UMass Dining - "Best Dining in the Country" ... LOL

I want to focus a lot of your attention to the experience I have had at college. I decided to post parts of this essay I wrote for my English class my first semester of freshman year. After writing this, my professor sent it around to the head of all the dining halls in hopes for some change. Enjoy the read and I will be going into greater detail of my experiences in another post soon. 

Having Celiac Disease in college is very difficult to accommodate for, I would know first hand. Many gluten free foods do not have all of the nutrients so it is very important that people on these diets fit in as much nutrients as possible. UMass Amherst offers many different options for gluten free diets, but it has seemed like the options are for people on diets instead of those with Celiac Disease. UMass Amherst does not take care of those with Celiac Disease as much as they should. I have found my experiences eating here very disappointing in terms of the quality of the food and amount of cross-contamination. Cross contamination is a very big issue when it comes to those with Celiac Disease.
Those with Celiac need separate pans, utensils, cooking areas, plates, and the workers must change their gloves and wash their hands. There are many ways to prevent cross-contamination in an industrial kitchen. One way is to create different unloading docks for the gluten free to prevent any cross-contamination within the boxes. Kitchens must always store gluten free products in a completely different location to prevent mixing the products. Even dust particles from gluten products can create cross-contamination when touching gluten free products so it is important to make sure that the ventilation system will not cause wheat particles to mix with gluten free. Another way to prevent cross-contamination would be to dedicate multiple gluten free chefs in each kitchen, or train each staff member to be Celiac certified. I see so much cross-contamination at UMass Amherst, pretty much in every dining hall.
​Just yesterday I was at Berkshire dining hall getting a sandwich. The chefs are well aware as to what gluten free is but they do not treat it properly. They wash their hands, change their gloves, and make the sandwich on a new plate for gluten free. But, they take the meats and toppings out of the same containers that they just stuck their wheat hands in and do not take meats/toppings out of certified gluten free containers like they told me when I toured. They also toast the sandwiches in the same toaster as they cook wheat one’s which is a big sign of cross-contamination, then, continue to cut the sandwich with the same knife that they cut all of the wheat sandwiches with. I am very disappointed in the lack of consideration these dining halls have for people with Celiac. Berkshire dining hall is not the only hall that I have witnessed cross contamination at. Every hall has gluten free options but ... I do not trust anything that I am eating there. The dining hall administration is supposed to trust that kids will not use the same utensils for different meals? Once one person takes food from a bowl that is gluten free and touches that utensil with something that is wheat on their plate, then puts the utensil back in the gluten free bowl that whole meal has been compromised with wheat and those with Celiac can no longer eat it. 

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