The Peace of Mind Zone

College Advocacy at Vassar
Northeast Region Higher Education

Leaving home, coming to college and then negotiating the dining hall is a challenge for many students.  If you happen to be a student with a severe allergy, it can be not only a challenge, but a real danger.  And it’s a challenge for dining services to offer an interesting and varied menu, but also protect those students who can’t come into contact with even the smallest amounts of the foods to which they are allergic.

More and more students are arriving on campus with allergies to foods like nuts, dairy, peanuts, and gluten, to name just a few things common in any dining hall.  The student allergic to nuts can go to the pasta bar and enjoy the penne with marinara sauce, but can she be sure that ladle wasn’t used in the pesto, loaded with pine nuts, nearby?  The cream cheese looks okay, but it’s awfully close to the peanut butter.  The stir-fry station looks enticing, but does the soy sauce contain wheat?

Along with the rigorous academics and the plethora of extracurricular activities, simply eating becomes a new and frightening experience.  That’s why Diane Dalton, FPM at Vassar College, created the “Peace of Mind Zone”, an area in the dining hall where students with severe allergies can be assured that the food is safe for them to eat.

Diane was ordering gluten-free, nut-free, peanut-free, and dairy-free foods, but they were scattered throughout the server and were over-looked by the students who desperately needed them.  She decided to gather these things up and put them in one area dedicated to offering allergen free foods.  The eight foot butcher block table was already in place and the sneeze guard and small countertop cooler were in storage.  A couple of points of purchase signs were made and the new station was opened.

The response was immediate.  Students with allergies, some who didn’t even appear to use the station, were genuinely appreciative of the efforts Campus Dining exhibited responding to the needs of this small part of the college community.  For virtually no cost Diane was able to show the department’s support for these students.  As the sign at the station says: Peace of Mind.