<p>My D has celiac and requires gluten free meals. She is a HS junior and looking at LACs in the northeast/ midatlantic. Does anyone know of schools that are exceptionally good at REALLY providing for Gluten free students?</p>
<p>You might find these sites useful:</p>
<p><a href=“http://glutenfreetravelsite.com/glutenfreecollegereviews.php[/url]”>http://glutenfreetravelsite.com/glutenfreecollegereviews.php</a>
[Going</a> to College Gluten-Free | NFCA](<a href=“http://www.celiaccentral.org/college/]Going”>Information for College Students | BeyondCeliac.org)</p>
<p>My D is gluten-free, she doesn’t have Celiac though, so contamination is not a huge worry. Her school, the University of South Carolina, has a true gluten-free dining option, where there is zero chance of cross-contamination in the kitchen, and this was definitely a consideration is choosing this school. The food is good, but the menu is a bit repetitive, it seems to go in two week cycles.</p>
<p>Not NE or mid-Atlantic, but it is an option that doesn’t require special accommodations and the hope that the kitchen doesn’t screw up.</p>
<p>You might also want to focus your search on schools where it is easy to move off campus after the freshman year, because ultimately, preparing your own food is the only way to truly guarantee being gluten-free.</p>
<p>My daughter has celiac among other things. It has not been a big problem. Once your daughter is admitted, you/she can meet with the administrator of the meals program and chef, or whomever is appropriate. They can provide foods that are gluten free (pasta, breads etc.) and can also cook things to order, generally.</p>
<p>My daughter is moving off campus for her last semester this fall, and I actually worry more about cooking and eating with roommates. I wish she could afford to live alone.</p>
<p>If a school isn’t good with the gluten issue, they need to be, legally, and most seem to know this.</p>
<p>Holy Cross in Worcestor, Mass – nutritionist who oversees menus has celiac’s; school has organized clear zones in kitchen</p>
<p>Skidmore was very good when we visited</p>
<p>From what I’ve heard from others on CC and elsewhere…
- Elon
- Vassar
- Bard</p>
<p>D goes to nowhere u in the Midwest. The caf has been great. If there are no GF choices, the chef will make her something. If nothing else, there are GF buns, and the grill person will make her a grilled chicken sandwich. If your d likes a school, you may have to schedule time with someone in food services on your campus visits to find out what is possible. </p>
<p>In general, however, the smaller the school, the less that is possible. If we’re talking about a handful of students, designated GF prep areas, etc, to avoid cross contamination aren’t possible given the size of the facility. It is perfectly legal, at the moment, for a school to accommodate someone by releasing her from the meal plan requirement, as another celiac at d’s school has chosen. The dorms have kitchenettes, and the student cooks her own meals.</p>
<p>At Wellesley, one dining hall (Tower) has gluten free options, as well as options for other special diets. If you have celiac, you can be guaranteed to live in the complex of dorms - which is a pretty desirable place to live, so that’s good! It’s actually covered under disability services. </p>
<p>I would just plan on making sure your student has a source of some kind of gluten free granola or energy bar at all times, in case hunger strikes and “regular” granola bars are all that’s available.</p>
<p>I forget, yes, register with disabilities services as well as the meeting mentioned above with dining services/nutrition director etc.</p>
<p>Thank you all so much. Great advice!</p>
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Really? My undergraduate college accommodated special dietary needs by not forcing those students to buy a meal plan (everyone else had to have one). No food cooked to order or gluten-free dining options.</p>
<p>My daughter has been able to eat gluten-free at Williams without any problems or concerns.</p>
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<p>There was just recently a settlement of a case between Lesley University and the Justice Dept, where someone filed a claim against the school that not providing gluten-free food options is a violation of the Americans with Disabilities Act.</p>
<p>Lesley is paying a fine and has agreed to provide gluten-free options on an on-going basis.</p>
<p>It has basically put all schools on notice that they have to provide gluten-free options if requested. It will not be enough to just release someone from a meal plan requirement.</p>
<p>[Justice</a> Department agreement ensures Lesley University meal plan accommodates those with celiac disease, food allergies - Metro - The Boston Globe](<a href=“http://www.bostonglobe.com/metro/2013/01/09/justice-department-agreement-ensures-lesley-university-meal-plan-accommodates-those-with-celiac-disease-food-allergies/JgVUf1Dx6FpTYYCMr8nKPL/story.html]Justice”>http://www.bostonglobe.com/metro/2013/01/09/justice-department-agreement-ensures-lesley-university-meal-plan-accommodates-those-with-celiac-disease-food-allergies/JgVUf1Dx6FpTYYCMr8nKPL/story.html)</p>
<p>Celiac is so widely known now that I think you can look at colleges you would for other reasons and add that to the list of questions. All schools are getting better, but even the law suit isn’t going to guarantee that you like what they fix, so think about what you want out of college service. I have celiac, not my Ds but it did mean I paid attention to that when looking at colleges kind of out of habit. Davidson mention GF options in their dining. D at W&L says they have stock special food for students with food issues but not sure how it’s handled. It is good to look at living options and what’s available in area. As notrich said, USC has a GF option, plus a new eating place that’s GF aware and there’s now a Whole Foods and Trader Joe’s here so even more options when in an apartment. For official accomodations under disabilities, remember you need a medical diagnosis (lot’s people jumping on GF because they’ve figure out they feel better that way) to get more official things like waiving meal plans or housing waivers. I would also look at schools that don’t require full meal plans for freshmen…again school may offer safe food, but how repetitive is it? For instance, USC requires a meal plan for freshmen, but can be, I think, as few as 10 meals a week.</p>
