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Posted 10/29/02:
If anyone has had experience with Marriott Sodexho foods as a food service
provider for colleges, I would like to hear about your experience with
them. They have been unable to provide gf foods for our college-age daughter.

SUMMARY: Based on the large number or responses (over 100), it seems this
is an important topic for those that this affects. Not many had experience
with this particular food service provider, but many respondents related
their experience with their own campus food services. I'll do my best to
summarize the outstanding responses and advice I received.

Colleges that provide GF meals:
University of Wisconsin - LaCrosse
University of Delaware
Ohio State University
Pepperdine University
Syracuse University in NY (they cater to celiacs!)
Cornell
Union University in Jackson, TN - referred to as a dream celiac school!

Positive Sodexho experience:
Boy, I am dying to know which college your daughter is attending! Our
experience with Sodexho is the polar opposite of yours... they have been
wonderful dealing with our son's needs. Perhaps the issue lies with the
staff more than the service? The chef speaks to our son daily, they go over
the menu, and he often will prepare something "special" i.e. gf for our guy,
using McCormick spices. He even has a shelf in the kitchen where gf pasta is
kept.

Unpleasant experience:
A student friend of mine here at Northwestern has had pretty much exactly
the same experience with Marriott. They claim to be accommodating, but are
anything but. After her diagnosis last year, she was told to work with the
nutritionist, and then use the dining hall web site to order her meals in
advance _every day_. They can't/won't be bothered to work up anything that
they can just say "this is gf". They certainly wouldn't create a gf area in
any of the kitchens. She found the ordering system entirely unworkable,
since she has a busy schedule & couldn't guarantee at which dining hall and
at what time she would be eating her meals on any given day. Few students
want to be tied to a single dining hall in that way.

And Yet Another Point to Ponder:
Sadly, it is virtually impossible for a service like this to guarantee GF
food. Your daughter would be taking a huge chance every time she eats.
Consider just one scenario -- the food service is making a dish that is
supposed to be GF according to the recipe and the ingredients they normally
use. They run out of one ingredient while making a large batch, so somebody
innovates and makes an ingredient substitution. Unfortunately for your
unsuspecting daughter, the subsititute is NOT GF. There's no way she would
know.

I should note that Marriott Corporation responded indicating they no longer
own Sodexho.  Sodexho has a website which can be visited at
http://sodexhousa.com/about_us.html.

Some respondents noted that Sodexho is a food service provider for
hospitals, many thought the food service manager would have access to
on-staff dietitians that would be at least a little familiar with celiac
disease.

From a former Sodexho employee:
I used to work for Sodexho Marriott Services Corporate Dining division.  What
I found is that every manager is different.  Hopefully (you) are trying to
work with
the chef and manager of the college.  If you're not getting any help from them
then try to get in touch with the district manager.  Then elevate it to
corporate if you're not getting the response that you need.

Regarding ADA issues:
        It's up to that office (campus disabilities coordinator) to figure
out--with your daughter--what
the best accommodations might be--from  finding a dining center on campus
that has more leeway for purchasing the right items, (which is what
happened for my daughter at Dartmouth), to insisting that Marriott deal
adequately with the issue,  to giving her a rebate on her meal plan if  she
can't eat all meals on campus. Most college dining halls post the
ingredients of all meals and food items prominently along the food lines.
If your college doesn't, the disabilities coordinator should  require
it--there are certainly plenty of students who need that information.

Another respondent referred me to an excellent website:

The Civil Rights of Students with Hidden Disabilities under Section 504 of
the Rehabilitation Act of 1973

http://www.ed.gov./offices/OCR/docs/hq5269.html

The complaint process can be found at

www.ed.gov.offices/OCR/complaintprocess/html

For the record we began working with the disabilities coordinator at the
college as soon as our saughter was accepted because she also has Type I
diabetes, and for other health reasons, requires a low-fat diet in addition
to her GF needs. We needed access to nutritional information for carb
counting and fat grams, and extra space for a microwave and 'fridge. We
deliberately chose a small private college (1,200 students, approx. 260
live on-campus) believing it would be easier to accommodate her needs.

Other suggestions included:
1. eat only at salad bar or potato bar
2. bring your own food to dining hall
3. move to an off-campus apartment
4. provide a list of commercial gf products that can be used to prepare
simple meals
5. work with them to prepare simple meat, potato/rice vegetable meals with
only salt/pepper spices.

A response I can relate to was:
I've dealt with similar issues with my local schools' cafeteria staff.
Isn't it amazing how overwhelmed a professional kitchen staff gets when
you suggest they actually COOK a meal?  From their reaction, you'd think
you were asking them to cut off a leg!

Sincere thanks to all for your wise words.

* Visit the Celiac Web Page at www.enabling.org/ia/celiac/index.html *