Photo Courtesy of EatingAtHofstra on Twitter

My name is Ethan Poole. I am a freshman at Hofstra, and I am allergic to eggs, peanuts, tree nuts, watermelon and pitted fruits. As you can imagine, this has made eating on campus a stressful experience, a threat to my health and has greatly limited my food options – even though Hofstra has stated that they practice food safety.

On Halloween, I went to HofUSA to get a late-night snack with a friend. I ordered my usual order of a milkshake and fries and entered my allergies on the ordering kiosk as I always do. About halfway through drinking my milkshake, I noticed the trademark symptoms of the onset of an allergic reaction: an odd dry sensation in my throat, severe stomach pain and nausea. I had to be transported to the hospital where I was treated and not released until 6:30 a.m. the next day.

This was obviously a traumatic event. I felt terrible for a few days after and had to miss most of my classes for the rest of the week. The allergic reaction and the subsequent illness that followed also contributed to severe anxiety when I am around food, which I am still dealing with a month later.

A couple of weeks later, I was waiting for my lunch at the Netherlands core dining hall, and I again noted my allergies on the kiosk. While I was waiting, I saw the chef flip an egg product on the grill, and then immediately flip my steak and vegetable medley with the same cooking instrument without any effort to wash it or to change equipment.

Obviously, I did not eat this meal, and I immediately left the hall to collect my thoughts and to get lunch in a place where I knew I would be safe.

I have had several severe stomach upsets throughout my first few months at Hofstra. I chalked this up to IBS flare-ups due to the stress of being a new college student or a simple instance of something being too heavy for my stomach to handle. With my new knowledge of the school’s clear lack of food allergy safety protocols in the kitchen, I am left to wonder if these instances were minor allergic reactions onset by small exposures to my allergens through cross contamination.

Hofstra quite simply needs to do better when preparing food for people with allergies. My hospital visit could have gone in a far worse direction if it was not for my quick action as well as the fantastic care I received.

These cross contamination incidents could cause a similar hospital visit for someone with more severe allergies than me or if there was a higher amount of the allergen present in the food. Kitchen workers need to either know how to handle allergies, or they need to inform students that they will be unable to accommodate certain allergies and sensitivities.

Thankfully, the school does seem to be taking these incidents seriously. I recently had a meeting with the campus dietitian and the executive chef. They assured me that they will be holding meetings with their dining staff to review allergy safety practices and to reestablish the importance of safety for students with allergies. While only time will tell if this was a successful meeting, I was pleased with their response, and I hope that this saga will soon be only an unpleasant memory.