Holder Justice Department Ensures Hot Gluten-Free Food on Campus
The Eric Holder Justice Department is on a roll, this time threatening to sue Lesley University in Cambridge, Massachusetts. The problem? The lack of hot delicious gluten-free food in the university cafeteria. Thanks to Eric Holder, the Federal government is bringing big changes to the college mess hall. Among the new federal mandates at Lesley:
· Continually provide ready-made hot and cold gluten- and allergen-free food options in its dining hall food lines;
· Develop individualized meal plans for students with food allergies, and allow those students to pre-order allergen free meals, that can be made available at the university’s dining halls in Cambridge and Boston;
· Provide a dedicated space in its main dining hall to store and prepare gluten-free and allergen-free foods and to avoid cross-contamination;
· Work to retain vendors that accept students’ prepaid meal cards that offer food without allergens.
The college was also required to fork over $50,000 for peace. Expect smelly perfumes to be the Fed’s next target. You can read the absurd agreement here. Read it and ponder the tens of thousands of federal tax dollars behind the agreement – the travel, the time, the costs. Would George Bush have signed the Americans with Disability Act had he known it would result in federal government bureaucrats drafting agreements that include this:
The University understands that students may be at or near different parts of campus during lunch and dinner and might prefer to have their meals delivered to these locations. Accordingly, when students order meals via the Pre-Order Option described in Paragraph 4(d), students may request that the University deliver their meals to the University’s other dining hall and food eatery facilities. Students should provide the Food Service Provider with reasonable twenty-four (24) hours advanced notice to allow the Food Service Provider to prepare and deliver the meal to the designated location. The University will make reasonable efforts to deliver the meals to the designated location after receiving 24 hours advanced notice, but in certain circumstances may be unable to deliver meals in a timely manner due to inclement weather or other transportation impediments. Due to the limited size and capacity of the University’s dining hall kitchens, the University will prepare such meals at the White Hall kitchen facility. These meals will then be delivered to the other University kitchens, where they are kept separate to avoid cross-contamination.
And it wasn’t enough for Holder for the college to simply offer hot gluten free meals, they had to agree to this:
The University will maintain the dedicated area and ensure that it contains the following:
(i) A sink and counter area, dish rack, and other kitchen supplies, (i.e., paper towels, dish soap, sponges, etc.), refreshed as necessary;
(ii) A refrigerator and freezer for perishable items;
(iii) Cabinet space for non-perishable items;
(iv) Separate appliances, including a microwave and toaster; and
(v) A food warmer to keep pre-ordered meals warm.
Lesley President Joseph Moore was obviously more interested in getting Eric Holder off his back than testing the questionable legal basis behind this federal intrusion.
Yeah, well he SHOULDA frikken known!!!
And Bob Dole should rot in hell (once he gets there)for the ADA, as well. All his stupid, ridiculous ideas about that draconian POS that has ruined the constructon industry and driven thousands and thousands of businesses out of business completely.
His bright ideas:
1)Don’t actually establish an OSHA type agency, just let the DOJ handle it. That makes it simpler and less costly. WRONG!!! It also means there are no actual rules, just some vague legalese accompanied by sketches which lawyers treat as sacred, even though they are technically meaningless, thus lawyers now have more to say about building design than the Arhitect does. Besides, what one judge declares legal on Tuesday, another declares illegal on Thursday.
2)”Whaddyah think, people will just run around suing people for tiny little infractions? I hardly think so!” EFFING IDIOT! Half of America is NGOs just looking for trouble, 24/7/365. Way more dough is blown on lawyers than the construction actully costs. Again: Effing IDIOT!!!
They didn’t even begin to define “disabled”.
Allergen free food? If you you put my family there the only food available would be water. Mom is allergic to most fresh fruits & vegetables, dad is allergic to wheat and fowl, one sister is allergic to peanuts, niece has the milk allergy (really, anything with the casenite protein) and while I don’t have a food allergy per se, I am allergic to mold, so no bleu cheese or brie, et al.
The morons just don’t understand. The easiest thing to do is simply close down the University cafeteria. If I was in charge this is exactly what I would do.
Lets see how that would work out to the benefit of the students.
You must be kidding me. As a person with Celiac I have enough trouble ensuring that my food is safe for me to consume. Good for these kids, if I am remembering the backstory of this the university had been treating these students terribly due to requests for accommodations, would not let them opt out of a meal plan they could not use, and would not allow access to cooking equipment.
What, in your perfect world where you likely do not have to double or triple check the ingredients of your food, should these students have done?
Nobody is arguing that people with Celiac shouldn’t eat hidden gluten. The only question is whether the federal government of the United States, under which provision of the Constitution, is exercising power properly and responsibly. The delivery mandates in the agreement are an example of overreach. This isn’t about whether people should be tricked into eating gluten; this is about whether federal law supports this federal action, or whether it should. Just because something seems well intended doesn’t mean it is sound.
Im sorry…I must be missing something with that line of logic and how it responds to the question of how these students should have managed this situation where their health was being ignored and their need for safe food was being blatantly ignored by the university that was providing no accommodation to the students.
A school that takes federal funding has been bound by the ADA, since its inception, to make accommodations for people with disabilities this is nothing new…and a condition such as Celiac most certainly results in symptoms that qualify as disabling when exposure to gluten is unavoidable.
I am not sure what exactly you mean by the “delivery mandates”, the part where the students can give the kitchens 24hr notice if they would like to eat elsewhere on campus from the main dining area or the part where a safe area for food preparation to occur without cross-contamination is mandated. If it is just the former I could perhaps understand your disagreement, but based upon your statement above “And it wasn’t enough..” I dont think it is.
All the university had to do to avoid this was allow students to opt out of the meal plans they provide and give access to kitchen facilities for the students who need them… Instead they refused to even make simple and reasonable accommodations before the government had to get involved and this happened.
Kevin – tell us what the federal government shouldn’t be involved with.
The federal government should be involved with as little as possible when it comes to the lives of the average person going about their every day life. That line is crossed when an organization taking federal monies gives individuals no reasonable way to live their lives without being constantly ill…forced to pay for food that is unsafe for them…it seems like a somewhat appropriate place for oversight. I understand your concerns and feelings re: government, they are probably the same as mine…but this government intervention actually makes a bit of sense, doesnt it?
This is not a restaurant in a historical area being shut down for not being handicapped accessible enough by an ADA lawsuit mill, this is not a small business being pigeon holed into a corner when they did nothing wrong but start a business, and this is not something you would see on http://www.adaabuse.com/ …
To perhaps get a glimpse of what many people in similar situations to the three students involved with this, try reading at least the first two parts of this blog series on the National Foundation for Celiac Awareness’s website: http://www.celiaccentral.org/kids/parents/articles/gluten-free-college-dining-halls-challenge-1/rev–2/
Good grief! My daughter is gluten-free and she packs her own food to eat while on campus (she doesn’t trust supposedly “gluten-free” offerings due to previous problems). It would never occur to her to demand that the university make sure she is supplied with food she can eat. She views it as her responsibility.
That said, not allowing the students to opt out of meal plans due to medically necessary dietary restrictions was certainly short-sighted by the university.
If the university was (1) accepting federal money — making them subject to the ADA, and (2) forcing students with celiac to pay for a meal plan for food they could not eat, then as much as I hate the federal gov’t getting involved with nonsense like this, they DID need to get involved because the university was being asinine. Students should be allowed to opt out of the dining plan if gluten-free food is not available. And being available doesn’t mean being able to graze from the salad bar to get a few sprigs of broccoli to eat or some such. Provide gluten-free food, or allow the student to opt out.