In Oakville, there are many cultures, religions, opinions and also dietary restrictions that impact students’ food preferences, which can make it a challenge when eating lunch at school.
Food Allergy Research & Education reports 1 in 13 children have a food allergy. The risk of anaphylactic food reactions increased 377 percent from 2007 to 2016. School lunch options on Feb. 25 consisted of: taco pizza, hamburgers, pepperoni and sausage pizza, soft tacos, beef fritos wrap, sweet and sour chicken, chili dogs and salad. There are plenty of options for people without restrictions, but there are almost none for people with certain restrictions.
“I rarely am able to eat a full lunch at school,” Natalia Lucca (10) said. “My lunch usually consists of a bag of chips and a cheese stick, and when they have soft tacos, I’ll end up eating the taco meat without the tortillas, but it’s really hard to find options at school to eat.”
Many students with dietary restrictions struggle to find food they can eat at lunch. Lucca is one of two million people in the US who have celiac disease. According to Beyond Celiac, celiac is classified as “a serious genetic autoimmune disease that damages the small intestine’s villi and interferes with the absorption of nutrients from food.” While this illness greatly impacts her food options, other students have to be selective at mealtime due to personal reasons. Naia Banderman (12) is a vegetarian, meaning she does not eat meat.
“I wish they could make it a little more inclusive, at least have one option for us to eat, but overall, I just bring my lunch,” Banderman said, “and I definitely have forgotten to bring my lunch and didn’t see any foods. I bought a bag of chips, but that was not enough for a full school day.”
A lot of students have to bring their food to school in order to be able to eat at school. While this works most of the time, sometimes they will forget to bring their lunch.
“I did have to go to QuikTrip after [the day I forgot to bring my lunch]… because I was hungry and it just meant I had to spend money that day to get food,” Jay Bunyan (12) said.
About 68 percent of the world is lactose intolerant, but Bunyan is one of 2-6 percent of the world that is allergic to dairy. According to Bunyan, most of the lunch options and sides contain dairy products which she cannot have. While Bunyan is allergic to dairy, Audrey Seger (12) chooses not to eat dairy since she is vegan.
“They (the lunch options) limit me because the majority of things either have cheese or meat on them,” Seger said. “If they don’t, then it’s just fruit, which I can bring from home.”
The majority of people interviewed said they bring their lunch to school, but all of them said that they have forgotten to bring their lunch a couple of times.
“I think we should be responsible in the way we should know if we can’t have lunch that day, because our school posts it,” Bunyan said. “…if we can’t have the options, we should accommodate ourselves, like I do, but if it’s just a bad day [the school should provide options].”
For people with allergies, having dietary restrictions is not a choice for them. Others have beliefs that are personal to them, making them cut out certain foods in their diet.
“It (being vegan) is special to me because I chose to not eat any of the products because of the animals and cruelty,” Seger said. “That’s why I went vegan.”
These personal beliefs regarding diets can also be influenced by religions.
“As a Muslim, we believe that certain animals are prohibited from eating for different reasons,” Zaina Musleh (11) said. “For pigs, we mainly believe that they are unclean animals. Hence, their meat is not suitable for us to eat. It was also stated in our holy book, the Quran, for us to not eat pork.”
Our school has a decent Muslim population, and for many of them, they feel it is important to accommodate school lunches accordingly.
“Our lunches here are actually very accommodating and easy to distinguish what meats we can and can’t eat. For example, our school has turkey, ham and ground beef in a decent amount of foods,” Musleh said. “They also have always labeled which foods have pork by saying it with the name. Such as pork sausages versus turkey sausages in the lunch lines.”
Lunch options may be labeled well for people who cannot eat pork but for other allergies and restrictions, students feel it isn’t.
“I think it depends on the dietary restrictions. Our school does a very good job labeling when things have pork and stuff in them. For other restrictions like mine, with gluten, it’s kind of hard,” Lucca said. “I have to guess if I should eat something or not, and if it doesn’t have an ingredient label, I don’t go to it because I don’t know if it’s cross contaminated or has any breading on it. I just have to be on the side of caution.”
Labeling what foods can and can’t be eaten depending on restrictions is a way to help students understand what they are eating. Although we get our food from a company that doesn’t give diverse options, labeling is one way to make school lunches more inclusive.
“I would say that for other dietary restrictions, there could be more foods for people with celiac or allergies,” Musleh said. “However, for pork restrictions, I believe that our school does a good job at offering multiple different options, as well as labeling them for people to know, without always having to ask what meat they use.”
Even though a small percentage of students have dietary restrictions that cause them to not find many options at lunch, it can make them upset or feel unincluded and cause them to go hungry. Despite salad being an option most students can eat, it is often the only option and sometimes runs out.
“I think it’s upsetting because I know there are other people here that are vegetarian and can’t get other things [due to dietary restrictions] because there isn’t at least one thing we can have,” Seger said. “I think the school should provide at least one item for the kids [who have restrictions].”
As a school, it can be a challenge to accommodate everyone’s restrictions. Students often bring their lunch to school when they can’t eat the options offered, but sometimes it can be frustrating for students with restrictions.
“I think if people have certain food restrictions, they should bring their lunch if that’s what’s important to them,” Lucca said, “but I also feel like it’s important for the school to have options for these kids, especially for more common food restrictions like pork. I don’t always expect people to accommodate my celiac disease, but it’s always nice when I am able to eat with other kids my age.”
