Opinion: Pure + Simple, Baldwin’s New Allergen-Free Section Fails to Feed Me

Editor’s Note – 10:25 p.m. Sunday, Sept. 7:

Albion College Metz Dining General Manager Jeff Davis said in an interview after publication that gluten-free food items and those containing gluten are fried in separate fryers with separate oil. Additionally, as of Sept. 3, the Grille no longer gives buns and other bread items at the station, and now provides these foods at a separate shelf next to the desserts station.

As a student, my ability to eat and enjoy meals at Baldwin has been pushed aside for the sake of convenience.

If you haven’t seen, the once gluten-free area of Baldwin has become a full allergen-free zone – and I am mad. The new “Pure and Simple” section of Baldwin has multiple problems, both in practice and branding.

Accommodation or Limitation?

Given that I have Celiac disease, I can’t eat gluten without having a serious allergic reaction. Therefore, when choosing a college to attend, having easy access to a gluten-free dining section was of the utmost importance. Albion College and Metz dining made a promise during my campus tour that I’d be accommodated.

Imagine my surprise coming back my second year to see that the gluten-free section has been switched to a “Pure and Simple” allergen-free station.

The Pleiad reached out to Albion College Metz Catering Manager Pedro Hopkins II via email on Thursday. He did not respond in time for publication.

I have not consciously eaten gluten since I was about 10 years old, as it can lead to diseases like stomach cancer because of my Celiac disease. With my chronic illness, my immune system attacks gluten because these grains are seen as invaders like any other germ. For me, it leads to stomach and intestine damage, as my body essentially attacks itself. It feels like someone is continuously punching me in the gut at minimum, and in my worst moments, like I’m about to pass out.

However, I can still eat eggs, milk and tree nuts – much like someone with an egg allergy could still eat gluten even if they can’t eat eggs. I am now forced to cut out so much more food at Baldwin, leaving me hungry and searching for other things to eat.

A close friend of mine who also has a gluten allergy disclosed to me that she doesn’t eat in Baldwin anymore. Partially, she said, because there is no variety, but also out of worry that this new allergen-free section won’t be as strict with cross contamination or labeling foods properly. We went out to lunch on Saturday, and it was the first time she’d eaten anything other than Qdoba in the last week.

Diet Culture Implications

I never thought I would see a lack of understanding towards allergies in an institute of learning, let alone a college that prides themselves on doing better. “Pure and Simple” doesn’t mean that other food is not “pure,” despite what this word choice implies. When I hear the word pure in relation to food, I think good, simple and healthy. This is where alarm bells start screaming in my head and diet culture comes to mind.

Diet culture originated in Ancient Greece with the ideas of the right way to eat. According to the Emily Program,  a program based on helping people recovery from eating disorders, “The basis of (diet culture) implied that eating anything other than the ‘correct’ diet made people ‘less than fully human.’”

An obsession with eating “pure” foods can develop into an eating disorder called orthorexia. According to the National Institute of Health and National Library of Medicine, 8-17% of college students have suffered from an eating disorder.

I point this out because this word choice can cause serious issues for students, whether they have a past of eating disorders or not. The name promotes the idea that if you aren’t eating this completely allergen-free diet and following the arbitrary standards inherent in the name, you are not healthy.

Religious Diets and a Failure to be Allergen-Free

Another major problem I see with this complete allergen-free section is that it overlooks  religious diets such as Kosher and Halal diets for Jewish and Muslim students.

Looking over the menu, I see a pattern of what has been served: A green vegetable, a roasted potato or second vegetable and pork or chicken. If you are Jewish or Muslim, you cannot have allergen safe protein 50% of the time. Pork is not Kosher or Halal, point-blank.

Since it’s an allergen-free section, these are likely the only proteins we are expected to see. However, on occasion, beef is also served. If it’s an allergen-free zone, serving red meat like beef or pork defeats the point, as red meat allergies do exist.

Are my fellow students supposed to risk their allergies to get a full meal on days pork or beef is served? Should Jewish and Muslim students with allergies just not eat dinner on those nights?

The Issue is Accessibility

I also have issues with pork, mostly because I hate the texture. Because I hate the texture of fully cooked vegetables because I am not neurotypical and manage sensory issues, I have two choices. I could either choose to risk my health mostly by eating at the Grille, or not eat until I get to my dorm. By choosing the first option, I gamble with the risk of cross contamination due to fryers and the workers’ gloves, as they don’t change them after handling buns or chicken tenders.

I usually get a burger without a bun and fries if I’m willing to have a 50% chance of lying in bed unable to do anything. Even in a perfect world where I hold up the line to ask the workers to change their gloves, there is no way they can bleach the entire area for my safety. The tongs, fryer and oil can cross-contaminate my food, but there is nothing else I want to eat provided in the allergen-free section. With cross contamination, I still risk all of my regular symptoms like cramping or being too sick to get up.

Food allergies and limitations intersect with all kinds of different people and lifestyles, including different religions, mental states and disabilities. I’m confused as to why and how Metz is forgetting all of these intersections within our student body.  Feeding people who come from all different backgrounds shouldn’t be in one simple menu.

Combining all of Baldwin’s accessibility services into one allergen-free section has been a massive failure. It fails those of us with allergies and chronic illnesses.

I have been risking my stomach and health either at different places around campus or restaurants I don’t have the money for. I cannot keep shoving junk food down my throat, as I do not have the resources to make my own food. How am I supposed to eat without feeling disgusted, not eating “pure and simple” or eating the same few things I cannot stomach because it feels weird? If food felt like soggy rubber, you wouldn’t eat it either.

Why can’t students with allergies eat a diversity of meals like the rest of the student body?