Dear Editor,
I think that FCPS should serve gluten free and Celiac-friendly meals for students.
On the FCPS website, on the tab for dietary accommodations, nowhere does it even mention anything about gluten free meals. Only peanuts, meat, and other common allergens. While celiac disease is rarer than allergies, people still have it. Gluten allergies can be just as serious and common as nut allergies, yet FCPS does nothing to help. On field trip forms, the three options we were given were all sandwiches or wraps. Those all contain gluten. If a student’s parents or guardians cannot make food that day, what can the kid eat? Nothing.
Cross contamination is another big problem. Fruits and vegetables would also be a big no for students with celiac disease. Those fruits and veggies could have touched hands which have touched gluten. The containers could have not been washed properly. The utensils used to pass out food could have been contaminated. It is not safe for a student to eat. While some allergies and conditions are not life threatening, some are, and it is absolutely not okay to leave out some kids. Some allergies are extremely rare, and it would be difficult to accommodate them, but gluten is a pretty common allergy, and to leave it out is outrageous when FCPS can accommodate veganism, and that’s pretty difficult.
One thing FCPS could do is to thoroughly clean their cooking surfaces and utensils before the end of the day. Then, in the morning, the gluten free food could be made first so the risk of cross contamination is lower. According to the official celiac disease foundation, if a child with celiac disease or other gluten allergies is in a public school, which FCPS is, then it is a learning barrier, and the school must remove that barrier by accommodating that child’s needs. On online forums some people said that these “small intolerances” were taking away from kids with life threatening nut allergies. This should not be happening, and FCPS should be treating everyone equally, except gluten free students arn’t really being treated equally. Students should not have to fill out a special form to “request” to get food that they can eat.
According to the official celiac disease foundation, some common areas of cross contamination are:
- Sandwich bread via shared knives
- Cutting boards
- Condiments
- Toast via shared toasters and knives
- Pizza crust via shared cooking surface
- Sauce and toppings
- Tortilla chips or french fries cooked in a shared deep fryer
- Gluten-free pasta cooked in shared water
Now, being gluten free is expensive. Food is more than double the price of normal food, and there would need to be a separate or extremely well cleaned kitchen. One solution to this could be that students could have a fundraiser or ask parents to donate because it is for a good cause. You could expect teens to know how to read food labels and know what they can and cannot eat, so they should just be given the proper food and it would be okay.
Students with all kinds of allergies and intolerances should be treated the same as students without them. If there can be nut free options without cross contamination, so can gluten free options.
Thanks,
Rahini Manghnani, 12, of Herndon
