How Colleges & Universities Can Support Students with Food Allergies

Throughout their K-12 years, students with allergies typically receive substantial assistance and constant supervision from their parents/caregivers, teachers, school health professionals, and other school staff to help prevent allergen exposure and quickly treat a reaction. However, as they become teens and young adults, go away to school, and take on the responsibility of self-managing their allergies, these students’ risk of experiencing fatal food-induced anaphylaxis greatly increases.

There are a variety of factors that may contribute to this heightened risk, including that college students often:

• Resist carrying an epinephrine autoinjector, particularly in social situations or while participating in sports.
• Engage in behaviors that present potential exposure situations - e.g., exploring and expanding their diet, consuming alcohol, dating and intimacy, and traveling.
• Try to hide their food allergy condition from others for fear of not fitting in and being socially isolated or bullied.
• Lack knowledge of the processes for requesting food allergy support services and accommodations or modifications they may be eligible for under the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA).

With the number of students with food allergies continuing to grow, and the risk of a severe reaction being so high, it is critical for colleges and universities to ensure they have a comprehensive food allergy management plan that includes clear policies and procedures, accessible support and services, and safe and inclusive food solutions.

Based on information from allergy prevention, research, and educational organizations, the AssuredPartners Education Practice Group has compiled five general recommendations to aid schools in the process of designing, evaluating, and/or enhancing their institution’s plan.

5 Guidelines for Addressing the Unique Challenges, Concerns, and Vulnerabilities of College Students with Food Allergies

1. Try to break down the stigma of food allergy disclosure from day one (or earlier).

There are several ways your school can normalize the process of reporting food allergies and requesting dining, residential, and/or academic accommodations. First, consider sending a communication to all students and their families before the start of the school year that encourages allergy reporting, explains the process for requesting support with allergy management, and directs them to where they can find application materials for accommodations. With college students, the more times you can repeat a message, the more likely it is to get through, so you may also want to request information about food allergies in a variety of places they’re likely to see it, including on forms and applications for housing, the meal plan, student healthcare, and athletic programs.

Go Above and Beyond: Make a concerted effort to let prospective students and their families know your school is strongly committed to food allergy management by including policy and program information in campus tours, printed materials and emails, and social media posts.

2. Assemble a cross-functional team to help champion the needs of students with food allergies.

One department should be designated to serve as the central hub for your school’s food allergy policy oversight and implementation. However, it’s going to take a village to ensure that food allergy information effectively reaches all students, that they’re getting the support they need to avoid allergen exposure, and that they can fully and safely participate in all campus spaces, events, and programs. Consider forming and meeting regularly with a “food allergy team” that includes, at minimum, representatives from dining services, housing services, disability services, health services, campus safety, legal, athletics, student affairs, and new student orientation staff.

Go Above and Beyond: Engage with students about creating a new food allergy club or an allergy advocacy and awareness group, like North Carolina State’s “Safe Eats” club or the Student Allergy Movement at the University of Virginia, and help them get it off the ground if they show interest.

3. Create a food allergy emergency plan that prioritizes quick access to epinephrine across the campus.

If a student has a severe allergic reaction, promptly administering epinephrine is the best way to save their life. Ideally, students with a known food allergy should always carry an emergency pack with them that contains a self-injectable epinephrine (SIE) and a personalized food allergy action plan. However, the reality is that fewer than half of all college students with allergies report following this safety practice. Therefore, enabling rapid access to epinephrine should be the top priority in your emergency plan. Consider stocking undesignated epinephrine injectors that can be quickly accessed and used for any person experiencing a severe reaction, in classrooms, dining halls, residence halls, sports arenas, and wherever students live, eat, and play.

Require food allergy training for all campus staff, not just those who work in areas where students live and eat. Training should include how to recognize and respond to a food allergy reaction and what to do in case of an emergency.

4. Educate nonallergic students on the seriousness of food allergies.

Raising awareness of food allergies across the entire campus student body has been shown to help college students with allergies feel more comfortable disclosing their food allergens and carrying their SIE, which, ultimately, could save their lives. In addition, the more nonallergic students know about food allergy avoidance and managing potential reactions, the less likely they are to expose a student to an allergen by accident or cross-contact. Consider using a variety of communication methods, like posters, rack cards, your school’s website, and the residential assistants to share food allergy basics; rules on hand washing, food sharing, and allergen-safe and food-free zones; how to recognize a food allergy reaction, use an epinephrine device, and identify food allergens on a product label; and more.

Go Above and Beyond: Organize online and/or in-person interactive trainings, educational content, and fun allergy-friendly community events to tie into FARE’s Food Allergy Awareness Week, which occurs every May.

5. Regularly assess the support and services being offered to students with food allergies.

From accessibility and emergency response to dining facilities and meal options, reviewing all aspects of your school’s food allergy management plan is essential for identifying areas for improvement and addressing compliance issues so they can be avoided in the future. Consider using a combination of evaluative methods, including self-inspection forms, a third-party audit, incident reporting system data, student satisfaction surveys, and focus groups or dining committees to gain input from students with and without allergies.

Go Above and Beyond: Send personal communications to students with food allergies throughout the year via whatever method they are comfortable with, such as text, email, and in-person meetings so you can frequently gauge how safe and included they feel in campus life.

Creating a successful food allergy management plan that provides a safe and inclusive campus environment for students with food allergies requires a proactive, comprehensive, and ongoing effort. AssuredPartners can be a valuable member of the team leading this effort at your school. From helping to identify gaps in a school's food allergy emergency response plan to providing knowledgeable insights for policy development and preferred food allergy practices from peer institutions, we are dedicated to helping our clients better protect every student and empower them to fully participate in all aspects of college life.

Sources:
https://www.foodallergy.org
https://www.annallergy.org
https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov
https://www.cdc.gov