When we arrived in France last summer, I was told that the only way that children could participate in the summer camps run by the city hall on a full-day basis was to eat the lunch provided by the catering company. Anyone that knows me well, will not be surprised that I refused to accept. After convincing the program that reasonable accomodations should be made and providing a note from a French allerologist, the camp managers accepted. Afterall, would it be fair to restrict a child to the confines of their home during summer vacations? Not at all. It is my belief that food allergy sufferers should be able to enjoy the same joys of living, given reasonable accomodation. The accomodation in this case was quite simple actually - do not feed Lady Grace anything other than what she brings to school in her lunch box and snack pack. We have the same plan at school and have never encountered a problem.
Interestingly, I just came across an article about food allergies and summer camps in the United States, which inspired this post. As much as we enjoy our experience in France, I do miss the level of sensitivity towards children with food allergies in the States. Did you know that there are even summer camps for children that are for food allergy sufferers? How awesome is that! Unfortunately, I don't think that I'll be able to find such a camp in France.
In France summer camp or school are liable for all the food eaten by student including they lunch boxes. They are very worried about the "cold chain" not to be broken, means foods needing to be in the fridge have to be keep all the time at fridge temperature, so lunch boxes are not authorize for that reason. In the States, here in Louisiana, students brings their lunch boxes with meat or sushi inside, and their are left in hallway (no AC) minimum at 80 degrees for 4 hours or more.... And that if the lunch boxes are prepared in the morning and not at night before...It's a different approche.
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