When Mark Kerwood started college, he had more to worry about than finding classes on the first day or ending up with a scary roommate in the dorms. He had to figure out a way to eat the dorm food.

Kerwood, freshman in pre-business, has lived with food allergies since childhood. Living in Eaton Hall — without a kitchen available for him to cook his own food — posed another challenge to his eating habits.

The services of Judy Trumpy, nutritional therapist and assistant manager for ISU Dining, came in particularly useful.

Trumpy sat down with Kerwood and mapped out a list of items that he could eat without incident from the Union Drive Community Center.

“The first week, we had a couple of meetings trying to iron out what I like and what I can have,” Kerwood said. “Now we just e-mail each other.”

Kerwood has allergy symptoms — skin discoloration, intestinal problems and respiratory distress — from corn, wheat and dairy products.

“Milk has the same effect on me as alcohol,” Kerwood said. “I [feel] drunk, get blurred vision, and have a hangover the next day. The more I have, the more severe [the reaction].”

The corn allergy can cause throat inflammation. Kerwood said he is about six times more allergic to corn than other people with the same allergy.

“Overconsumption of corn could be fatal,” Kerwood said. “But it’d probably have to be injected into my bloodstream before that would happen.”

Trumpy’s job was to go through all the foods that were offered at the UDCC, and, on a weekly basis, plot out the items that would be OK for Kerwood to consume.

“We have the ingredients for all of the [UDCC] foods on a [spreadsheet] program,” Trumpy said. “We have a couple of people employed by the residence department that go through all the products and put them into the system.”

This also aids Trumpy in writing menus for Kerwood each week and planning for special items to be prepared just for him in case there aren’t enough corn-, wheat- and dairy-free foods available.

Trumpy e-mails Kerwood’s special items to the manager at UDCC so she can inform food service employees about the allergen-free foods that need to be prepared during the week.

Kerwood can also specially request food that will be purchased for him and held in a refrigerator in a room off the UDCC dining area.

He uses these foods — specialty breads, soy-based dessert bars and special cookies — to prepare sack lunches for himself.

When Kerwood runs out of an item, he e-mails Trumpy, and a food service employee replenishes the food supply. These services are at no extra cost to Kerwood or his family.

Kerwood said there are still some kinks to work out with the whole communication network between himself, Trumpy and the UDCC.

“Sometimes I end up going on a wild-goose chase looking for the food that was supposed to be specially prepared for me,” he said. “It seems the message isn’t always being handed down the totem pole.

“In that situation, it’s good to have my [safe foods] list to fall back on,” Kerwood said.

Although Iowa State has had a dietary advising service in place for about ten years, it has only dealt with about 20 students, Trumpy said.

“Many people with allergies don’t contact the university and will try to deal with it themselves by avoiding [certain] foods,” she said.

Trumpy also said not all universities are receptive to people with food allergies, and some will even try to discourage students from participating in food service programs.

“[The American Disabilities Act] is a law that [says] we can’t discriminate, and food allergies would definitely be a handicap,” she said.

Overall, Kerwood said he has been pretty satisfied with the lengths to which ISU Dining has gone in order to provide him with a normal college dining experience.

“The food service has been working out well,” Kerwood said. “I’m pretty much satisfied.”