Others are fired up…me, no so much……
A group of friends decide to attend a fancy tea party and one of the friends has celiac disease. The venue states on their website they cannot accommodate food allergies and they do not allow outside food into the venue. What to do?
The outrage that ensued is amazing. Let’s talk about the two types of responses….
- “The venue should know that they are missing out on business because they don’t accommodate food allergies.” The business already knows. They made a business decision not to accommodate food allergies. The business may or may not be losing out on a bunch of customers, but they seem to be doing just fine based on an inability to get an immediate reservation. Remember only about 1% of the population has celiac disease, so they are potentially losing out on 1% of the business. From a business perspective, I understand the decision.
- “They are not ADA Compliant. You can take in your own food.” The Americans with Disabilities Act covers those with celiac disease. For example, if you are at a place where you are forced to buy food, the business must either provide a reasonable alternative or refund a portion of the fee. This only applies to places where food must be purchased – think freshman in college living in dorms required to purchase a meal plan. This does not apply to places you “voluntarily” and “temporarily” go to. The venue has stated they cannot accommodate food allergies and are now compliant with ADA regulations.
My response is that the friends are not good friends. The friends know about the food allergy and still decided to attend an event that the OP (original poster) with the food allergy cannot attend. Seems cruel to me. Seems like they really don’t care about the friend’s needs. If the friends really wanted the OP to come, they would pick something else.
That’s my take. What do you think?
They’re not good friends. I have a group of girl friends that get together occasionally for coffee or breakfast and they always tell me to pick the place so I can eat. I also have a group of friends that eat out after church on Sunday nights and we go to places where I can eat. It’s called love, they love me and I know it by the fact that for just a little while they will eat at a place where everyone can enjoy their meal time together. I can understand too if my friends said “hey we want to try this place out but they won’t accommodate your celiac disease, but we don’t want you to be left out, so we want you to come but you’ll need to eat before or after.” I have done that before. I have also had to take a sandwich in a place, I don’t ask I just take and if they ask me to not eat it, which I’ve never been asked, then I’ll put it away, I also order a drink off their menu so I’m a paying customer, when I would normally just drink water. Food/eating is such a social activity that sometimes it’s hard and sometimes it’s not, it’s how we handle ourselves that matter. Educating others is key.