Allergies and Classroom Activities

Being horticulture instructors, many of our lessons with kids involve food. It's a good way to get them involved and interested in the subject matter. The number one problem you are going to run into with activities that involve food are allergies. I don't know if it's just me, but I feel like kids have more allergies and intolerances than ever before. I certainly don't remember many kids having them back when I was in elementary school. But it is a fact of life you have to deal with and tailoring lessons around these problems is essential to happy kids and happy parents. Here are some general guidelines to follow if you're teaching a lesson involving food in a classroom.
1. The first thing you need to do is find out if the kids in your classroom has an allergy. This is often information that all teachers will have for you should you need it. If you classroom is allergy free, then you're pretty much set to go. Not many kids will have vegetable allergies so what you have to worry about more are the things you bring to eat with the vegetables (crackers, dips, spreads, etc).
2. Check for intolerances. Gluten and dairy intolerance are also becoming much more common so if you want to bring food in, check classes for these common occurrences as well.
3. Once you've established what allergies and intolerances you are facing, figure out a few basic food items you CAN bring in. It's good to have supplemental items along with vegetables for kids to have like crackers. I recommend bringing a plain variety of crackers and a gluten-free variety of cracker.
4. Let the parents know. At least 5 days before your lesson, send a note home with kids to inform parents what the students will be eating, what else will be provided and how they are invited to engage. I've found most teachers feel comfortable when you invite the parents to send more supplemental food items with their children, so they have a larger amount of control over what their kids are eating. This way, your supplemental food items become a back-up in case a parent or student forgets to bring things from home. And, of course, always include contact information for parents if they have questions.

And that's that! Keeping parents happy is a major component of food lessons in the classroom, so always make sure to take their input into account when planning!