West Newsmagazine 5-17-17

20 I SCHOOLS I
May 17, 2017
WEST NEWSMAGAZINE
Luisa, 84
By MARY SHAPIRO
@WESTNEWSMAG
WESTNEWSMAGAZINE.COM
Parkway plans to limit outside food
being brought into schools
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SAFETY FAIR
Saturday, May 20, 2017
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A food safety protocol that will limit the
type of outside food allowed in schools
and shared with others, such as for parties,
is planned in Parkway for the 2017-2018
school year.
Robin Wallin, the district’s director of
health services, said, “The driving force
behind the protocol development has been
the rising incidence of food allergies in
Parkway and the continuing episodes of
life-threatening reactions [anaphylaxis]
that are occurring at school.”
She noted that the district has seen “a
dramatic increase in the number of students
with life-threatening food allergies.”
In the 2008-2009 school year, the district
had 340 students with food allergies. In
the current year, that number has jumped
to 1,123.
“Additionally, there have been 21 episodes
of anaphylaxis in Parkway in the past three
school years, including nine this school year
alone,” Wallin said. “In analyzing these
events, we noted that more than half of the
events were caused by classroom parties
and students sharing food. In an effort to try
and reduce the risk of anaphylaxis for our
students with food allergies, we drafted a
protocol to reduce potential exposures that
happen from sharing food.”
The basic elements of the protocol
include trying to keep classrooms foodfree
when possible and not sharing food
brought from home.
“Additionally, we are planning to be
very mindful when food is used in the curriculum,
being sure that parents and school
nurses have advance notice about this,”
Wallin said. “We are also encouraging our
schools to find safe and inclusive ways to
celebrate birthdays and holidays without
using food. We will be asking staff to avoid
using food as a reward or motivator.”
Wallin said the protocol will not preclude
giving assistance to students who are
hungry. If a staff member suspects that a
student does not have access to adequate
nutritious meals, a counselor or administrator
will be notified and assistance provided,
she said.
Eliza McGonigle and Maya Sagett,
fifth-graders at Green Trails Elementary,
expressed concern about the protocol
during the comment portion of the district’s
Board of Education meeting on April 12.
“The higher grade levels know what they
can and cannot eat, so maybe this policy
could just be set among the younger students,”
Sagett suggested. She said she felt
there are many foods that would be safe for
parties, such as 7Up and pizza.
Some foods can be unusually scary for
students, especially those containing
allergens such as strawberries and peanut
butter.
[shutterstock.com]
“Pizza is a good idea because it doesn’t
have our school’s most feared allergy
– peanuts – and all of the students in our
school love it, and it is what we are already
being served in the cafeteria,” she said.
McGonigle agreed. “If we’re allowed
to eat the food from the cafeteria that they
serve us, we could just get the same food
we would be served at the school at the parties
– all of the students in our grade want
this,” she said.
McGonigle said she had seen few uses of
EpiPens [auto-injectors of epinephrine, for
the emergency treatment of anaphylaxis]
at school. However, Paul Tandy, the district’s
chief communications officer, said
all schools have EpiPens on hand and the
number of times they are being used has
increased significantly.
Likewise, Wallin noted that more than
half of the students who have had lifethreatening
food allergy episodes at school
were middle or high school students.
“This is a concern across age spans and
the danger doesn’t lessen as a student gets
older,” Wallin said.
“One of the things we try to do is teach
kids about caring, and this is one way for
students to care about classmates with
allergies. In this case, keeping classmates
safe includes not sharing food because, in
an average classroom, there’s at least one
student with a food allergy.”
District officials came up with draft
ideas for the new food safety protocol
at the beginning of this school year and
shared them with administrators, teachers,
parents, students and others to gather feedback,
Wallin said.
“Some schools have gone ahead and
started adopting parts of the protocol, particularly
the ones about having celebrations
without food. We know that’s asking
for a culture shift, because we are a nation
that celebrates with food,” she said.
Tandy added that the district’s “nurses
feel we need to reduce the amount of food
students bring in for sharing, to reduce
exposure of that to kids with allergies.”
“This is all about student safety,” he said.