I've been meaning to start this thread for awhile, but was waiting until I had some real information to share. I still don't have a lot, but here's what we've found so far:
To be honest we didn't do that much research on our regular tours - we saved it for the schools we knew were in serious contention. DS
reeeeaaaallllly doesn't like talking about it or calling attention to it - which made my sleuthing a little challenging.
William and Mary and one of the SUNY schools did make special mention of it on their general tours. I knew from a friend's son's experience that University of Maryland excels in dealing with special needs wrt to food; from what I remember reading they were one of the first schools to jump on it years ago, and many other colleges looked to their expertise when coming up with their own food service plans.
Northeastern was
amazing. Simply amazing. When we were there we went to the dining hall and DH asked one of the food servers if the desserts were safe for DS. I rolled my eyes and said, "Why are you even bothering to ask?" Not one minute later the food service director approached our table and asked us what concerns we had. He then went on to tell us that not only were the desserts totally safe for DS, but apart from chick peas on the salad bar, the occasional sesame bagel, and single serve peanut butter containers, everything in the dining hall was OK for DS's allergens. I wanted to ask how they handle things like eggs, dairy, etc., but was literally crying too hard to speak to him. (Embarrassing X 100!) He did explain that there are all sorts of great tools out now for food service, like color coded tongs, forks, etc., to make preparing special meals easier. And he displayed tremendous knowledge of X-contam, may contains, etc. I wanted to put down the deposit right then and there, but DS had other criteria he wanted to consider...
I'm nagging him about getting hold of the food service director at the school he chose, so we can meet with her during orientation at the end of June. BTW, he went with one of our state universities. Food did not enter into his decision at all. He made the decision solely on academic merits of the school.
One thing that was interesting - while we were at Northeastern I spoke briefly with the Disabilities Coordinator, and he said that they don't deal with FA's unless it impacts the academic experience. Issues regarding dorms, dining halls, etc. are handled by their separate departments such as Housing, Food Service, etc.
We'll see how things go at DS's school of choice. All the dorms do have cooking facilities should he need them, but knowing how he feels about cooking I imagine he'd rather resort to pizza 3 meals a day.
And so the journey begins. I may have to start coloring my hair again.
BTW, FAI's website has a nice questionnaire for college students to answer about their experiences on campus, how they handle things, how they feel about it. Maybe by the time the younger kids here are off to college, there will be a decent database of information to draw upon.
So, anyone else have anything to add?