<p>Thought I’d contribute a brief account of our hunt for gf art schools/college and subsequent experience. My three daughters and husband have been diagnosed with celiac disease since 1998. I guess we’re old timers. When the youngest kid was diagnosed we were told that celiac was very rare and affected only 1 in 4500 Americans (which is why there’s this sense that nobody knew about it before). We were also told that there was a 5% chance somebody else in the family could have cd, so we all had to have blood screening done. Turned out that we hit the jackpot with DH and the older girls all having positive blood work and positive endoscopies – even though those three did NOT have symptoms. Since going gf, DH now gets wicked symptoms if he accidently gets gluten, the older two girls have never had symptoms (unless you count the seizures and neurological and psychological problems those two have). The youngest one who was diagnosed first gets very sick with trace exposure to gluten (she was diagnosed when she was a toddler and very very sick - she was a ‘classic’ celiac baby).
Anyway, D1 is a talented artist and national merit semifinalist. So last year we did the college/art school search thing. She was embarrassed to death that every place we visited included a trip to meet with the executive chef for the dining hall/food services to see how well the school could/would address gluten free issues. Syracuse, I know, is far and away the best of the bunch. They have dedicated cookware, they take the kids shopping for gf items, they cook gf to order for them. Most of the other places ‘claimed’ to be able to gluten free, but when we visited, there was precious little to choose from besides salad. This was the case at Cleveland Art Institute, Rhode Island School of Design, Pratt, Parsons (which was particularly unfriendly to special diets – tiny kitchen in the basement of the dorms), Laguna College of Art and Design (didn’t evan have dorms), Cornell, Purchase College, and Cooper Union. Maryland Institute College of Art was appealing because not only was it a top art school but their dorms were mini-suites that included kitchenettes. The food service director there was willing to work with D1 to arrange for gf meals so this seemed, from a food perspective, to be a good fit with D1. Plus she wanted to go there.
She was lucky enough to have a celiac room mate. I thought the two girls would hit it off and D1 would get over her reticence about her medical condition enough to make sure that she got food – but it turned out that when the girls would go over to the dining hall, it would take them 2 hours to get a meal. They’d have to talk to the chef and then wait for the chef to make them something. With hectic six hour studio classes, neither of them had the time to sit around and wait for that to happen. They could have worked more closely with the chef to plan a menu for the week and arrange for a specific time for when they’d come to the dining hall, but neither girl would advocate for herself enough to actually do that. I thought it was just my daughter’s reluctance to talk to the chef – but at one point during the Fall semester I had a chance to talk with the room mate alone and the room mate told me she mostly just managed by grabbing something from the salad bar and that it took too long to wait to get something cooked.
My kid in the end lost a lot of weight (and she didn’t really have extra to lose), stopped taking her medications, and basically ended up just staying in bed all day – I ended up having to go get her and bring her home and she had to withdraw for the semester. She’s home now – and we are considering options for next Fall.
So parents of celiac kids, make sure your kids CAN advocate for themselves and are really independent enough to manage the added stress of trying to maintain their diets in addition to the normal pressures of transitioning to college life. We had urged D1 to take a gap year because we were concerned that she wasn’t truly ready to go away to college and be independent. She’s getting her gap year now.
Good luck!</p>
<p>Boston University is building a new dining hall on East Campus called Marciano Commons that will include a totally separate gluten-free kitchen. </p>
<p>[Marciano</a> Commons Dining Services | Boston University](<a href=“http://www.bu.edu/dining/where-to-eat/residence-dining/marciano-commons/]Marciano”>http://www.bu.edu/dining/where-to-eat/residence-dining/marciano-commons/)</p>
<p>[State</a> College, PA - Michele Marchetti: Penn State Food Services Employees Act as Concierges for Gluten-Free Student Diners](<a href=“http://www.statecollege.com/news/columns/michele-marchetti-penn-state-food-services-employees-act-as-concierges-for-glutenfree-student-diners-1048333/]State”>http://www.statecollege.com/news/columns/michele-marchetti-penn-state-food-services-employees-act-as-concierges-for-glutenfree-student-diners-1048333/)</p>
<p>I noticed that my son’s school now has a gluten-free station in the cafeteria.</p>
<p><a href=“http://www.emory.edu/dining/documents/glutenfreezonestudenteagles.pdf[/url]”>http://www.emory.edu/dining/documents/glutenfreezonestudenteagles.pdf</a></p>
<p>As a mother, I am familiar with celiac disease and know how difficult it is to eat in restaurants, even if the chef tries to do his best. Very often crosscontamination takes place and there are some traces of gluten in glutenfree dishes. Sometimes it is a bit of flour or some bread crumbs or in a buffet-style restaurant people use the same serving spoon for gluten and glutenfree food.
