College Students

[LuvMoosic4life]

NOt sure where to post this.

I am writing an article for my school new paper on celiac and similar health issues in college students that require them to follow strict diets. I do not know anyone at my school with celiac and am looking just to ask a few questions from a couple people who are actually college studets dealing with this. If you would be interested let me know and we can talk through e-mail. When the article is published I will need to share just some information like your name and university for citation purposes.

If you have lived on campus with a meal plan while diagnosed, that would be awesome - I can write about how the school accomadated/or didnt accomodate you -LOL And if you live off campus, that would be fine also. I will be interviewing the dining services at my own school about students with special dietary needs. I really hope this helps to spread awareness. If I lived on campus with a meal plan at my school I would be screwed!!!. Although there are ways to make meals gluten-free, it would be impossible to avoid cross contamination...another thing people really dont understand. i worked for catering at my school and saw first hand how cutting boards and surface areas are used to cut bread, fruit , meat....everything. They are wiped down, but its not enough. i would love to purchase the fresh cut fruit at my school, but because of this I dont... I'm even leary of the salads.

thanks!

[purple]

Hi, I don't have enough info for you to help much but this is what happened.

My dd was a freshman last year. Half way through college she was found to be gluten intolerant. She could only eat fresh fruit (hates salad/veg) which was usually only offered for breakfast. She had to microwave whatever she could. We contacted the college at the end of Feb to see what they/she could do. It took forever to get the college to refund her remaining meal plan money (I think they forgot) so she could use it to buy food at the store. They were good and refunded the whole semester instead of just 1/2.

What I think would have helped is if she had access to a freezer/stove. A shared dorm fridge/freezer was not enough room plus their tiny freezer didn't work right. Good thing Walmart was only 1 mile away and she had a car. She had to cheat in the beginning, being new it was hard learning what she could/couldn't have.

[ravenwoodglass]

My DD was diagnosed in high school so we were able to ask about stuff when she applied to college. Her chosen school dropped the meal plan charges and placed her in senior housing the first year so she would have a stove, frig and a private room so there would be no CC issues. The school realized they would not be able to feed her and they were fantastic about dealing with the whole thing.

[kera87]

hey, email me at lildreamer325@aol.com (its very old and i dont wanna use my new one with my name haha) i am in college and go through it and its very hard. id love to contribute so email me with any questions!

[GFqueen17]

I'm not in college but I will be next year so I would be very interested in reading the article. You should post the article on here!

[Hummingbird4]

I don't have any direct experience, but as a recently diagnosed Celiac who has a son that just moved to college over the weekend, I really feel for you! It was hard for me just to travel, let alone be required to eat in the cafeteria. My son shows no signs of Celiac - hopefully will stay that way.

[ryebaby0]

Penn State's main campus here in University Park just this semester added a limited (very) gluten-free menu. Gluten-avoiding students/guests/staff can email or call one of the two dining halls that are offering it (there are something like 7 or 8 dining halls, plus many other eateries on campus) , request an item from the menu, and a manager will prepare it for their arrival. PSU is not making the gluten-free items, they are buying them from suppliers like Bob's Red Mill. There's food for breakfast, lunch, and dinner, and it's offered every day the halls are open.

You can probably email food services at PSU; you'd need to google them but it shouldn't be hard to find. Their main page does have a comment/contact link, because we made sure to thank them. My oldest worked on campus this summer and picked up the info flyer; it doesn't seem to be widely distributed. (He's not the celiac, his father/brother are)

joanna

[MySuicidalTurtle]

Hmm, I just graduated in July from college. I did not live on campus and they do not have meal plans, so, I do not know if I would be any help. You can PM if you need another person. Good luck!

[LuvMoosic4life]

thanks so much everyone! I will get back to a couple of you in a few days I will be sure to post the article on here when it is finished I have to talk to a few other people before I start writing it

[StrongerToday]

I just posted this under "dining out" (for lack of a better place to put it): hope this helps

Open Original Shared Link

I have recently started working for UM Housing, imagine my surprise and delight to come across such a comprehensive list of allergy free foods. The gluten-free list is several pages long, and apparently gluten-free pizza is always available - you just have to ask and they will "whip one up for you".

Now you only have to come up with the money to send your kids to school here!

[HAK1031]

I am a high school senior in the process of applying to schools. So far we've asked someone about gluten-free possibilities in the dining halls everywhere we've visited, and I've always gotten a very strong positive response. Some schools seem to automatically offer gluten-free options (Skidmore had glutino cereal out) and others have it on hand if you ask (Colgate had Gillian's pizza dough that they made me for lunch on my visit :-D) They all seem knowledgeable about CC too. Our tour guide at Hamilton was actually celiac, and she said she had no problems, the staff was happy to make her something separate if necessary, and use clean stuff. I think it also helps that all of the schools I'm applying to are small liberal arts schools (3500 or less). Now, if only I had a full scholarship! lol, but I'm not anticipating having too much of a problem eating in college. I also plan to have a separate microwave and minifridge for myself, and maybe bring a couple of pots and pans to use in the dorm kitchens in a pinch.