Strange Day In The Restaurant Business

[kari]

i've been a waitress for.... probably about 8 years now? until the couple of years of doctor's apptmts, etc. leading up to my being diagnosed this past february i had never ever heard of celiac disease or gluten before, and had never met anyone with celiac disease up until today. well i just worked a double shift at the restaurant i've worked at for the past few years and I had FOUR separate tables (within the span of about an hour and a half) today with people who had celiac disease! i think i spent more time today in the kitchen asking questions than i have in all the time i've worked there. (okay, maybe that's an exxageration), but i sure did learn a lot! (i'm super happy i learned about the one gluten free dessert we have, since i didn't think we had any.) all the other servers were joking around with me that i must run the 'secret celiac convention' and that i'd sent out a convention-wide memo for everyone to visit me at work today. anyway, just thought i'd mention how bizarre that was. must be that more and more people are being diagnosed or going out and trying new foods, and asking lots of questions, which is great, because customers going out and asking questions is the only way for non-celiac servers and cooks to turn into great servers and cooks, because that is how they really learn their stuff

[Guest ~jules~]

I can't wait to meet another celiac in person. I think it would be nice to personally know someone else who has to deal with this disease. Thats a lucky deal for those people getting a celiac for there server, lol...If I found a celiac server in my town, I would be a regular customer thats for sure

[GFBetsy]

Julie -

If you live anywhere near the S.E. Oregon/Washington border, and didn't mind driving to the Tri-Cities, I could introduce you to 3 people with celiac in a heartbeat. (Of course, one of them is only 4 . . . but 2 of them are grown-ups who've been dealing with this disease for about 4 years now.) My sister was actually going to teach a community-sponsered gluten-free cooking class, but only 2 people signed up, and they had to have 4 . Perhaps some other time

[Guest ~jules~]

Julie -

If you live anywhere near the S.E. Oregon/Washington border, and didn't mind driving to the Tri-Cities, I could introduce you to 3 people with celiac in a heartbeat. (Of course, one of them is only 4 . . . but 2 of them are grown-ups who've been dealing with this disease for about 4 years now.) My sister was actually going to teach a community-sponsered gluten-free cooking class, but only 2 people signed up, and they had to have 4 . Perhaps some other time

I used to live in walla walla, pretty close to the tri's, but I am back home now for about 5 years in salem. Thanks for thinking of me though, I would love to take the class, and if I were closer I would sign up tommorrow! I was looking around my town for any kind of classes or anything for celiacs, nothing... I even called the hospital, who offers a wide variety of educational classes and such, nothing for celiacs. We really are in some ways just on our own, and I think its b.s. whats the deal with celiac disease getting no recognition? Is it because its viewed as an allergy not a disease? Sorry about the tangent, I'm new to this.

[GFBetsy]

I used to live in walla walla, pretty close to the tri's, but I am back home now for about 5 years in salem. Thanks for thinking of me though, I would love to take the class, and if I were closer I would sign up tommorrow! I was looking around my town for any kind of classes or anything for celiacs, nothing... I even called the hospital, who offers a wide variety of educational classes and such, nothing for celiacs. We really are in some ways just on our own, and I think its b.s. whats the deal with celiac disease getting no recognition? Is it because its viewed as an allergy not a disease? Sorry about the tangent, I'm new to this.

I think the main reason the disease is relatively unknown is because doctors used to identify it solely through the "starving to death no matter how much you eat" symptoms. It's only been recently (in the last 5 years or so) that bigger studies have determined that celiac is much more prevalent than previously thought. And there are a lot of doctors who learned everything they know about celiac LONG before the most recent studies contradicted the old "1 in 10,0000 people have this disease" beliefs.

There are some things that you might try - you could make up cards with your name and phone number and take them to your local GI doc. You could tell him you're working on setting up a support group for those with celiac and ask him to give the cards to his celiac patients. That way you'd be able to find some people to brainstorm with. Another idea is to see if there are any health food stores/regular grocery stores/small appliance stores in your area that have kitchens where they conduct cooking demonstrations. In my area, the Bosch kitchen store does cooking demonstrations occasionally, and there's a local grocery store chain that has a "Little Theater" program where they have local teachers demonstrate recipes 2 or 3 times a week. About 4 years ago, a friend and I called and asked if they'd ever thought of doing a gluten-free class, and volunteered to teach one. They said they'd try anything once, so we prepared a class (expecting that we'd have about 10 people come.) We had 35 people show up! Of course, the store advertises their classes in their weekly flyer, but we were so surprised to find that many people who were interested in our "specialty" cooking class. We've been doing cooking classes once a month or so ever since. And our last class had about 20 new people in attendance! There are always new people being diagnosed and needing encouragement.

Anyway, if there's a chance that you could do something like that in your area, you might want to check it out. We've met a lot of great people doing these classes! Sometimes community colleges also do classes for the general public. UVSC does that here in Utah Valley. They send out a flyer 2 or 3 times a year, letting everyone know when/where/how much the classes are. You could always call and volunteer to do a "Coping with Celiac" class . . . you'd only have to hole 3 or 4 classes, and you could do one on "What is Celiac", one on "What Can I eat/Where should I shop?", one on "Dealing with Social Eating", and one on "Where to find great gluten-free recipes for baked goods". You might find there are more people in your area who are dealing with this than you thought there were!

You also might try asking the Hospital if they would be willing to allow you to hold a support group meeting at the hospital once a month or so. Then, when other people call the hospital looking for help, the hospital will be able to tell them: Yes! We do have a class for you!

Good Luck!