How do universities cope with this problem if the food is prepared in the same kitchen and often by the same people, who might not be very familiar with the disease? From what I know many people still believe it is some kind of allergy where a small amout of substance does not really matter.</p>
<p>I know this is an old thread, but S2 had his gluten free tour of his dining hall at PSU this morning, and I thought those who are in the midst of college searching might like to hear about that. The setup is similar in all dining halls, but Food Services sent out an email to all the special diet students, inviting them to an orientation tour at the building they are most likely to desire to eat at. There were 6 or 7 tours scheduled – some for food allergies, and separate tours for gf students.</p>
<p>There’s a convenience store at North Halls that stocks most main GF brands in the freezer. The dining hall itself has a gf station, physically separate from the line, with a heavy duty toaster oven, large microwave, fridges, and prep surfaces/materials. Pizzas, for example, are in a warmer drawer and they showed him how to put it in the gf oven to heat it up the whole way. (I didn’t go, so these are the things he told me) His dining hall manager as well as his menu coordinator (there’s one for gf menus, nut-free, milk-free, etc.) were there, and he was also introduced to the line cooks. They make most of their own gf desserts, in bulk, on dedicated kitchen days and then freeze everything. They make a lot of their sauces, soups, from scratch and are confident of the sourcing and prep. They emphasized that if he ever feels uncertain about cc issues, to just ask for a new box/jar/serving from the kitchen. The manager also gave him her cell ph # and email, and told him that he should let them know if there’s a specific food he wants so she can stock it. He can also call a dedicated service line to pre-order food on his way to the cafeteria (in case he doesn’t want to prepare it himself, or has a guest, etc.) He gets a copy of menus every month, that has been checked by the nutrition grad students so he can see what is off limits (here’s the shortcoming – basically everything on the main menu is off limits). His menu coordinator calls and emails every month during his first term to make sure he’s being adequately fed and is happy; he was offered the chance to join a student advisory group as they make more and more improvements. </p>
<p>IF you have a student with food issues – speak up during college tours. The reason PSU has made these many changes is because of DEMAND, because of questions, because of nagging helicopter parents :)</p>
<p>The University of South Carolina-Columbia has a gluten-free dining unit that is free-standing, meaning there is no chance of cross-contamination. </p>
<p>Here is this week’s menu, it looks pretty good:</p>
<p>[Plan-It</a> Healthy](<a href=“Carolina Food Co. - Carolina Food Co. | University of South Carolina”>Carolina Food Co. - Carolina Food Co. | University of South Carolina)</p>
<p>DD has an AI disorder that is not Celiac, that going gf seems to have resolved (along with other treatment such as intelligent supplementation), although fortunately minute traces don’t seem to cause an issue for her.</p>
<p>She says that so far the food has been pretty good.</p>
<p>notrichenough…a bonus for gluten free in Columbia…we are getting a Whole Foods and Trader Joes. If you haven’t already found it, EarthFare on Devine Street has good selection.</p>
<p>^ Thanks, I’ll pass that on to her.</p>
<p>I’m glad to see that more and more universities are starting to recognize alternative diets in their meals. In the last three years that I’ve been at my uni, I’ve seen the gluten-free (and lactose-free, etc) menus expand considerably. I have UC so I worked with a specialist my two on-campus years to design the best meals (I know what my “triggers” are but I don’t always know what they’re in). It got significantly easier each semester. I developed dietary issues in my sophomore year and they were easy to adjust to because of the large assortment of on campus meals. My friends with celiac’s have found it much easier over the last few years as well. </p>
<p>Good luck to all with alternative dietary needs :). Luckily, the world is becoming friendlier to us!</p>
<p>Glad to see it but my paranoid self probably wouldnt touch it</p>
<p>resurrecting this thread to post the following link I received today’s from Udi’s (one of the big GF bread producers):</p>
<p>[The</a> Top 10 Gluten Free Accommodating College Campuses | Udi?s® Gluten Free Bread](<a href=“Udi's Gluten Free”>Udi's Gluten Free)</p>
<p>nj2011mom, thanks for the link. This is a huge issue for us… as important as academics.</p>
<p>Hello - Just found this thread! I agree with hikethepeaks - the gluten-free layer of research is very important. Because of the recent court case, colleges are required to offer accommodations for the gluten-free diet because it’s a disability. However, some colleges are just getting started on providing gf food. I will post again later, and share the info on colleges we’ve researched for gluten-free dining.</p>