and start accommodating students as soon as you find out there is a potential food allergy or intolerance. It is a common misconception that a Special Diet Form must be completed in order to start accommodating a student. Although you must provide a Special Diet Form to families and encourage them to complete it, they don’t have to do this in order for you to start serving the student safe foods. (Friendly reminder to document your attempts to have the family complete the Special Diet Form.) As someone who has worked with Special Diets for over 4 years now, I understand that managing Special Diets can be challenging. Especially when school meal programs continue to face long lasting effects from a global pandemic, supply chain issues, staffing shortages, and staff turnover. In addition to Special Diets being a (safe) inclusive and equitable practice, I see there being other perks to Special Diets. (Yes, I said perks.) Here are my top three: Menu inspiration! Families often do not have access to a Registered Dietitian to help them make sense of a new food allergy or food intolerance. The menus created by your department may provide some inspiration and guidance to these families at a time when they need it the most. Saving families money! Special foods are often expensive and eating these foods may be a rare treat for some students. On top of the cost of these foods, these foods may only be available at specialty
for the Students we Serve. Prioritizing Safety, Inclusion, and Equity
stores that some families may not have access to. By serving these foods at school you are not only offering a safe and healthy meal, but are also saving families money in the process! Saving families time! Families may have to visit multiple stores to get special foods and may attempt to stock up to save some time in the future. However, in order to do this, families must have access to reliable transportation, money to shop in bulk, time to go to multiple stores, and access to the foods in the first place. If a caregiver works multiple jobs, then time is just something they don’t have. Which means it is less likely that that student will get to experience these special foods. When we offer these special foods at school, it is a win for the students and their families. There are more perks that could be and should be added to this list. I encourage you to get together with your nutrition team and brainstorm more. What perks would you add that would help re-frame how we view Special Diets in schools?
allergies in school cafeterias than a lot of us are aware of. Matter of fact, the families and students themselves may be unaware that a food allergy exists. Of the severe reactions experienced at school, 20-25% of them involve children who haven’t been diagnosed with a food allergy. Now there may be a few reasons for that. One of the more obvious reasons is that students may be trying new foods in the cafeteria that they don’t typically eat. (Whether they are coming through the lunch line or their friend is sharing food that they brought from home.) Families may also be facing barriers that limit their access to specialty care which would affect whether or not they were able to get a diagnosis for their child in the first place. Barriers such as a lack of health insurance, caregivers receiving unlivable wages, and/or holding a BIPOC identity. According to FARE, “rates of official diagnosis of a food allergy is 87% lower among the Medicaid population vs. the general population.” On top of that, “Black and Latino/Latinx/Latine people are twice as likely to be covered by Medicaid”. What does this mean to us as School Nutrition Professionals? It means that accommodating Special Diets is an issue of inclusion and equity. It reinforces the critical role we play in students’ access to safe foods and safe care in our cafeterias.This also means that it is a (safe) equitable best practice to believe families when they tell us their child needs to avoid certain food(s). AKA: Prioritize student safety
School Nutrition Coordinator, LunchAssist Angela Gomez, RDN, SNS
Imagine this: you want to go out for a nice dinner where you don’t have to worry about planning what you’re going to eat, prepping the food, or cleaning the dishes. (This scenario is not hard for me to imagine because this is basically me every night.) This relaxing and enjoyable experience instead turns into an anxiety-ridden night of self-advocacy and the strong hope that the restaurant has had cross- contact training. This is what it feels like for many people who live with food allergies and food intolerances. How would I know? I am one of those people who has to avoid certain foods, due to medical reasons, and I also really enjoy eating at restaurants. Luckily for me, I don’t have to worry about going into anaphylaxis if cross-contact occurs. However, that is not that case for 32 million people in the U.S. living with potentially life-threatening food allergies. Since we work with students, I think it’s important to note that of those 32 million people, 5.6 million are children. If we zoom in even more, that is 1 in 13 children living with a food allergy. Which is about 2 students in every classroom.
Angela is a second-career Registered Dietitian and recently transitioned out of her role as a Nutritionist at an Arizona school district to the School Lunch Coordinator position with LunchAssist. She started her career as a Dietitian over 4 years ago after unexpectedly falling in love with School Nutrition during her dietetic internship. Angela sees School Nutrition as the ideal place to bridge her passion for tasty food, nutrition education, health equity, and food justice. She loves any opportunity to be creative and feels that the world of School Nutrition continues to be a great place to flex those creative muscles. Angela Gomez, RDN, SNS LunchAssist; School Nutrition Coordinator
This means there are more students with food
Powered by FlippingBook