I personally have allergies to seafood and nuts but have been lucky that my five haven't shown any signs of this gene. I am usual the only mom that asks if any of the kids in teh class have an allergies (I'm known for bringing Jello....can't go wrong with Jello Jigglers!)
Renee-- thank you for showing concern! I'm so amazed I'm sitting here when I think back to all the times in Home Ec class when we HAD to taste everyones creations and someone ALWAYS had to try a seafood dish! It wasn't until my Doctor came to my school after a reaction did my teacher realize I was serious! (you know throwing up for hours wasn't proof enough!)
Anyway, after all I have been through, I really don't have an issue with asking someone if there are nuts in their baked goods or what is in the pasta salad. Quite honestly no one has been offened by my asking, even at the bake sale I was at yesterday.
Thank you for your concern....where were you 15 years ago!
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I think the individual classrooms (room parents) do take into consideration individual needs, but when it comes to buying for the whole school (almost 600 kids), we can't be aware of and cater to every single food related need. My opinion, the parents need to be proactive and bring the special need food along.
I'm not looking for anything to be done personally. I am curious as too how many PTO's are conscientious of food allergies.
Yes I agree, that the parents of allergic children should be a part of the PTO and our PTO thinks the same way.
I only asked because of the rising number of allergic children in schools today, and if you try to provide an alternative to your food products served.
In our school we just started a peanut free zone in the cafeteria. The principal sent home a letter to every family informing them of this. I know the school lunch program serves peanut free menus to several schools in our district, including ours.
For our Ice Cream social, we did not serve any peanut toppings. The flyer for donations for the Cake Walk also specified that all donations be free of peanut products. I'm not sure I would trust the labelling on the homemade goods. I have two milk allergic children, thankfully not life threatening like peanut allergy, but even the most well intentioned people can make a mistake!
I agree with JHB, we would expect the parent to come to us and suggest an alternative and be part of the solution. We gear things to the mainstream norm, any exceptions would have to be helped with by the parents who were requesting. Just my 2 cents...
As a parent, I try to be sensitive if I know someone in my chlid's class has allergy if I'm providing the only treat, like cupcakes for a birthday.
As far as general PTO, no, I can't say we do. The few times we have foods - it's pretty much fast food concession type things. Pizza, chips, candy, softdrinks, popsicles. Other situations like Track & Field, Bake Sales, Thanksgiving feast - there's a pretty good variety donated. If we were doing something like an ice cream social, we'd probably have a non-dairy alternative.
We would probably expect the parent to be proactive and come to us. If a parent made us aware of a situation, certainly we'd try to help. But other than trying to have a variety, I don't know how we would plan around all potential allergies. Personally, I've only known a couple kids with severe, perhaps life threatening allergies, and it wasn't through PTO. In those cases, their parents just wouldn't take a chance on food prepared by someone else even if notices had gone home, labels were on it, etc.
