Cabrini University ensures students with dietary restrictions have multiple food options to meet their needs.
Tracy Eells, Cabrini’s dining services general manager, explained that Sodexo makes it a point that the needs of the students are met.
Signs listing nutritional information are available at every station in CAVS Corner. Students with allergies are able to inquire about the ingredients at any food distributer and seek out potential alternatives, if necessary.
Substitutes are available for students with dairy allergies, including almond and soy milk. Students with peanut allergies can eat knowing that nuts are not used in the dining hall.
Sophomore history major, Malachi Purnell, developed allergies to peanuts, tree nuts, shellfish and seafood by the time he was 10 years old. He is mostly content with the options provided, but has definitely experienced days where his options were limited.
“I can typically manage with the limited variety of foods,” Purnell said, “though, there are days where I’ll go to the Caf not knowing what’s being served only to find I’m allergic to most of the options.”
Alexa Piro, sophomore elementary education and special education major, is on a gluten-free diet. Because she has celiac disease, she has been gluten-free her entire life.
Gluten, a grain protein found in wheat food, is in many of the foods most people eat every day, including bread, cereal, baked goods and pasta.
Piro sometimes eats off campus when her options are limited, but is usually content with the menu options.
“I eat salad at Jazzman’s,” said Piro, “and at CAVS Corner, the food is mostly gluten free.”
Eells added that a lot of options are available gluten-free, upon request.
Some of the gluten-free options around campus include bread, pancakes, chicken fingers, pasta and sometimes pizza.
For vegetarians and vegans, Eells recommended the salad bar as well as the action station.
“We always have the salad bar. The action station is frequently vegan, or at least vegetarian anyway. And a lot of our items, we can make vegetarian upon request. For example, if we have a stir fry over at the action station, and it has shrimp, if somebody doesn’t want to have shrimp added to it, they don’t have to. The same thing with Mindful. Mindful, frequently, if it does have meat, you can choose, a lot of time, to not have the meat option.”
Eells stressed that she wants the menu to reflect the needs of the students. Currently, she is developing a team to provide more food options on campus.
Photos by Coraline Pettine.
“We are in the process of forming a food committee. And, I have spoken to some members of student government and I’ve worked with them through their ideas and their suggestions. And also, I’ve worked with Pura Vida, Cabrini’s Hispanic and Latino appreciation club, in using some of their suggestions on our menus as well.”
