Parent of current HS junior interested in F&M -currently top of her list. She has several severe food allergies - milk proteins, sesame, shellfish, peanuts, and most tree nuts (coconut and almond OK). Does anyone have first hand knowledge of how well dining service handles special diets and food allergies? We have been told that what is written in school publications doest not always reflect the day to day experience of the severely allergic individual. We were advised to talk directly to students with food allergies to get a real idea of how accommodating a school is. Any input would be most welcome!
They seemed to handle allergies well when I was there from 2019 to 2020! I transferred out because they didn’t have my new major, but my friend who had the same allergies said that the staff took it seriously, and she could always go to the KIVO station (the Kosher Dining option at F&M) to request hand-made meals that were tailored to fit her allergies. She was comfortable with this because she could watch the dining workers prep her food. There isn’t a lot of variety in the food at F&M, but most of it was safe. A lot of kids go to Asian Fusion, Steel Peel pizza, or CVS to get snacks/lunch throughout the day, and I’d recommend having snacks in the room because the dining is open at odd hours and it’s easy to miss it.
Check the college dining website for the dietitian contact information. The dietitian is usually the best resource for this type of question. F&M dining is also run by Sodexo, so you may have to look for their dining website with Sodexo in the name.