Food allergies in the cafeteria

When N first started bringing his lunch to school (as a pre-schooler, no less!) the classroom rules were very clear. No peanut butter and no tree nuts because exposure to either of these foods could cause anaprophaleptic shock in a classmate. Although this was a huge pain at the beginning of the year, (no more apples and peanut butter??! "I hate sandwiches, and carrot sticks, and broccoli, and all I will eat is ...NOTHING!!), we got used to the restriction, and as the years went by, and more people became attuned to any potential problem (gluten-free, anyone?), snack time started to resemble a smorgasbord of creative, allegen free cooking.

Now we find ourselves in France, and A. has an egg allergy.

A's egg allergy is actually not a life-threatening allergy, such as the allergy to tree nuts that requires one of his friends to carry around an epi-pen. Medically speaking, he doesn't have an allergy, but a sensitivity and  exposure (even in minute quantities from cross-contamination like that experienced this summer at Richardson's, where an inattentive teenager didn't use a clean ice-cream scoop) leads to a "I want to die, my head hurts so much" headache. This type of headache is not the kind that you can power through, it is nothing to sneer at, and in fact, led him to lie on the couch, staring at the inside of his eyelids for the better part of three months last winter, before we figured out what the problem was.

However, it is easy to avoid eggs, and requires nothing more than label reading, and avoiding processed foods (cafeteria food/certain restaurant food,)  and in this particular case, simply bringing lunch from home.

The head of the school understood this. The principal understood, too, as did the homeroom teacher and the nurse. But the cafeteria monitors didn't. When A. went to sit down in the cafeteria with his friends, he was refused entrance to the room, and ended up eating lunch in the infirmary (at least there was a microwave there.) A flurry of phone conversations later and a faxed letter from our doctor at home (complete with translation and a bold signature) led to an official paper from the head office with three big stamps on it, and now, 2 days later, A.may eat with his friends.

Oh, the insane bureaucracy! I had forgotten about the power of the ink stamp! However, when A. tells me about the quality of the lunches, and the fact that now his friends are completely jealous of his "privilege" (of having homemade lunch,) I think that there's something else going on.

I think it's a monopoly. Here, you either buy lunch at school or you leave the school grounds and have lunch at home. In either case, the break between classes is one and a half hours - good if you live in the neighborhood, bad if you don't, and not possible if you work (the case of probably 98 percent of all parents.) Of course, there's the traditional pattern of copious lunches and lighter dinners that come into play as well, with the school providing the role of the larger lunches.  By bringing our lunch from home (one out of two students in a population of about 1600!) we have dared to usurp the role of the "canteen." Oh dear. I had to respond politely to a barrage of questions:  "Madame, comment -allez vous assurer un repas correct?" (What? I want my kid to die of starvation? Isn't it more likely to happen in a place where reports of stale bread flinging are legion??) " Bien sur, I'll send a sandwich complete repas chaud with salade, meat, tomato, accompanied by fruit and yogurt..." I'm not so sure about the hot meal part, I've been looking for a thermos and haven't found anything appropriate for food, yet. (My next stop is the camping store.) It's quite obvious that homemade lunches are just not "French."

But I have heard, and seen, that Starbucks has made a huge entry into the world of the French cafe. My prediction?

After the locker issue gets settled, the battle for the lunchroom looms. Let the revolution begin!