High school students already have a lot of things to worry about: grades, friends, family, sports, interests and mental well-being, to name a few. Students with eating restrictions get to add one more thing to the list since vegetarians, vegans and students with food allergies always have to exercise caution with exactly what they put into their bodies.
“I’m allergic to peanuts, most raw fruits and vegetables, a preservative and a pesticide, so I can’t eat frozen dinners or canned foods,” Senior Corinne Jordan Chin said.
This can make maneuvering safe foods a daily issue in the cafeteria as few items are clearly labeled with potential allergy hazards.
“Last year I bought a salad that you make on your own and I was allergic to the dressing, but I didn’t know,” Chin said. “I ended up going to the nurse and going home. So in that sense I kind of always have to be careful, a lot more careful than other people.”
Senior Tahira Saalik is also allergic to nuts, most raw fruits, vegetables and seafood. She said that as she has gotten older, she has improved in knowing what foods and what sections of the cafeteria she should avoid.
“I know now what I can and cannot eat,” Saalik said. “I usually have a bagel or a scone or something like that, and I tend to assume it’s fine.”
The school does, however, have a system in place which many students may be unaware of.
“At the beginning of the yea, the school department gives us a list of the students names who have allergies, and we actually put it on their account, so if they’re purchasing something we can say, ‘Oh you can’t have that,’ or at least let them know to help them be aware,” BHS Cafeteria Acting Assistant Director and former chef Teresa Vidette said.
In other cases, students choose what foods not to eat. Junior Sean McDonough used to be a vegetarian. He said that he chose not to eat meat because he felt morally wrong when he did, particularly with the treatment of animals in the meat processing industry. McDonough faced challenges regarding what to eat during lunch as well.
“The majority of the cafeteria does have meat-containing products,” McDonough said. “However there is one section over in the far back-left that has counters with a limited number of vegetarian wraps, but if they were sold out, I would get stuck just eating chips or something like that.”
McDonough, whose role in one of the States plays required him to work out more frequently, explained that the vegetarian options offered, such as the oriental salad, were tasty but not quite enough to get him through the day without fatigue. However, Vidette explained that the Cafeteria does its best to make nutritious options available for all students, especially since she understands what it is like to have eating restrictions herself.
“I’m lactose intolerant, I can’t eat wheat and I have a hard time digesting chicken,” Vidette said. “We have a ‘make it meatless’ option every week on the hotline, vegetarian sandwiches. We always have something on the salad bar, and also we carry gluten free pizza, bread and rolls… So if people want a certain thing we can actually accommodate them if they come to us. I personally think it’s a great system in place, but we also check up on it as much as we can.”
As the cafeteria continues to try and adapt to students’ needs, it must also fulfill the nation’s nutritional lunch requirements. Vidette said that they make sure every sandwich has a protein: either meat, dairy or legumes. Furthermore, as allergies are becoming a growing issue, the cafeteria does its best to keep up with the times by attending seminars and conferences. The ‘three sides with every meal’ option also enables a balanced diet, and signs warning of allergies are popping up more frequently in the cafeteria as more students with allergies and other eating restrictions come to the high school.
Hannah Lowenstein can be contacted at [email protected].
