Accommodating for Dietary Restrictions on Your Campus

1. Accommodating for
Dietary Restrictions
On Your Campus
Benjamin Brody, Yasmine Noori, Anissa Hunter David Hintze,
Ekatrina Wick, Emily Harding, Victoria Hooker, Ciarra Cason,

2. The Facts
Did you know...
According to Food Allergy Research and Education,
approximately 15 million people in the United States have
food allergies and roughly 4% of people age 18 or older have
food allergies. That means, on UWM’s Campus there are over
1,000 students at any given time that have food allergies.
The Centers for Disease Control & Prevention report that
between 1997-1999 and 2009-2011, food allergy prevalence
among children increased by 50 percent.

3. What is a food allergy?
A food allergy is a medical condition in which exposure to a food triggers a
harmful immune response. The immune response, called an allergic reaction,
occurs because the immune system attacks proteins in the food that are
normally harmless. In order to avoid a serious reaction, It’s extremely
important for anyone who has a food allergy to strictly avoid touching or
consuming any product they are allergic to.

4. Most Common Food Allergies
- Eggs
- Fish
- Milk
- Nuts from trees
- Peanuts
- Shellfish
- Soya
- Wheat

5. Fear of Allergic Reactions
Every 3 minutes a food allergy
reaction sends someone to the
emergency room.
Anaphylaxis is a life threatening
reaction that impairs breathing
and sends the body into shock.
Student won’t risk eating food that
may cause a reaction, forcing them
to only have a limited amount of
options on campus.

6. Problem: There are not enough food
options on UWM’s campus for students
with dietary restrictions

7. Causes
1. High cost for the school to have
specific food options for people
with allergies
2. Agreement with fast food chains
on campus (such as Burger King
and Taco Bell)
3. Lack of awareness of the issue
from student and staff without
dietary restrictions
4. Lack of support for the issue

8. Effects
- People with Dietary needs
cannot eat on campus
- Medical Issues/Allergic
reactions can occur if there is
cross contamination
- Forced to leave campus to get
allergy free food
- Forced to bring their own lunch

9. Why should the
student body
care about the
diet restrictions?
Your friends might be directly
impacted.
Your professors or TA’s might be
directly impacted.
Your peers could get sick

10. Is there a Cure?
Unfortunately there is no
cure for food allergies. So
it’s very important that
UWM provides a
sufficient amount of
options for students with
allergies to eat

11. Criteria for Solution
1. Cost - The solution has to be financially viable. Can the
school afford to make a change? Are students with dietary needs
willing to pay more in order to have options on campus?
2. Prove there is a need - we need to prove to the students
and faculty that there is a need to have options on campus for
students with food allergies in order to stem a change to occur

12. The Solution?
Provide more allergy free
food options on campus!

13. Solution
Methods
Use media outlets such as the
student newspaper, facebook or
twitter to educate the student
body.
Once support has grown, use tools
like a petition to demonstrate
concern to the decision makers
on campus.
Have an open dialogue with
decision makers and student
government on what is needed
to provide more options.

14. Solution Methods Cont.
● Voice concern to faculty/restaurant vendors
○ The main one being Reinhart Foodservice LLC
● Educate yourself
○ UWM’s website offers nutritional facts for almost
every menu item in the Union
http://netnutrition.sa.uwm.edu/NetNutrition/1
○ Some restaurants star the menu items that are
vegan, gluten free, or vegetarian

15. Ways to Accomplish the Solution
● Convert one serving station into allergy free zone,
where students can feel secure about no cross
contamination occurring.
● Train the restaurant staff to have knowledge of what
items can cause certain allergic reactions
● Creation of organization focused on spending time
educating student body on issue through media and
face to face interaction.

16. Conclusion
● Though people can be resistant to change, it’s
important to at least try to make your voice heard
● If it doesn’t affect you directly, it still affects your
peers and their ability to feel safe on campus
● Change doesn’t happen overnight- but it can happen
quickly if enough people care!

17. Reference
.
Anderson, J. (2016, April 25). How To Share a Kitchen with Gluten-Eaters… Safely.
https://www.verywell.com/how-to-set-up-a-shared-kitchen-563065
Center for Food and Safety Applied Nutrition, Office of Regulatory Affairs (2016, May). Allergens-
Gluten Free Labeling of Foods.
Clean & Seprate. (n.d.). http://www.health.state.mn.us./foodsafety/clean/xcontamination.html
Contract Guide Book: Contract Terms and Information for you to consider prior to completing the
University Housing Residence Hall Contract. Milwaukee, WI: UW-Milwaukee.
Gregor, N. (n.d.). Food Allergy Facts and Statistics. Retrieved June 6, 2017
From https://www.foodallergy.org/file/Final-FARE-Food-Allergy-FActs-Statistics.pdf
Healthy Schools. (2017, May 09). Retrieved June 18, 2017, from
https://www.cdc.gov/healthyschools/foodallergies/index.htm
Majid, A. (1/2016) How College Students Can Promote Policy Change on Campus and Free Speech in
2016. Huffington Post.
University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee. (n.d). June 14, 2017. http://uwm.edu/dining/more/faq