The decision to build one of the first gluten-free dining halls started with a booth at Kent State University’s summer orientation in Kent, Ohio. Each year, the dining department sets up a table to answer questions from incoming freshmen. In increasing numbers, Kent’s dietitian was flooded with queries about food options for gluten-intolerant students.
“For a handful of students, this is life or death,” says Richard Roldan, director of dining services. “The fear in their eyes that this could harm them was a reality check for us.”
It was these conversations with a spectrum of students that pushed Roldan and his team to go beyond the gluten-free stations in the dining halls and create a guaranteed safe haven. This summer, dining services kicked off the project by renovating Kent’s Prentice Cafe, pressure washing, and sanitizing and steaming every piece of equipment. However, constructing an entirely gluten-free oasis wasn’t as simple as cleaning the space and banning bagels and other wheat byproducts—it meant installing a whole new protocol for doing business, including these three rules.