Plymouth-Canton Schools Alert to Food Allergy Fears

According the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, 5 percent of children under the age of five years old have developed some type of food allergy. As kids return to classes, concerned parents will be seeking assurance that schools are prepared.

Applying the 5 percent estimate to Plymouth-Canton Community Schools' roughly 18,500 students would mean slightly more than 750 students could have food allergies -- with 83 of those being children in kindergarten or preschool.

Typical food allergens include milk, eggs and peanuts, though there are others. Some, like wheat, dairy and soy, are commonly found in many processed foods; others, like shellfish, are less frequently encountered. 

“We try very hard to make sure that everything we bring in is peanut-free,” said Kristen Hennessey, the district's director of food and nutrition services. She's responsible for ensuring that school lunches accommodate those with food allergies. “We try very hard to make sure that the kids have options.”

Options include dairy free or milk alternatives for the lactose intolerant; nut-free granola and tacos and burgers without cheese. Hennessey said that the district website includes content information – including carbohydrates, proteins, dairy and nuts – of all the food the district serves, which should help concerned parents make decisions when purchasing their kids’ school meals.

Information is also part of the district’s aim to meet the new national health standards instituted under Michelle Obama’s Let’s Move! Initiative, designed to help the nation’s schools achieve higher nutrition standards. It means offering healthier choices: fruits, vegetables, whole grains, and lean proteins and low-fat dairy products. It also means the days of fried foods in school cafeterias are gone.

But for those kids with food allergies, higher levels of vigilance by both school staff and parents is required. Hennessey suggested that that in addition to checking food labels for ingredients and additives, parents should learn where foods are processed. Many factories produce numerous kinds of food and cross-contamination is possible. Fortunately, she said, federal laws require producers to include this information on their labels.

Food labels usually have bold-type lists of such ingredients as peanuts, soy and wheat, but also should provide information about whether the item was made in a factory that could have traces of potentially dangerous additives. If a label doesn't include that detail, parents can check company websites for more information or a toll-free number for those kinds of questions.

It’s also important for parents of children with food allergies to alert teachers and other school officials, Hennessey said, so they can be proactive. Younger children often bring in snacks or treats made by their parents (a birthday cake, for example), which may or may not be harmful for a food-allergic child.

When teachers know about allergies, it's easier to keep children safe, especially in preschool and kindergarten, when snacks are often offered by individual teachers, instead of through cafeterias. For the safety of children attending first grade or higher classes who use cafeterias, she said, cashiers in the cafeterias are alerted, so they can take a close look at what is on a child's food tray. 

“It’s not foolproof,” Hennessey said of the extra level of protection, “but it’s another point at which we can get a warning that a child may have an allergy.”

As long as the schools have the information about a child's allergy, she said, every attempt is made to disseminate the information to everyone. This includes principals, teachers, administrators, and cafeteria staff, each of whom has been trained by district nurses to protect students from allergens. They are also fully prepared, she said, to respond to an emergency, incuding administering emergency first aid, typically in the form of EpiPens (epinephrine injectors) to a child who experiences the worst type of allergic reaction, anaphylactic shock.