Lehigh University in Bethlehem introduces allergen-free station at dining hall 1 / 10 Sodexo employee Ken Krajcik sautes some peppers and onions that will be served with chicken at the Simple Servings station in the Rathbone Student Restaurant. The purpose of the station is to eliminate the most common allergies from meals the students and staff buy. Bill Adams | The Express-Times Print Kelly Huth | The Express-Times By Kelly Huth | The Express-Times on November 24, 2013 at 7:30 AM, updated November 24, 2013 at 7:42 AM Email For students like Gregory Yannes, finding a decent meal is at your own risk. Yannes is an 18-year-old freshman at Lehigh University. His allergies make a typical college dining hall a minefield of decisions. Lehigh University introduced a new station this fall for students like Yannes at their Rathbone Student Restaurant. Simple Servings is a station that provides meals without gluten, milk, eggs, soy, tree nuts, peanuts, shellfish or wheat – the eight most common allergens, according to Sodexo, which runs the university’s dining services. Yannes, who’s allergic to gluten, eggs, milk, coffee, peanuts and apples, says he uses it religiously. “I can bypass the whole scavenging from station to station to try to cobble together a decent meal,” Yannes says. Kristin Piazza, director of dining services, says the goal is for students to have the best possible dining experience. “We don’t want them to feel left out or that they’re excluded,” Piazza says. How it works It’s not an easy feat to create an allergen-free station in a dining hall that serves about 10,000 to 14,000 students each week. “It’s a different menu every meal period, every day,” says Rhonda Henry, marketing specialist with Sodexo. Previously the dining hall had a Your Choice station that offered gluten-free cereals, soups, pastas and breads for students with gluten intolerance, which has now been incorporated into Simple Servings. When the station was being built, it was a matter of getting the right equipment, says Joseph Kornafel, executive chef for Lehigh dining. They use purple -- the symbolic color for allergen-free in the food world -- utensils, carts and cutting boards. The equipment never leaves that station for fear of cross-contamination. Only specially trained chefs work behind the counter. Labels spell out exactly what’s in each dish. But it was also a matter of education. Carrie Gerencher, the school’s registered dietitian, says she started doing education programs to introduce students to the station. She also reached out to coaches and student-athletes (a large population that frequents Rathbone) to make sure they understood how the system worked and to always get a clean plate before taking food from the station to avoid cross-contamination. Kornafel says Sodexo maintains a database of allergen-free recipes, but he’s also asked students for input. “We have developed 60 different recipes on top of Sodexo’s list that students have loved,” he adds. Students wanted ethnic and regional dishes like they’d find at home. Southwest Chicken, Honey Mango Chicken and Pork Vindaloo have all been big hits, he says. They test batch recipes before serving the students and some never even make it to the floor. Birch Beer Chicken got mediocre reviews and was scrapped. His pre- and post-production reports tell him how much is being eaten. He tries to honor requests with help from Gerencher. “A lot of times you’ll look at a recipe and say, ‘I don’t see the allergen.’ That’s where Carrie comes into play,” Kornafel says. A zucchini toss, for example, called for an 80/20 blend of olive oil -- which has soy in it. If he uses extra virgin olive oil or canola, it becomes allergen-free. Why they added it The idea was to make Simple Servings a manned station so that students could ask questions of the chef preparing the food or request a customized option if they had a specific allergy, Kornafel says. Five or six years ago, Piazza says, the school realized with the number of students coming in with allergies or intolerance, they needed a nutritionist on board. “Parents have come through (on tours) complaining about other schools who don’t address it,” Piazza says. “We feel great in knowing they can enroll their students here, sending them off on their own.” Simple Servings is new to Lehigh, not to Sodexo. The company offered it one year ago, but Henry says Lehigh is the first Lehigh Valley college to pick up on it. Piazza says Rathbone, one of Lehigh’s largest dining halls, is the only one that offers Simple Servings, but there are plans to expand to an additional dining center next summer, possibly more after that. Kornafel says he’s found it’s not just the students with allergies frequenting his station. More and more students want to know what’s going into their food. Henry cites the millennial generation getting savvier about food choice. Kornafel adds that student-athletes and coaches appreciate being able to identify their fuel. “If they can identify every single ingredient in the dish, they’re more willing to try it,” he adds. The response “Fifty percent of the student population is eating at this station,” Piazza says. And it’s not just the students with allergies. Yannes says he’s witnessed other freshmen telling other students how good the food was and to try a sample. For his own sake, Simple Servings allows him to be more secure in what he’s eating. At other places he’s had to pick what has the least amount of gluten and deal with the headache that follows. Yannes says even his relatively minor reactions can impair how he functions the rest of the day. “When you see colleges like Lehigh incorporating gluten-free (and other) options, it’s a huge deal,” Yannes says. “Even though they may not have to, they’re willing to.” * * * Nix the allergens: Simple Servings crafts meals without using eight allergens: milk eggs soy tree nuts peanuts shellfish wheat gluten * * * Online: Have specific dietary restrictions or allergies? Search gluten free, vegetarian and vegan restaurants in our Find a Restaurant database at lehighvalleylive/food. Find it on the right-hand side of the page. 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