning and effective communication with the catering staff I imagine that most issues can be worked around without much trouble.

[Marian]

Well, the difference with religious dietary restrictions is that you don't die if you screw up.

I had friends in college who kept kosher. At that time, there was a kosher dining facility on campus, but only for breakfast and dinner. Students had to fend for themselves for lunch. I remember several times when people discovered that things they had been eating in other campus facilities for lunch were not kosher, even though the students had thought they were. When this happened, they changed their habits. They didn't end up in the hospital or worse. A student with food allergies could.