Marigold Nugent
A sign from the on-campus dining hall, The Caf, outlines nine foods present at the salad bar, and indicates that none of these options are gluten-free. The Caf’s lack of an allergy-free food station has sidelined students with life-threatening food allergies, such as Celiac disease, who must still pay for a meal-plan while living on campus.
Students with food allergies who dine at The Caf are fighting a seemingly neverending battle with getting the food accommodations they need.
As required by the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA), CMU must implement proper accommodations for impacted students.
Despite not having a formal diagnosis of Celiac disease, freshman exercise science major Alysa Anderson faces all the associated symptoms.
Celiac is an autoimmune disease where the ingestion of gluten leads to damage in the small intestine.
She has dealt with these symptoms since second grade and prioritized learning about what accommodations CMU provided for her and others with serious food allergies. On tours of CMU prior to enrolling, she was assured multiple times that she would have options.
“When I toured here, I asked what they could do for kids that are gluten-free and made sure that they had, like, options,” Anderson said. “And it was always, ‘yes, yes, yes.’”
CMU emphasized its safe food options and available consultations with a dietitian during these tours. They also showed her the allergy-free station at The Caf, a central dining location on campus managed by the third-party contractor, Sodexo.
“[I] never had a doubt that there wouldn’t be food options here,” Anderson said.
However, upon moving to campus, Anderson encountered several problems when requesting food that fits her doctor-recommended diet.
During her first week of school, she would eat at the allergy-free area twice a day, every day. Almost instantly, she started having stomach pains.
Anderson did not know the cause of these sudden symptoms, but it came to her attention that, despite previous advertising, the “allergy-free” area was actually only “allergy-friendly”.
With “allergy-friendly” options, allergens such as dairy, egg, gluten, shellfish, tree nuts and peanuts are not served, and The Caf tries to avoid cross-contamination. However, a lack of cross-contimation is not assured.
She reports advocating her needs to the kitchen staff, but struggles in receiving accommodations. When Anderson is at the burger station, for example, she reports having to wait for around 10 minutes to receive a gluten-free bun.
“If I don’t stay up there and stand there and, like, stare at them, they will go do something else and like, I get it, they’re busy. But also, like, I shouldn’t have to stand up there for 10 minutes and wait,” Anderson said.
Furthermore, during limited selection hours from 1:30-5 p.m., The Caf closes the allergy-friendly station altogether.
Due to record-breaking numbers of incoming freshmen, students have pushed The Caf’s capacity to its limits. Wait times are only increasing, but Anderson says Sodexo staff neglect to refill the allergy-friendly meals after running out.
The Caf advertises that students are able to go at any time and receive food. However, this is not the case for those with food allergies. Despite the limited convenient and safe food options for students with dietary restrictions, a student living on campus is required to buy a meal plan. Residential meal plans average $6000 each academic year.
“I just don’t think I’m having the same experience in The Caf as everybody else is. Like, I feel like it’s unfair, I guess, that I should have to wait so long, and everybody else has it like instantly,” Anderson said.
Due to these issues with The Caf, Anderson went to Educational Access Services (EAS), where she was told that she would be put in contact with a dietitian and other dining hall personnel. However, she never heard back from EAS.
“Ideally, like, in a perfect world, what I would want is, like, a dedicated area in the kitchen where they prepare food with zero contamination, and then have that available all the time,” Anderson said.
During The Caf’s routine food and safety inspection by Mesa County Public Health in Jan. 2025, the inspector observed an employee sneezing and coughing into their hands and subsequently handling clean dishes without washing their hands. Additionally, employees were observerd reusing single-use gloves.
At the burger station, bottles of salt, water and cooking oil were not properly labeled. The inspector also observed several dishes with residue from food and soap still present after a final rinse.
All of these infractions were corrected on-site the day of observation. However, a lack of proper identification and food residue could be a hazard for cross contamination.
Anderson was told that CMU plans for improvement with the upcoming Formation District Dining Hall in August 2026, but this answer brought attention to the university’s current inaction.
“I appreciate that they’re trying, but they need to do something for the kids right now,” Anderson said.
This issue continues to affect a significant number of students using The Caf.
“Whenever I’m in line for something and asking about gluten-free, there’s always people around me that are like, chiming in, like trying to see what I know and versus what they know,” Anderson said.
Freshman Allie Mahn, who has been on a gluten-free diet since age nine, also found few answers to her questions about available options. She attempted to speak with a dietitian as well.
Mahn thinks that The Caf should do a better job at advertising the accommodations they do have and provide consistent nutrition information regarding ingredients.
This has been an issue for several years.
K McCormack is a fifth-year applied anthropology and geography major who was officially diagnosed with Celiac disease in January 2020.
At the start of their freshman year, McCormack was put in contact with the highest manager at The Caf who told them that the available food was changing to include an allergy-free station, with six out of the top nine allergens excluded.
Rather than adding a Qdoba restaurant in Tomlinson Library, McCormack was also told that the space was originally going to be a clean, allergen-free kitchen.
McCormack stayed at CMU for their sophomore year, in part, for these promises but they never came through.
“It is astonishing how so many things can be promised to students and just never fulfilled,” McCormack said.
Additionally, McCormack was informed that one of their options for receiving gluten-free meals would be going back to the kitchen and asking chefs to personally make them a meal. However, this proved to not be an option.
“No one seemed, you know, jazzed to have some random student back there,” McCorkmack said. “There’s a few things that I think like they could have done worse, but there’s nothing that I’m seeing that makes me glad that I chose CMU based on my dietary needs. I stay at CMU for other reasons. It’s absolutely not for the food.”
Sodexo’s staff at The Caf and CMU Dining declined an interview.