From Nina Moritsugu, parent of a child with food allergies
My experience at Brown has been that parents want to ensure that they do not bring food to school which could harm their child’s classmates. In some cases, however, parents are not 100% certain that the birthday treats they are bringing are safe, so they err on the side of caution and exclude the child with the allergy. We are prepared for that. It’s always better safe than sorry. But as we gear up for the new school year, I want to offer suggestions to make it easier for your child to share his or her birthday celebration with all classmates, if you wish to incorporate food as a part of it.
Bakeries in the school vicinity that offer nut-free baked goods:
Two Moms Baked Goods
Richman’s Bakery
Cupcake Shoppe.
Loblaws has a new line of frozen baked goods that are labeled nut-free.
If, like me, you often find yourself baking cupcakes at midnight the night before your child’s birthday, so ordering from a bakery is not an option, you might find it easier to keep in stock cake mixes and ready-made icings that are nut-free. As of the time of writing, most of the PC Organics, Duncan Hines and Betty Crocker mixes are peanut- and nut-free.
Here’s the fine print: Always read the label, because manufacturers tend to change their manufacturing facilities. Reputable food companies strictly adhere to Canadian government allergy labelling requirements. If you want to be absolutely sure, and the label does not explicitly say “peanut/nut free”, it just says nothing about nuts or peanuts, then you can email the company’s customer service department; they tend to be very responsive to such queries.
