<<Disclaimer: Verify this information before applying it to your situation.>>

You people are the greatest!

When I ask for help for my daughter going to college in NW Pennsylvania
a number of you sent contact information for local Celiacs who can serve
as mentors for her. There is even a group that goes out to dinner
together once a month.

One of the Pittsburg Celiac support members does monthly gluten-free
cooking seminars at a local Pittsburg supermarket.



Others mentioned stores in the area:

    * There are a couple of Wegman's in the area...Wegman's was
      mentioned on this list as being very celiac friendly.  Believe me,
      it is.  If your daughter calls 1-800-Wegman, she can have the list
      of GF foods that they carry sent to her.  The list is updated
      every month, I think, I know it wants to be ordered about every 3
      months... They also have their private label, & they are
      painstaking about listing allergens. http://www.wegmans.com/
    * The local, Erie, Independent, Whole Foods Co-op carries GF foods.
      Whole food co-op west 26th st  erie, PA http://www.wholefoodscoop.org
    * There is a Wholefoods grocery store in Pittsburgh.



Some people responded to my questions about Sysco Corporation:

    * Some of Sysco's things are GF...like the pizza sauce (but not the
      spaghetti sauce.)  They also distribute some band name products
      like Bush's beans.
    * I've dealt closely this summer with Sysco for my 12 YO son's
      overnight camp.

Here is what I recommend.

1) find out who orders their foods at the college and request to get a
copy of the invoice of the products they order.

2) Call the sysco national or Pennsyl. number from their website.

3) The way they're set-up is that they have a "turkey person" who only
handles turkey iems and so on. If you have that invoice they will ask
you for the specific turkey item number and then they can look into it
for you.

I found that they were very helpful but, the process took a bit of time
because, I did not have all of the item numbers.





I hate to be discouraging but there is absolutely no way to keep your
daughter GF with all of these different people cooking unless they are
all exceptional people. Some won't care; others won't understand; and
some won't ever be quite careful enough. Some days will be fine but your
daughter is just about guaranteed to get contaminated meals. The only
thing you can do is have a very serious and long conversation with the
cook and try to work something out.

As for Sysco, if I were you I would find out which Pa. distributor they
use then go to the Sysco web site and find the phone number for that
distributor. They're all listed there. Call them. Unfortunately, a quick
look at their products at their web site shows a HUGE percentage of food
with gluten. There could be days where everything the college plans to
eat has gluten.

I don't know that this is possible but I know some college students who
have their own refigerator and cooking facilities and they basically
make just about all their own meals. But this is also something they
have set up ahead of time with the school. Cooperation from the school
is key here. If the cook isn't cooperating enough, you need to go to the
cook's boss and on up.





The college came to the conclusion that it is impossible. Thus, they
decided that they will not allow her to come. Although they admitted her
when she was tired all the time and had "weird" hand & feet pain, now
that she has ENERGY and less pain they don't want her because of the
diet. We are appealing the decision all the way to the top. We are
asking that she be able to do her own cooking for the most part, but we
don't know what will happen.



All is in God's hands.

Deborah Martin

*Support summarization of posts, reply to the SENDER not the CELIAC List*