Hi there - have a prospective student with food allergies (peanut, tree nuts) and gluten intolerant. Just wondering if anyone can share personal experiences managing this stuff at Oberlin. Thanks!
I’ll be going to Oberlin next year and the best thing I can suggest to you is that you join a co-op. It’s much cheaper than a regular meal plan and they cook food to your needs. If you join a co-op and tell them that you need gluten free food and have nut allergies, they’ll make special plates for you and reserve them during meals with your name so you can pick it up whenever. I think there may be a few that specialize in Gluten free food. I ate a one of the co-ops on a recent visit (Old Barrows) and loved the food and have heard that it was one of the better co-ops for food on campus. Fairchild is also vegan/vegetarian (as are most co-ops), but I’ve heard the food is bland is mostly just beans and other food like that.
Thanks for your help!
Co-ops are great, but since ianrupp already covered those, CDS (campus dining services, just the normal cafeterias) is also pretty good from my experience. They post the menus about a week or so ahead here: http://oberlin.cafebonappetit.com/ so you can plan your meals (the yellow circle with a down arrow and a G means Gluten Free).
As for nuts, I can’t think of any meal that has nuts. There is a little tub of peanut butter if you want to make a sandwich, but other than that, none of the food is made with nuts, as it’s a pretty common allergy.
If you have very severe allergies, I’ve heard of some people getting priority for a house/apartment with a kitchen and then you get a special meal plan where you get a grocery budget and order things from our campus store. I don’t know much about that, but if your allergies are that severe, I would contact the Office of Disabilities as they would probably know best.
My D has similar allergies and never had a problem dining at the CDS. The only time she had anaphylaxis was eating at an off-campus restaurant where the server misinformed her about ingredients. By the way, campus safety and security handled the situation perfectly and kept me informed the entire time.