Yesterday unfortunately flagged up some of the pitfalls of misunderstanding. I had had many email conversations with the person dealing with the food, and was told that it would be a ploughmans style lunch. Ok fine. My expectation was that I would have a plate to myself with the things I could eat on it. Scrap that.
When I first arrived we were all offered biscuits (nothing GF for me, but fortunately I had taken my own.) even though I had been told that these would be provided.
Half way through the morning I could smell hot cross buns being cooked. Nothing for me, although the person dealing with the food had sourced some gluten free cake for me (GF hot cross buns are not easy to come by)
At lunch time, as stated above, the expectation was a completely separate plate of food. When I went out to see if lunch was ready, it was all set out on the table and to my disappointment there was: breaded ham (sigh!), Pate (sigh!), Pizza, quiche, sausage rolls, cheese, tomatoes and lettuce. I was mistaken in not taking my own butter/margarine as there was only one pot which everyone else was happily spreading on chunks of french bread, so I couldn't use that either. The response I got 'was oh is it that bad' when I know on one of the very first communications I sent to this person I actually made a point of telling him 'that you have to treat it as you would a very severe nut allergy' Obviously fell on deaf ears. The breaded ham to me was a very silly mistake and was obvious it wasn't thought about.
Whilst I have no problem with Cheese this was huge big chunks of cheddar that were very dry. Whilst I know the person is only a volunteer, it just shows that sometimes it doesn't matter how much or even what you tell people you have to make sure they understand what the problem is. Basically if I hadn't taken my own rolls, I would have had a very limited choice of food as obviously I couldn't eat any of the other products. It was touch and go whether the yoghurt provided for afters would have been suitable, this is why I bang on about learning to read labels, it took me less that 5 min to ascertain that they were safe for me.
Why don't people say and do what they are going to do? I was told that they would provide food for me and just assumed that Pate would be safe and didn't read the label. Every pack of Pate on the table contained wheat starch, but I was most upset about the ham, that was just totally not thinking, if I can't eat bread then it's obvious I can't eat anything breaded....or is that just my brain?
I was disappointed, as there hadn't been much effort put in the only item that had been provided specifically for me was the packet of Bakewell slices. This brings home why nearly all Coeliacs take their own food to things, as people just do not understand and make assumptions about food, which as yesterday proved can leave the Coeliac with not a lot to eat, or quite often, nothing at all.
Ah well, work do tomorrow.........lets see how I do there (taking my own food, so I won't starve, this is more about, reactions from colleagues not misunderstandings about what I can and can't eat) Nervous about that too, but I won't go hungry!!!
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