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Question: What is found throughout the school meal program that can be deadly dangerous?

If you answered food allergens, you would be right. Six percent of students have a food allergy and the big eight of food allergies (soy, eggs, milk, fish, wheat, shellfish, tree nuts, and peanuts) are found throughout school meal programs and family meals alike.  It is very likely that a school will have one or more students whose life could be threatened by eating the wrong thing. Data from Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s (CDC) 2006 School Health Policies and Programs Study indicate that approximately 88% of schools had one or more students with a food allergy. School employees need to know what to do to prevent life threatening reactions and families need to know that their children are being protected.

On Wednesday, February 22 NEA HIN participated in a School Nutrition Foundation webinar, entitled Teamwork is Key to Successful Food Allergy Management in Schools.  Over 300 people participated in the webinar generating many questions and concerns.  (If you missed it the webinar is archived and can be found at the link above.)

Given the title of the webinar, it should be no surprise that the most important thing that schools need to address this problem is TEAMWORK.  Teamwork is what gets a good plan developed and implemented. Teamwork is what makes sure that staff and volunteers get trained.  Teamwork is what helps parents feel confident that their child is being well cared for. And the team needs to be made up of people from every job category.  This means the school nurse and allied health professionals, school food service staff, custodians, teachers, paraeducators, administrators, office staff, and bus drivers.  Of course parents need to be on the team too (if age appropriate, students should also be considered). 

A team approach may seem like common sense, but too often the day-to-day pressures get in the way. We need to sit down with the right people and create a plan.  Staff need to be trained, practices changed, and parents communicated with. Teamwork can make sure those things happen.  And behind every good food allergy plan is a good food allergy policy. Our colleagues at the National School Boards Association recently published Safe at School and Ready to Learn: A Comprehensive Policy Guide for Protecting Students with Life-Threatening Food Allergies, which can help in the crafting of such policies.

More resources will be coming out over the next few months to add to what is currently available to schools. These include guidance for schools from the CDC as well as new resource for school employees from the NEA Health Information Network and the United States Department of Agriculture.  Watch this space for updates on when this will be available.  

Editor’s Note: This post is from our partners at the NEA Health Information Network (NEA HIN). Each month, we feature a new column on a topic related to school health. Through this effort, we hope to inform the public of important health issues that impact schools and offer educators and parents resources to address them.

Today's post was authored by Nora Howley.

Image from Photos Public Domain