In 2020, I went on my first campus tour, and one question I made sure to ask was "are your dining halls Celiac friendly? Are there gluten-free options?" Naturally, I chose to believe their answers, and headed to school the following August with high hopes for the $3,500 meal plan I'd pre-paid for.
Before moving downstate, I was secluded in an area that was lacking eating choices for those affected with Celiac. The closest to normalcy I'd had, prior to college, was a 100% GF bakery an hour from home that I'd make every excuse to drive to. (If you're ever in Northern New York, I highly recommend Three Bears Bakery in Potsdam NY).
Over the past two years, I have surely been humbled by college eateries, and it never seems to get easier no matter how many promises they make, from personal experience.
After many meetings with dining staff regarding need-based concerns, the best I could get was "we have a salad bar" and "there is an allergen-friendly fridge" (which typically had ice cream and one loaf of bread, on good days). "Supply shortages," they'd say, "lack of demand," they'd say, as if medical accommodation is hard to come by.
Obviously this is on a case-by-case basis, and not everyone will have the same experiences as me, but I fear it is more common than we'd like to admit.
According to the National Foundation for Celiac Awareness, "61 percent of gluten-free college students believe that their Dining Services Director or staff does not have sufficient knowledge about the gluten-free diet. In addition, 60 percent of gluten-free students report being ‘glutened’ or becoming sick from eating at a dining hall or foodservice establishment on campus."
If you're Celiac and living on a college campus, you may expect your meals for a full semester to look like this:
After three long semesters of scrounging for grocery money, trying to salvage off a microwave in a shoebox dorm, and complaining constantly about lack of option after proving medical needs: I quit. Leaving on-campus living and turning a useless meal plan into weekly stops at the local supermarket was an A+ decision on my end.
Looking back on the wasted swipes for a water and Cheerios after finding out there was no bread left due to lack of demand, and the only entree served that day being fried chicken, it was clearly a beneficial option to stop investing in their services all-together.
Towards the end of my sophomore year, I wrote a 'letter' for a class assignment, and I chose to hypothetically discuss my issues with eating in college settings. My professor emailed and said "I really hope this didn't actually happen, and if it did, I am terribly sorry." Yeah, me too.
I can't really place blame entirely on their staff, because things are clearly out of their control. What I don't understand is the willingness to look at someone and suggest they can eat lettuce three meals a day, for 16 weeks.
Advocating for change within upper-level institutions is a necessity for creating safe eating habits for those who are Celiac, or have allergies, period.
From personal experience, mandatory expenses tied to an eating habitat that doesn't accommodate needs feels unethical, especially when there are suggestions of cereal, salad and rice for their "allergen-friendly" meal plan. All around, the lack of options is concerning and should be something that is modified for accessible environments.
Following my transfer of schools and being told dining was accommodative, I noticed a slight upgrade: labelled "avoiding gluten" signs! YES! (Although this still pertained to rice and plain grilled chicken, it was an improvement). After one week I opted to remove a meal plan entirely, and I'd like to justify the decision by my worry of having another round of bad experiences (flare-ups, misinformation, 'supply issues,' etc).
My advice: if you can, drop the meal plan entirely and take your restrictions into your own hands. Navigating Celiac is hard, but transitioning to dining hall eating is even harder. If I could go back and save myself the struggles of begging my parents to let me Instacart groceries and living off of red bell peppers — I would. There's so much more to gluten-free living aside from the 'basic' items offered in these buffets, it's all about going and finding these options.
I went from starving and using 3 meal swipes a week due to having no accommodated options to taking matters into my own hands and eating pickles in the subway, you decide which I enjoy more.
Speaking truth to power