Does anyone have a child with food allergies? How does the cafeteria handle it?

Anon,
As healthy11 mentioned, we have a group on food allergies. Pls. click on the following link that discusses some issues at the lunch room

community.greatschools.net/groups/24265/discussion/226260

In the school district that I work in (one or two teachers, depending on how many children have food allergies that year per grade level) have all of the allergic children in their class mixed in with other children of course. One year I had eight children who had mild to severe food allergies. Six of the children had epi pens. Here's how we handled it in my first grade classroom: Our classroom was peanut free, which meant that when the children had snack time in our room they had a seperate snack bag with nut free foods. In the lunchroom however, the peanut free children sat at a designated peanut free table. The lunch aides always cleaned their table and checked all food items and lables prior to them eating. If a friend who did not have a food allergy wanted to sit with a peanut allergic child's table the lunch aide would make sure that it was safe. Another note* because there are three different lunch periods in our school, the designated peanut free table was the same for all three lunch periods to make sure that the table does not get contaminated. I hope this answer helps you.

Greatschools has a separate group for parents of kids with food allergies, that I invite you to join: http:community.greatschools.net/groups/24265

my daughter attends Cedar Grove Elementary and has multiple food allergies: soy, peanut, walnut, almond, etc. The school / cafeteria staff has checked the kitchen and said that most of the products in the kitchen have vegetable oil (which may or may not contain soybean oil). Therefore it would be in the best interest of my child to have her meals brought from home. The cafeteria staff has been wonderful about taking the time to heat her food. Thus, we don't have to have her eat a cold sandwich every day.