Dining Hall

Through communication, training, and collaboration, Kent School supports community members with food allergies.

The nine most common food allergies impacting Kent School students are peanuts, tree nuts, dairy, eggs, soy, wheat, fish, shellfish, and sesame. The purpose of Kent School’s Food Allergen Policy and Guidelines is to create and maintain a safe dining environment for students with food allergies and to support parents regarding food allergies. Food allergies can potentially be life-threatening.

Students and parents must understand and accept the risk associated with attending a boarding school with a food allergy. Kent School cannot and does not guarantee that students with allergies will not be exposed to a food allergen. The School does prepare food in its Dining Hall and sell food in its School Store and Snack Bar that contain these allergens.

Kent School’s guidelines include but are not limited to Dining Services employees receiving training regarding food allergy education, strategies to identify students with life-threatening food allergies, and measures to limit exposure and cross-contamination in our facility.

While we maintain safe allergen practices in the Kent School kitchen at all times, our kitchen is not an allergen-free facility. While our kitchen is a nut-free facility, our snack bar contains peanuts and tree nuts. Our kitchen facility contains wheat products, dairy products, eggs, fish, shellfish, soy, and sesame. While we are extremely cautious in our preparation and cooking methods to avoid cross-contact or cross-contamination, it must be known that these allergen items are in our facility.

The Dining Hall is a tree nut and peanut-free facility. The food service team will not knowingly use products that contain peanuts or tree nuts. We will not intentionally purchase items that list peanuts or tree nuts in the ingredient statement. Our Dining Services management team’s philosophy prioritizes using fresh ingredients and avoids the use of processed foods whenever possible. The Dining Services team will make reasonable efforts to avoid using products that have labels stating that the product may have come into contact with nuts during production.

The Dining Services team also operates as a gluten and shellfish allergy-aware program and will ensure that shellfish and gluten-containing products are properly labeled and segregated. This includes the labeling and segregation of cooking oil used in food preparation.

Wellbeing is our top priority. The ingredients of each food item are listed on signs in the servery so individuals can easily access them and assess safe food choices for themselves. 

To support the allergen labeling process, food ingredients, including labels of all food items, will be reviewed prior to menu preparation.

The Dining Services team will communicate allergen information on daily menu signage. This posting will identify foods with allergens that should be avoided.

We cannot, however, guarantee that all allergens are properly identified and labeled. Kent School relies on current food allergen labeling laws on the packaged products that we utilize. The responsibility for selecting safe foods must remain with the student and their parent(s).

The Dining Services staff receives annual allergen and EpiPen training in case of emergency. The training also helps to create awareness of potential trigger foods to ensure the safety of all community members.

Students with food allergies will be encouraged to share allergy information with a trained member of the dining services team about their specific allergies.

Upon request, a member of the Dining Services management team will be available to meet with each individual student who has a documented food allergy concern and/or their parent(s) to discuss the student's dietary needs.