Coping with food allergies

 Allergies, severe or mild, can be a hassle in an individual's life, especially that of a college student. Accommodations, especially in a school environment, can be hard to achieve.

Norwich University has made adjustments for students with allergies so they can live at Norwich worry free. Adjustments range from a sign in the dorms stating no strawberries are to be brought into the building or altering the menu in the cafeteria so students can eat without having an issue.

"I feel bad that students can't have strawberries in the building," said Courtney Durett, 20, a junior business management major from Fairfax, Vt. "[But] I'd lose my financial aid if I lived off campus."

Durett does not like that her allergy may be an inconvenience to other students in her building but her severe allergy to strawberries is not something she can control. The school has helped by posting signs in Durett's dorm making it a strawberry-free building.

The Dining Hall also helps to make sure that she does not go into shock when she eats her meals. 

"They send me a weekly menu," Durett said. "I try not to go when [the cook] tells me [not to]."

By sending Durett a menu of what is being served in the Dining Hall that week, she can plan her meals accordingly so she never comes into contact with strawberries. "I'll either eat in my room or I'll go to the Mill or something [if strawberries are being served]," Durett said.

There are students with food allergies on campus that are not as severe as Durett's; they can go to the Mess Hall without any problem. "[I can go to the Dining Hall] as long as I'm not too close to [cherries] and I can't smell them," said Jessica Henderson, 20, a senior electrical engineering major. "If we go to a special event and they serve a fruit cocktail, I'll ask for one that doesn't have cherries."

 Most students who have fruit allergies are fine going to the mess hall as long as they don't touch the restricted food. "I can go into the mess hall, I can be around [strawberries] as long as I don't touch them," said Emily Button, 19, a psychology major from Highgate, Vt. "It's really frustrating [though] when on a peanut butter sandwich I can't even get the peanut butter because someone stuck the jelly into the [it]."

Unlike Durett, Henderson and Button there are students on campus who have food allergies that require special food products. "The school does buy a lot. They have to provide for me so I do eat at the mess hall," said Cory Cunningham, 21, senior computer security information insurance major from Georgetown, Ma.

Cunningham has Celiac Disease. "I have to eat gluten-free food which is expensive," Cunningham said. Dining services helps students with Celiac Disease by preparing meals that they can eat. "[The Dining Hall] alters the food so it's gluten-free. Sometimes I can request food; like today they made me pizza."

"Right now, that's my biggest concern; the Celiacs," said Lari Carlson, a cook in the Wise Campus Center dining hall. "We go to the Hunger Mountain Co-op and get gluten-free foods. I get cereals, waffles, cookie mixes, bread mixes and pizza dough mixes."

 Carlson said she does research of food allergies so she can prepare meals for all students. When she first heard of Celiac Disease she did not know much about it. She then did research online and found some recipes for meals.

 Students with allergies know to ask what is in the food before they consume it. "We let them know when they come through the line whether or not they can have the meal that is out there," Carlson said.