Yeshiva and food allergies

amother

Wed, Oct 30 2019, 5:21 pm

Our son has peanut and tree nut allergies and it's time for us to start thinking about him going away for Yeshiva. Anyone with experience? Did you find a "nut-free" yeshiva (do these exist?), rely on others to make "safe" food in a nut filled environment, keep your son local for this reason, etc. I don't want to pick a yeshiva based just on this, but his safety is obviously a very important factor.

Thu, Oct 31 2019, 7:37 am

My kids school is nut and sesame free...we get a list of safe foods the kids are allowed to bring to school. If the teachers notice that a child brought in something with nuts they will not let the child eat it, wrap the food up in a baggie and send it home with a note. They will give the child something else to eat, usually a fruit.

amother

Lime

Thu, Oct 31 2019, 7:43 am

dv wrote:

This sounds like an elementary school. OP is looking for info on boy's yeshiva high schools, where nobody is policing what the boys bring in and all the meals they eat are made in house.

OP, I don't know your hashkafah, but I would look for a school known to be very organized and responsive to parents. Maybe your ds gets his own mini-fridge. Maybe there's a table in the dining room that stays nut free. There is a chance you may need to make his meals and freeze and send, but that's doable. It seems overwhelming, but I and a bunch of my friends have done it. If he's airborne allergic, I don't know how that would be managed, but anything else can be done. And it's definitely worth asking if the kitchen is nut free.

amother

Gray

Thu, Oct 31 2019, 10:21 am

amother [ OP ] wrote:

I feel for you -- this is going to be difficult. Your first move would be to compile a list of dorm yeshivas that you think would be a good fit for your son, in general. Then, call them and discuss this particular issue.

I have a son in a wonderful dorm yeshiva, and I can't imagine how the hanhala there would handle this. Of course, the yeshiva can control the food served in the dining hall, but a dorm full of boys is also necessarily full of food, and that is going to be far more difficult to handle. My son brings a huge jar of peanut butter to his dorm at the beginning of every zman (no one, to my knowledge or his has an allergy to it) but there is no official policy or oversight on what foods can be brought into the dorm. Even if there was, in an environment where the students may be purchasing (or even preparing!) food on their own, this is really going to be difficult to enforce.

My gut feeling would be, considering that this is a serious allergy, to keep him in a local yeshiva where he's coming home every evening. You'll still have to deal with the dining hall breakfast/lunch/dinner, but that should be easier to work with.