GOING AGAINST THE GRAIN B

GOING 

AGAINST 

THE GRAIN 

By Gemma Gardner 

Confession: A salad bar made me 

cry on my first day of college. 

With a backpack full of 

textbooks, a U Card hanging 

from the lanyard around my neck and 

a newfound phobia of the Gopher Way 

tunnels, I had proudly conquered day 

one at the University of Minnesota. The 

adrenaline increasingly gave way to fatigue 

and hunger with each step I took toward 

Superblock. Knowing that I had little time 

before “hangry-ness” took over, it was 

time to face the most nerve-wracking part 

of my day: 

The dining hall. 

I have Celiac disease, which means that 

my body hates gluten, and very, very bad 

things happen if I eat even trace amounts 

of it. So, when I found myself standing in 

the eye of the hurricane that is the Pioneer 

dining hall at 5:30 p.m., anxiety consumed 

me. With each glance around the dining 

hall, the anxiety grew. 

Pastas, burgers, pizza — nope. 

French fries — fried in the same fryer 

as things with gluten — nope. 

Breaded chicken tenders — nope. 

Soup… with noodles. So close… 

Again, nope. 

Seeing that the options in the main areas 

were slim, I headed to the “allergy” station, 

which I had heard offered a gluten-free 

option for each meal. However, the option 

turned out to be a burger, and as I don’t eat 

red meat, I felt panic begin to rise in my 

chest. What was I going to eat? 

I spotted the salad bar close by and 

instinctively dashed its way. This was my 

last hope. 

However, that hope shattered — and 

so did I — when I saw that there were 

crouton crumbs all around the salad bar, 

making it too risky. Panic and frustration 

overwhelmed me as I crafted a game plan 

for finding dinner elsewhere, eventually 

deciding to pick up a frozen meal from 

the Walgreens by my dorm. The reality of 

my situation quickly sank: if I was already 

struggling to find options on the first day, 

what would the rest of the year be like? 

What is Celiac Disease? 

Celiac disease is far from the food 

intolerance many assume it to be. Rather, 

it’s an autoimmune condition that 

causes the lining of the small intestine 

to deteriorate after exposure to gluten, 

which is found in wheat, rye, barley and 

Celiac-safe 

bread. Photo 

by Rosalid Ding 

oats. According to the Celiac Disease 

Foundation, Celiac impacts about 1 in 100 

people worldwide — but only 30% are 

properly diagnosed. 

For many individuals, exposure to 

gluten leads to reactions that often last 

for days at a time and can include severe 

abdominal pain, nausea and vomiting, 

migraines, cognitive impairment, anemia, 

skin rashes and joint pain. Others with 

Celiac disease may be asymptomatic. 

Regardless of whether reactions are 

experienced or not, though, gluten 

exposure — especially if repeated and 

prolonged — can lead to heart disease, 

cancers, infertility, liver failure, seizures 

and more. I fall into the symptomatic 

category. If I eat gluten, I’m sick for days. 

The kicker? All it takes is trace amounts 

— known as cross-contamination — to 

trigger an immune response. Here are a 

few examples of scenarios that can make 

someone with Celiac sick: 

• Eating fruit that was cut on the 

same cutting board that was used to 

cut bread 

• Eating a burrito bowl from 

Chipotle that was prepared by a worker 

whose gloves had previously touched 

flour tortillas 

• Eating peanut butter from a 

jar that someone had previously dipped 

pretzels into 

Options are limited and expensive. 

Many people don’t understand how easy 

it is to cross-contaminate. Considering 

how little it takes to become sick, entering 

college as a student with Celiac and having 

to trust others to prepare your meals is 

terrifying. 

Eating at the Dining Halls 

Having had Celiac since I was 10 years 

old, and thus being very well-acquainted 

with the challenges of finding safe options 

outside of my own home, I knew that 

eating in a college dining hall would not be 

a walk in the park. However, I also knew 

that I wanted to have the experience of 

living in a dorm, and to do that, a meal plan 

was required. I decided to do everything I 

could to ensure that I’d be able to access 

gluten-free food while living in the dorms. 

So, before I came to college, I 

incessantly researched the dining system, 

sent copious emails to dining hall staff 

and read through all of the Reddit forums 

that I could find about the dining halls. 

I was reassured by the dining hall staff 

that their allergen-free station could 

guarantee gluten-free food without crosscontamination 

and that there could also 

be additional options without gluten in the 

general area of the dining hall, such as the 

Navigating life 

at UMN with 

Celiac Disease. 

salad bar. I felt confident that I’d be just 

fine — but I also brought a mini fridge and 

a microwave so I’d be able to store some 

emergency food, just in case. 

Unfortunately, my experience on the 

first day was not a fluke. In one instance, 

I was given regular bread in my meal, 

even though the station was supposed 

to be entirely separate from all glutencontaining 

ingredients. Another time, I was 

told that the allergen station “ran out of 

meals,” and I was handed a box of frozen 

gluten-free waffles for dinner. Despite 

my constant communication with the 

staff and management about the issues I 

was experiencing, I continued to be given 

incorrect meals and often left without food 

that I could eat. 

Thankfully, the dining system has 

changed management since my freshman 

year, and the new system appears to be much 

better at accommodating students’ allergies. 

Amy Hommes, a registered dietician at the 

University of Minnesota, explained that 

all of the University of Minnesota’s dining 

halls, with the exceptions of Comstock Hall 

and Bailey Hall, now provide stations with 

meals that are made to accommodate those 

with allergies to gluten, dairy, eggs, soy, 

peanuts, tree nuts, sesame and fish. In these 

stations, “everything is prepared separately 

with separate cutting boards, separate pans 

and separate utensils… and [they] train all of 

our staff on how to prevent cross-contact,” 

Hommes detailed. 

However, it’s important to note that, 

while the dining halls do provide a safe 

option for students with Celiac, there still 

isn’t much flexibility. Lyla Prass, a student 

with Celiac who had a meal plan in the 

dining halls last year, said she often felt 

frustrated by the lack of options offered. 

She explained how she doesn’t eat pork, 

so “when the meal was pork, [she] just 

couldn’t eat.” 

On-Campus Options 

Despite their limits, the dining halls still 

provide more options for us gluten-free 

folk than any other space on campus. “If 

there were any problems with the dining 

hall, there was nowhere else to go,” Prass 

said. While there are a few on-campus 

restaurants such as SweetGreen, JJ’s Poke 

and Nautical Bowls where Prass feels 

comfortable, she rarely eats elsewhere, 

given the risk of getting sick. On-campus 

food courts, such as the one in Coffman 

Memorial Union, also offer close to no safe 

options. Having experienced several 

Standard, wheat-grain bread. Photos by Rosalind Ding 

50 INFLUX MAGAZINE SPRING 2024 SPRING 2024 INFLUX MAGAZINE 51

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