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Excerpts of posts follow. Please note that my e-mail went down for two days
during the time I was still receiving responses; if you sent me a response
and I did not acknowledge it privately, or you do not see it here, feel free
to re-send it.

"I have a 16 year old son who is involved with Upward Bound. The
program has the kids stay in dorms for 6 weeks over the summer. He
almost could not go because of his diet. I met twice with the people
involved with preparing the meals. I prepared a 15 page charted list of
what he could eat and where to procure the items needed. I also took them
shopping at the local store to show them precisely what foods he could have
and why he could not have others. Also, legally Celiac is considered a
hidden handicap. Many of the colleges get subsides from the government for
their cafeterias. If that is so, then they are required by law to
accommodate. That is something you will have to research (luckily, I never
had to use that method, they were very accommodating). I also made sure that
he had a mini frig. and microwave in his room so that he could have snacks
on hand."

"My son is a freshman in college.  The problems with his dining options are
that the food is brought in already prepared.  That makes it very difficult
to determine ingredients/cross contamination, etc.  My recommendation is
that you look for a college that has food prepared on site.  That kind of
situation lends itself much better to those with celiac disease.  Instead of
gaining the "freshman 14", my son has lost 7 pounds this year.  Fortunately,
next year he will be in a dorm suite that has a kitchen!"

"Both of our children were diagnosed while in College.  Our son was in an
apartment and a fairly accomplished cook so he did fine.  Our daughter
however, was living in a Dorm and it was very problematic.  I must explain
that she is also a very fussy eater and does not eat eggs or salads which
are good GF meals at college dining halls.  We bought apartment sized refrig
and freezer and stocked up so she could eat in her room when there was
nothing in the dining hall.  They were supposed to fix her special meals but
most often then put a frozen leftover in the microwave.  We have ordered
baked goods from Gluten Free Delights with great success, but they need to
be frozen as soon as they are received. Fortunately our daughter was only an
hour away so we drove up about once a month with frozen food fried chicken,
taco meat, spaghetti, etc.)."

"Our daughter was diagnosed in the spring of her freshman year at Hobart &
William Smith College in Geneva, NY. Once she was diagnosed, I contacted the
cafeteria staff who were for the most part great; though they did not know
much about CD, they were willing to learn. They gave Marnie the menu each
month, so she could see roughly what she could and couldn't eat; they gave
her her own storage and refrig space in the Cafeteria Kitchen, including a
space for her own toaster oven as well which she came in and used whenever
she needed to; and they would open a new, clean grill for her at weekend
brunch, making her her GF pancake mix, and occasionally her gf muffins. She
found she could have quite a few of their things, including chicken, baked
potatoes, salads, etc. (Researching the big providers for cafeterias is
difficult. I am very interested if we get some info on this listserve re
Sysco, as they seem to supply a lot of places.) The housing person was not
great about having, say, a toaster oven in her room, but we elected to tell
Marnie she had our permission to do that anyway. We got her small room
fridge switched to one with both a freezer and a microwave.  Each dorm
and/or floor had its own refrig and kitchen so she/one could keep her extra
supplies that wouldn't fit in the room fridge in there, like frozen gf
waffles. The one thing that was tricky and that we never felt we settled
satisfactorily was the meal plan. We opted for the full meal plan both
Freshman and Sophomore year, so that Marnie could eat as much as she wanted
or was able to. So we are sure we overpaid for what she was able to eat. By
senior year she was much more savvy and I think we did a partial meal plan-
she did most of her own major cooking in the townhouse but was still able to
pick up lunch or snacks at the dining center."

"I do not know where your son is looking but my daughter is a freshman at
Union College in Schenectady, NY and they completely accomodate her.  It is
like she has her own personal chefs.  She ended up applying to only a couple
of schools but of the ones we looked at U. of Delaware, U. of Vermont,
Cornell, and Hamilton appeared to be the most accomodating."

More to follow.

Sheryll Daniel

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