<p>My sister is a celiac. She attended Juilliard, where all freshmen were required to live in the residence hall and have a meal plan. She met with the dining supervisor, and again with the staff, to go over her needs and to educate them. They bent over backwards in trying to meet her needs, even allowing her to pre-choose meals and allowing her to choose GF grocery items off their supply lists.</p>
<p>Unfortunately, it just did not work. She gave a lot of credit to the dining hall staff, as they really did try. Cross-contamination was a huge issue and she was constantly “glutened.” Since she was a dancer, she could not afford to miss her daily dance classes caused by the symptoms that come with being exposed to gluten, let alone the long-term health issues of the continual attack on her villi and the lack of nutrient absorption (she was/still is osteopenic…not a good thing for a dancer).</p>
<p>She was quickly released from the food portion of her room and board and allowed to have both a microwave and refrigerator in her room/suite. Somehow, she managed to live on fruits, vegetables, canned beans and rice for the three years she lived in the residence hall. I don’t know how she did it; I never would have survived!</p>
<p>Gettysburg was really great when we visited. They have a separate GF grill and “standing area” for the GF food. I am the celiac, not my daughter and was very impressed with the way they had it set up there.</p>
<p>Sorry, but we were underwhelmed by the University of South Carolina gf food. Maybe we hit it on a bad day. Also, from what we could see, the menu is the same week after week. We asked another student getting food from the gf station about it and he said, yes, it is that repetitive. There was a choice between two entrees, 2 sides and/or a salad. That would count as one meal. However, it is nice that they do at least have that station, and the school does have a fantastic Honors College program that resembles a LAC.</p>
<p>Also not a LAC, but d was much more impressed by the food at NCSU. She can go online to look at the menu in 3 dining halls each day to see what the gf options are. They also have an ipad at the entrance of each which allows students to hover over each menu item to see a list of any allergens. See via the link here: [Dining</a> Halls | University Dining | NC State](<a href=“http://www.ncsudining.com/locations/dining-halls/]Dining”>http://www.ncsudining.com/locations/dining-halls/)</p>
<p>See articles on NCSU’s efforts here: [Allergen-Free</a> On Campus | Heinz Foodservice](<a href=“Away From Home”>Away From Home) and [RALEIGH:</a> N.C. State nutritionist pushes, gently, for students to eat healthy | Health & Science | NewsObserver.com](<a href=“http://www.newsobserver.com/2013/03/23/2774181/nc-state-nutritionist-pushes-gently.html]RALEIGH:”>http://www.newsobserver.com/2013/03/23/2774181/nc-state-nutritionist-pushes-gently.html)</p>
<p>I agree that most schools should be able to work with your student, but highly recommend a taste-test on campus visits.</p>
<p>You have to be very comfortable that they have cross-contamination under control.</p>
<p>For Celiacs this means you can’t share pots, pans, utensils, plates, prep areas, storage areas, and air space. If non-GF food is prepared or even served in the same room as GF food, it’s a concern.</p>
<p>It’s great that so many schools at least have an awareness of this issue now, and for many Celiacs this means exposure to gluten can be lessened enough to prevent symptoms (although the traces can still be doing damage). But for others it won’t be enough.</p>
<p>I agree that the South Carolina GF place could use more variety, more fresh stuff, and the occasional GF pasta or bread would be nice, and have given them feedback on this. But with dedicated cooking and serving areas, I think they have really minimized the chances of contamination.</p>
<p>Maybe NCSU has better food overall (I don’t think any of SC’s food is really anything to write home about, as is true for most schools), but are you confident the kitchen can rigorously avoid contamination?</p>
<p>There is another thread here on Cc started a number of years ago on this topic so I won’t repeat…I will say that NFCA has been a huge contributor to this cause and has a college section in their newsletter and on their website…</p>
<p>As I have posted before, many, many schools require the student to pre-order meals; that does not work for all students…key question to ask</p>
<p>Also, some schools (Elon, for one) will order ANY food that a student requests</p>
<p>I am 3 years removed from this aspect of the process but there are questions to ask that you don’t even think of…</p>
<p>S and DH are celiac (back from before it was cool!) and we were very very impressed with Ithaca (sigh…son hated the academics) , not so much with Syracuse (it looked like a lot of promises and poor execution). S attends PSU and I was skeptical but they have been great. Seriously. Every dining hall has a stocked, gluten free station. Each semester food services invited food issue people to a tasting session for new products. They’ve been both attentive and responsive to his needs/wants and stock things in response to use, not just what suits purchasing. The halls he frequents know him on sight and he also gets regular emails from the managers, asking how it’s going. Campus convenience stores stock some gf things and have stocked things specifically on his request. </p>
<p>Make sure you ask if there is a separate station for celiacs, ask if there is a mandatory food plan, ask if they can have a microwave, ask about purchasing. It is easiest to get an appointment with food services, where the rubber meets the road. Disability can tell you all sorts of things that may or may not end up being the functional process . Admissions will give you some generalized non-useful answer. There are schools that won’t allow a microwave, period. There are schools that say “too bad for you” (we met both during the search) and YES I know that’s technically illegal but it happens. They will also say you can figure that out once you’ve been accepted, but that’s crazy talk too.</p>
<p>My best friend and her graduating sr. daughter, who both have Celiac, just revisited her accepted schools, and were most impressed with how UCONN and Univ. of New Hampshire were able to best feed them.</p>
<p>Just saw that Udi’s (GF foods) website has a blog devoted to top 10 colleges for safely handling needs of celiacs…from dedicated dining area to one with GF bakery. Good read for anyone looking for safe GF accomodating school. Along with top 10 there were comments from people telling about schools they know about.</p>