Living a gluten free lifestyle is far from easy. It’s even harder for children who depend on others to make their meals. I have two gluten free children and have been managing their gluten free diets for about 6 years now. When they were first diagnosed with Celiac Disease I thought they would never be able to eat a meal prepared by someone other than me again! After some time and experience, I learned that with a bit of education and a lot of patience, I could teach ANYONE how to cook for my children – even the cooks in the school cafeteria!
Public schools are required to provide your child with a meal they can eat at school, no matter what their restrictions are. Beyond this requirement, all of the cooks I have worked with are more than happy to accommodate my child’s needs because they WANT to. People that cook generally like to please people with their food, so they are typically willing to listen to the needs and desires of those eating it and do whatever they can to meet them.
The first thing you need to do is contact the person in your child’s school who is in charge of the kitchen. Inform them of your child’s gluten free diet and ask if they are familiar with what gluten is and if they have any experience with gluten free cooking. For the sake of this article, let’s say this person does not know anything about gluten or gluten free cooking.
Next let them know you understand, that is wasn’t that long ago that you didn’t know anything about gluten either, and that you will be happy to share what you have learned with them. Give them a very basic explanation of what gluten is and the types of food that it is in. Then offer to provide them with a more detailed explanation and list of gluten free foods for them to review and keep on file and get it to them as soon as possible.
Ask if you are able to get a menu in advance so you can work with them ahead of time to create meals on their menu in a gluten free manner. Our school gives us a months worth of menus at a time. Start by choosing one new meal a week (so as not to overwhelm them) to convert to gluten free. Share with the cook an idea or two of how they might easily make it gluten free (i.e. If it were a hamburger – leave the bun off. If it were a chicken patty, offer a plain un-breaded chicken patty instead, if it’s a sandwich tell them what gluten free bread you use and where to get it, etc.) Continue to add one new meal a week until they have cycled through all of the meals they offer and you have found a solution for making each one gluten free. By now, your child should be order most of the meals your kitchen makes on a regular basis and they will know how to make each of them gluten free. My children eat hot lunch 99% of the time. About the only meal that they skip is fish sticks – because they just don’t like fish, breaded or not!
If you take this approach, the kitchen staff will not be overwhelmed, they can learn about different methods and products at a relatively slow pace and they will be happy to accommodate your child’s needs because you have been respectful of their very busy schedule and have been patient with their learning curve. I have used this method three times now: Once when my daughters were first diagnosed, again when we moved to a new town and a third time when my oldest started high school. All three times this method worked like a charm and they were successfully enjoying gluten free hot lunches at school within a few months time. The cooks I have worked with have even gone so far as to tell me they have enjoyed learning about gluten free cooking and have thanked me for teaching them!
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