How do I deal with people who are ignorant of Celiac's disease?

[TurtleSeaba]

Have anyone had to deal with people who treat you like eating gluten free is a choice and not a medicly restrictive diet. I am a disabled Veteran and I'm only a fixed low income. With how pricey Gluten free items tend to get, my foodstamps run out fast. So I rely on 2 local food pantries. One of those pantries doesn't seem to care when I tell them I have celiac's disease and can't have any items that contain gluten. It just seems so unfair that over half the items they give me have gluten, and therefore don't help me at all. They comment things like "Move along, we don't have time for you to be picky." And "If you don't want it then give it to someone else." I can't every seem to find the right words that would make them understand that being Gluten free is not a choice, it's medicly neccessary. I wish I have a card that I could just show people and it would make them understand. I'm barely getting any food I can actually eat, and they don't care. Any advice would be appreciated.

[ravenwoodglass]

This is a frustrating situation. I have, until very recently, volunteered at a food pantry and they are quite overwhelmed at this point in time.  We have to prepack foods for clients for the sake of speed and I have had to tell folks to just share foods they didn't want with freinds or neighbors. Even though I had a great need myself I didn't use the pantry because I knew they wouldn't be able to take my restrictions into account. What helped me was volunteering myself. Once I was there I found that the others working there would put gluten-free stuff aside for me and within a month I had enough pasta to last me a year and often came in to find bread and other goodies saved with my name on them. I started a gluten free shelf for safe cereals, pasta, flours and mixes which had helped make it easy to just grab a couple things off the shelf for celiacs or others with dietary needs. If you have the time and are well enough maybe you could try to volunteer yourself? A couple hours a week could enable you to educate the other volunteers about celiac and be able to get the items you need including meats, eggs and fresh veggies that could help.

[T burd]

7 minutes ago, ravenwoodglass said:

This is a frustrating situation. I have, until very recently, volunteered at a food pantry and they are quite overwhelmed at this point in time.  We have to prepack foods for clients for the sake of speed and I have had to tell folks to just share foods they didn't want with freinds or neighbors. Even though I had a great need myself I didn't use the pantry because I knew they wouldn't be able to take my restrictions into account. What helped me was volunteering myself. Once I was there I found that the others working there would put gluten-free stuff aside for me and within a month I had enough pasta to last me a year and often came in to find bread and other goodies saved with my name on them. I started a gluten free shelf for safe cereals, pasta, flours and mixes which had helped make it easy to just grab a couple things off the shelf for celiacs or others with dietary needs. If you have the time and are well enough maybe you could try to volunteer yourself? A couple hours a week could enable you to educate the other volunteers about celiac and be able to get the items you need including meats, eggs and fresh veggies that could help.

You are awesome. I have thought about this before. I was basically poor until I was about 27.  I got food pantry items when food stamp issues happened. And fed by my church when teacher salary didn’t support 2 people. Or as a child our family got some. We would have coffee and tea in those boxes sometimes, and we don’t drink those for religious reasons, so we would give them to neighbors or throw them away. I didn’t get diagnosed until 38, and had enough money to purchase $$$ gluten-free items. I looked back at those days and thought how would I have even eaten?

Our church has a cannery where they package food that feeds those in need. The food is packaged on same lines as flour/ wheat, so none of that would be safe for celiacs. 

There is no way for those that are in need to get gluten-free foods when they are homeless or poor, unless someone like you steps in. Many may not know they have celiac because of money though. I’m barely able to take care of myself these days or I would go. My feet joints hurt so much and my shoulders grind and pop. (I’m only just about 42 this month) <sigh>

thanks for sharing and serving! 

[GF-Cate]

Hi Turtleseaba,

I don't know if it would help (and maybe you have already tried this), but perhaps a phone call (or email) to the pantry manager/ director/lead volunteer on a day that is not a distribution day to talk, explain your situation and explain about celiac and ask if it's possible to receive safe food and/or have gluten-free food service aside for you. 

And include a link to an overview of celiac, such as:

https://celiac.org/about-celiac-disease/what-is-celiac-disease/

Some pantries do set aside gluten-free and allergen-free foods, but unfortunately demand exceeds need. 

There are some services that provide gluten free food assistance that might be helpful. Most do have waiting lists unfortunately, but applying now will at least offer other possibilities in the future. 

One is Mend Hunger. You can request a box and they send the items by mail:

https://www.mendhunger.org/

Food Equality Initiative (FEI) medel allows you to choose/shop for items. They subsidize "purchases of free-from food for qualified clients (FEI Family Members) on Free From Market (FFM). FEI also covers the shipping costs for the direct-to-door delivery service."

https://foodequalityinitiative.org/individual/ 

(there is a waitlist - apply here: https://foodequalityinitiative.org/request-services/

You can apply to have a monthly care package of gluten-free items sent from GIG Cares (website says program is at capacity but you can join the waitlist):

https://www.gigcares.org/

The National Celiac Association has a list of food pantries by state that seem to have awareness of celiac and offer gluten-free items - perhaps there is one local to you on the list:

https://nationalceliac.org/gluten-free-food-pantries/

Securing Safe Food is an organization that works with individuals and food pantries to secure allergen-free/celiac safe foods:

https://securingsafefood.org/index.php/our-program/

https://securingsafefood.org/index.php/contact-us/ 

Another idea is to google for pantries that serve veterans /disabled vets, as they may be more willing to try to help meet your dietary needs. 

[Jays911]

Our Parish does food pantry drives twice a month. I make sure my donations are all gluten-free. Everything helps.