Clare Struzziery, Staff Writer
March 8, 2024
What does Nobles do to minimize hazards to students with food allergies?
For most students, the only concern when it comes to lunch at the Castle is whether their favorite food is being served that day, or whether there is meat or marinara sauce on Pasta Thursday. However, for students with food allergies, every station is a potential health threat. These students have to think before they fill their plates, go on field or EXCEL trips, and eat with friends.
The precautions that the Flik team takes to ensure the most safe and varied eating experience for students with allergies and intolerances are scrupulous. No one knows these policies better than Director of Dining Services Matt Burek. All Flik employees at Nobles are Food Allergy Research & Education (FAREcheck) certified, and Burek attends monthly webinars with registered dietitians where new issues involving food preparation and labeling are presented.
The Flik team is legally responsible for providing allergic students with accurate information about the food it serves. This is an unbelievably meticulous task. Because food shipments arrive from regularly changing sources, they read every label carefully. “For grilled cheese, we’ll bring in a Pullman white bread. One time, it will be from one company. The next time we do it, it will be from another company, and that company might have a facility where they make burger buns with sesame seeds, so now they may contain sesame,” Burek said. The Flik staff must continually adapt their menus and warnings to reflect potentially dangerous changes in these ingredients.
No food containing peanuts or tree nuts is allowed to be served at Nobles. An allergy board hangs near the entrance to the Castle, with the main dishes for the day and whether or not they contain or may contain one of the nine major allergens: milk, eggs, nuts, fish, crustaceans, shellfish, wheat, soy, and sesame. “I always look at the allergy boards,” Caroline Jennings (Class I) said, who is allergic to peanuts and tree nuts.
The allergy board is not the only resource Flik provides for food-allergic students. Executive Chef and resident “ingredient expert” Michael Ryan is available during meal times to answer questions from students with severe allergies outside of the nine major allergens. Gluten-free students are able to go behind the counter to receive made-without-gluten products.
The Health Office plays another instrumental role in ensuring the safety of students with allergies. “Over the summer, the nurses go through every health form for every single student, and we generate a report of life-threatening food allergies,” Director of Health Services Lisa O’Connor said. Many new students with allergies have never eaten lunch prepared by their school before; therefore, the health office works with parents to address individual questions and concerns. All adults in the Nobles community are epi-pen trained, and epi-pens are stored on top of AEDs in the Castle, the front desk, and other high-traffic areas.
EXCEL and study abroad trips present a unique challenge for food-allergic individuals. The food students eat at restaurants or schools in other parts of the world is not always as meticulously labeled as the food in the Castle, which can create difficult situations. When a student goes on an EXCEL trip, their trip leader has a list of their allergies and likely has communicated with a parent beforehand. “We always suggest to kids to make sure they carry some safe snacks,” O’Connor said.
Jennings traveled to the Island School for a semester abroad and had a close call with a breakfast pastry that she did not realize was topped with toasted walnuts. “I ended up being fine, but it was definitely a scary moment,” Jennings said. Language barriers can also create challenges on these trips. Val Lane (Class II), who is allergic to peanuts, accidentally ate a peanut pesto in France. “I tried to ask the French people if there were nuts in the pesto…It was the one time I couldn’t show them the [allergy card],” Lane said. Allergy cards are documents individuals can show to restaurant staff that contain all of their allergies in a different language.
Nobles can monitor all of the food produced in the Castle, but food that students bring in from outside of school can be extremely dangerous to students with allergies. From food sold at bake sales to random bags of chestnuts left in the Castle, hazards are everywhere. “We have to remind the community not to bring that,” Burek said.
The relationship between the Castle and the Health Office is a crucial one. Any time an issue arises with food in the Castle, or a specific allergy needs to be addressed, Burek and O’Connor will communicate. Between the Castle and the Flik office, immense precautions have been taken to try to minimize the threats that students with allergies encounter. Every step of the process of making pasta or salad or cake in the Castle is investigated, from the PAM spray on the pans to the plants that ingredients come from. “At the end of the day, things can happen, and we feel really good knowing we have many layers of protection in place,” O’Connor said.
(Photo Credit: Zack Mittelstadt)