Story by Noah Monroe
Visuals by Macon Porterfield
As Stuart Wanamaker was pondering the cookie selection at Lenoir Dining Hall on the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill (UNC-CH) campus, whether he knew it or not, one wrong move and his day could’ve dramatically changed.
Wanamaker, a senior at UNC-CH, has a deadly peanut allergy, making him a part of the 6.2 percent of adults in the United States who have food allergies, according to a 2021 report from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. If he wasn’t careful, one innocent chocolate chip cookie could’ve potentially sent him into anaphylactic shock and, within minutes, led to his death. Because of people like Wanamaker, dining halls at UNC-CH have taken steps to prevent this from happening.
While 6.2 percent is a relatively low number, it doesn’t include the full scope of people with dietary restrictions. Not accounted for are people who have to diet because of religious obligations or health reasons among other things. Because of this, there’s a sense of paranoia that is becoming increasingly common among college students. With an increasing number of students needing special accommodations, it’s up to the dining halls at colleges to meet their students’ needs.
Simply Made at N.C. State
At North Carolina State University (NCSU), Lauren Smith, the director of nutrition and wellness, is leading the charge into the new world of dining.
Since her arrival in 2020, Smith has helped bring a bevy of changes to the dining halls at NCSU to cater to students with dietary restrictions. One of the biggest changes came in August 2022 when Smith and her team incorporated the Simply Made Station, a food station that is free of the top nine allergens and is available at Fountain and Clark, two of NCSU’s dining halls.
“The Simply Made Station, it was a different approach,” Smith said. “That was creating a station where students could build a complete, balanced meal and not have to worry about cross-contact, not have to worry about students coming up with a plate that might have an allergen on it and having contact, because our Simply Made station is served by a server onto a clean plate.”
For teenagers moving away from home and away from what they’ve known for the majority of their life, something as simple as a food station without the top nine allergens can help with that transition.
“Adding that Simply Made Station has helped a lot of students feel more at ease,” Smith said. “When students come to college, it might be their first time eating on their own, and if they have food allergies, it could be their first time eating out in a place where their parents didn’t make the food. The Simply Made Station has really made a big difference with those allergies.”
Another innovation that has helped students with dietary restrictions has been the On Campus app offered by N.C. State. The app has a dining section where users can see the hours, menu and nutrition breakdown for all of the dining halls.
The app can filter out all of a person’s allergens or any dietary restrictions, such as vegan, and the menu for each dining hall will adjust accordingly. This allows students the ability to figure out what they would like to eat before they get to the dining hall.
“The filter has been really helpful for students just to set their allergies,” Smith said. “Once they set it in the app, it’s there until they turn it off, so they only need to hit it that one time.”
Smith has made it a priority that when students check the app and look at the menu, they see something that they’re going to be able to eat, but most importantly want to eat. Before the start of each semester, she offers to meet with students who have concerns about the menu for on-campus food options. During these meetings, she talks with them about their allergens and discuss all the options for the respective student and even introduces the chefs at the dining halls to the students.
Her favorite interactions with students have been with students who don’t attend NCSU – or at least not yet.
“The really meaningful interactions are with the students who just got accepted to State,” Smith said. “I love the interactions when they’re between a couple of different schools and then they decide to come to N.C. State because they feel safe with the food. That’s always the best.”
UNC-CH taking necessary steps
Down the road in Chapel Hill, UNC-CH operates much differently from its counterpart in Raleigh. While NCSU operates its dining halls independently, UNC-CH contracts its dining hall services through Aramark. As a result, how the university deals with dietary restrictions is largely out of its control.
Bobby Peters, a junior at UNC-CH, and the chairperson of the Student Dining Board, is a voice for the students and works to make sure their dietary needs are met.
“Essentially, my role is to give feedback to Carolina Dining and what students are feeling about the dining services. Like sort of updates as well as if anything is going wrong, we let them know,” Peters said. “We’re also involved in more long-term strategic planning like La Farm that just came in (at Lenoir Dining Hall).”
Despite its dining halls being operated by Aramark, UNC-CH has some similarities to NCSU. Both dining halls at UNC-CH, Chase and Lenoir, have food stations with options that don’t have the top nine allergens. In addition, students can work with the dietician at UNC-CH to help them with food questions or dietary restrictions they might have.
Peters noted that even though they’re a third-party group, Aramark understands that pleasing people who have dietary restrictions is their best path to success.
“It’s not so much power (that we have,)” Peters said. “It’s more so people working at Carolina Dining Services genuinely care what the students think, because that’s what’s going to work so I think they value our input very highly.”
Aramark and Carolina Dining Services have taken the necessary steps within the dining halls to help indicate what is safe for people with certain dietary restrictions to eat. On the food boards in the dining halls, there are symbols beside each item denoting if it has peanuts or is gluten-free, etc., helping people like Wanamaker who have allergies know what is safe for them.
“They have a lot of outlines on the menus and on the (TV screens) about what contains what,” Wanamaker said. “It was pretty easy to navigate, and if there was ever anything that I thought was questionable, I could always ask, and they would usually have the answer on hand.”
According to Smith, food allergies are on the rise, and more people are starting to limit what they eat, making what the dining halls do to evolve for the future ever more so important. At UNC-CH, Peters hopes the work Carolina Dining Services has done to expand options for students with dietary restrictions continues to grow. Meanwhile at NCSU, Smith has her eyes set on building a facility or dining hall set aside for those with dietary restrictions where they can have a certified allergy-free facility.
As for the near future? Just continuing to listen to students.
“I think the biggest thing is we need to continue listening to our guests and learning how they like to eat, not only for allergy purposes but just preferences,” Smith said.
