The Oklahoma City University dining venues serve approximately 1,600 students a day, 900 of which go to the cafeteria, while Alvin’s Market and Kitchen 1904 serve about 700 combined. However, some students have come forward saying they feel their dietary needs are not being fulfilled by the venues, frequently becoming sick due to mislabeling and cross contamination of gluten-free meals, specifically, as well as vegan and vegetarian meals. This is significantly dangerous in some medical cases such as celiac disease, which, if gluten continues to be ingested, other serious complications can occur in a student’s health such as Type 1 diabetes, anemia, infertility, heart disease, intestinal cancer and many more.
“It’s not fun having to avoid gluten,” Emma Vance, a junior business administration major who lives with a gluten sensitivity, said. “It makes it difficult anytime I’m not cooking at home because I have to watch out for a lot of things. Gluten can be in anything, [therefore], I always have to be aware of what is in my food [down to] every little ingredient.”
Vance has not always struggled with this disease, stating she developed it her senior year of high school.
“Gluten started making me sick,” Vance said, “but I wasn’t sure it was gluten yet. I got tested for celiac, and that came back negative. When I get gluten, I have bone aches or I will get [extremely] sleepy, or sometimes I throw up. It just depends.”
Like many other freshmen, Vance began her first semester eating at the cafeteria daily, which caused her to become sick quite often.
“I was eating the [then labeled as] gluten free or gluten sensitive, now [marked] as avoiding gluten,” Vance said. “I reached out to disability services early on, and [the] first step they wanted me to take was talking to the cafeteria about their food.”
Vance met with the executive chef and toured the facilities of the cafeteria, showing the areas they endeavored to keep gluten free.
“But it wasn’t an area that they could consider fully gluten free,” Vance stated. “Whether or not they set aside a small area, there are still ways that gluten can get there [and] ways that cross contamination can happen.”
Vance states that many of the utensils and containers used for gluten-free meals incorporated the color purple, such as purple knives and bowls. This is a practice that has not been maintained over the past couple of years.
“There were still different times that it would be cross contaminated, but I think it was almost a little bit better freshman year because they had their separate gluten-free bowls and knives,” Vance said. “I think that kept it safer for people who can’t eat gluten or who are avoiding gluten.”
Despite her troubles in the cafeteria, Vance found many safe options to eat in Alvin’s Market, stating that is where she goes most now.
“[Alvin’s] has specifically marked, individually wrapped foods that I can have,” Vance said. “In the freezer section, there’s some gluten-free mac and cheese that I can get. Sometimes they even have the gluten-free Oreos. They have a lot of options, and I’ve also seen the vegan options they have sometimes.”
Unlike Alvin’s, Kitchen 1904’s description on the OCU website states, “Items can be made to meet many dietary and nutritional needs,” which for Vance has not proven true.
“[Kitchen 1904] did make me feel bad,” Vance said. “At least when I asked, they [didn’t] have gluten-free bread. They’ll have Chicken Alfredo sometimes, but they won’t always have the gluten-free pasta, so it’s really a hit or miss with them.”
Vance struggled with the constant sickness and lack of options for her for months. It began affecting her attendance and ability to remain a student athlete on the school volleyball team.
“I talked to disability services, and because I don’t have celiac, I wasn’t listened to,” Vance said. “I had asked to be moved into somewhere with a kitchen, but they said that it’s difficult to know what degree [I was] impacted by each of these conditions and why [my] requested accommodations aren’t necessary. They said [my medical conditions] look well controlled.”
Despite turning in all medical forms and documents Vance had, disability services would not accept her request, causing her father to get involved in convincing them of her inability to healthily continue eating at the cafeteria.
“This went on for months,” Vance stated. “My dad specifically asked to have a meeting with the head of housing and a dietician that he said, ‘I assume you would have on staff if you feel like you’re able to make these decisions for my daughter.’ And they didn’t have a dietician at all.”
Housing then accepted Vance’s request to live in Cokesbury on the final day of fall semester, allowing her to select a meal plan and cook meals that were more suited to her dietary needs. Although, there are more students on campus struggling in similar situations as Vance’s.
“Most of the time that I see the vegan and avoiding gluten food, they don’t get touched very much,” Vance said. “I don’t think it’s because of the lack of people who are vegan or gluten free. I think it’s because of the type of food.”
In a statement from the General Manager of Chartwells Michael Miller, he states that less than five students have self-identified with Chartwells, the nutritional provider for the dining venues, about their dietary needs.
“We work with those students each day to provide safe meals based on those dietary needs,” Miller said.
In a casual, unofficial survey, asking if students need gluten-free options, 84 tallies voted yes.
“I feel like [the cafeteria] needs to have more options that people would enjoy,” Vance stated, “because sometimes usually vegan and gluten-free food [is] corn and a veggie plate.”
Furthermore, OCU requires all students under the age of 21 to live on campus, which requires a meal plan, meaning Walker, Banning, and Methodist residents pay between $2,426 to $2,750 per semester. Based on the price tags of the required meal plans, students pay on average approximately $8 per meal, with one plan costing nearly $11 per meal. For students who can hardly eat the meals the cafeteria provides, this proves to be an ineffective use of funds for financially struggling college students.
“I am doing this not to [say] the cafeteria [and] disability services are bad,” Vance said. “I’m just saying there were some problems that I went through, but they tried to accommodate me within their means. I think that they need to work with the actual company to have more accommodations available because although [the staff] tries, there’s only so much that you can do without changing what foods are available.”
Positive changes have occurred within the cafeteria recently, including the addition of a separate, gluten free fryer at the grill, yet little to no communication has occurred about these changes.
“A manager is always on duty and happy to discuss dietary and allergy information with the students,” Miller said. “We encourage our staff to let the students know to ask questions and we will get them answers directly.”
The Dine On Campus app is also open to students to view menus, nutrition facts, allergy information and ingredients within items in all three dining venues. Likewise, the digital screens above food stations in the cafeteria provide similar information, yet often this digital assistance is not consistently updated; for example, the Dine on Campus app currently lacks menus for all three venues.
“[At this time], we have received no reports of students becoming sick due to mislabeling or cross contamination,” Miller stated. “We prefer to have direct communication with the student so we can find solutions that will best suit them individually. The best option is to ask to speak to a manager on duty. Other options include Text to Solve, social media, Happy or Not kiosk at the entrance of the Dining Hall or you can leave us feedback on our Dine on Campus website [or] app.”
Communication is crucial for students to report these discrepancies to Chartwells. Miller stated that a survey will be taken in mid-October to inform them more of the dietary needs of the student population.
“We will also be inviting a Chartwells dietician to meet with students and help advise them,” Miller said. “We will work with the student to make sure they know what we already have available to create a plan for safe healthy options.”
Oklahoma City University’s mission statement says, “We provide a diverse, inclusive, culture committed to producing graduates who think critically and innovatively, communicate effectively and use their talents to make a local and global impact.” But how can this be done when students feel unheard and unseen, especially when dietary needs stretch beyond diseases and allergies into religious practices, ideological beliefs, personal preference and more?
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