RE: Washington Redskin Stadium...NOT gf friendly :(

[Guest guest]

I would call the stadium manager and get to the bottom of it. You cannot possibly be the only family with dietary needs that goes to football games. Either that, or I'd smuggle in my own food in my large coat pockets... you know, like bringing your own popcorn to the movies in a diaper bag... ;-) YOu aren't supposed to bring your own food to restaurants either, but some places will bend for special needs. If they give you a hard time, I'd say "Well, I guess I'll have to call the Post or XYZ station to see if they are aware of issues like this...." I bet they'd work with you then. ;-)

From: SillyYaks [mailto:SillyYaks ] On Behalf Of aPRSSent: Tuesday, October 25, 2005 11:25 AMTo: SillyYaks Subject: Washington Redskin Stadium...NOT gf friendly

This past weekend my celiac men (husband and two boys) went to see the game. They do this once a year and usually have a great time. This time, however, was their first time since being diagnosed. For my husband it was very annoying! Has anyone else gone to a game and had a good "food" time?1) You are not allowed to bring in any of your own food;2) All they have that is gf is: chips, shakes and cotton candy...btw, they were all out of shakes and chips;3) Yes, they have hotdogs and burgers...NO! They will NOT give you one without a bun. They are prewrapped and stop annoying them by asking!!!My 11 year old had only cotton candy. Neither my husband or 16 year old can stand the stuff. I do assume they had water or soda, but still!Now, has anyone else had this kind of situation? Do they give up their yearly trip? (My 16 year old is slightly hypoglycemic and by the time he got home, he was pretty sick.) Is there ANYTHING they can do next time? They had a good time watching the game, but it would have been much better if only there'd been even a little cooperation on the part of the concessionaires.PS. Sorry, can't remember the official name of the stadium.

[Guest guest]

>

> Now, has anyone else had this kind of situation? Do they give up their

> yearly trip? (My 16 year old is slightly hypoglycemic and by the time

> he got home, he was pretty sick.) Is there ANYTHING they can do next

> time? They had a good time watching the game, but it would have been

> much better if only there'd been even a little cooperation on the part

> of the concessionaires.

First off, I'd write a letter to the person who manages the

concessionaires, a letter to the owner of the Redskins, and I'd have

your kids write to their favorite players.

Next time, have your 16 year old put a few larabars or boomibars in his

pockets. They're not obtrusive and can provide a quick boost when he

needs it. I doubt he had his pockets searched, right? Take advantage

of that! Don't let them have obvious bulges, but make sure he has some

food!

Can your kids have nuts? A small bag of nuts would also be easy to

hide. I don't *think* that stadium is nut-free, but check first--folks

with nut allergies can have contact and airborne reactions.

ygg

[Guest guest]

In my experience, some stadiums are very

limited in the food they serve. Most vendors don’t have rolling kitchens,

so they bring pre-made food in a warmer. The vendors are not equipped to deal with

special needs.....they are just there to serve the masses....which leaves us

Celiacs without many options. When we went to see the Ducks play ASU a couple

weekends ago, I packed a cooler. Sandwiches before the game...... “during

the game snacking”, I packed trail mix (hidden in a blanket and another

package in my husband’s cargo shorts)......cheese cubes, chips, chicken

cubes and fruit, after the game.

It may be inconvenient for your husband

and require a little bit of forethought (I know...its asking a lot of a man

with sports on the brain) but my suggestion is to pack a cooler. It will save

him the frustration and no one will go hungry. If he wants to bring his own

food inside the stadium, instead of eating before or after the game, I honestly

don’t think they’d turn you down, esp with a doctor’s note. To

be sure, I’d write the Stadium management....like other people have

already suggested. You could also try contacting the vendor beforehand and ask if

they would be willing to have special hotdogs without the bun, ready for your

husband/boys. Honestly for myself, that’s just too much of a hassle....I’d

rather pack a cooler, eat before the game and smuggle snacks.

Good luck! If you decide to contact the

stadium management....please let us know how it goes!

[Guest guest]

--- " Calacci, Bridget " wrote:

> I would call the stadium manager and get to the

> bottom of it. You cannot

> possibly be the only family with dietary needs that

> goes to football

> games. Either that, or I'd smuggle in my own food in

> my large coat

> pockets... you know, like bringing your own popcorn

> to the movies in a

> diaper bag... ;-) YOu aren't supposed to bring your

> own food to

> restaurants either, but some places will bend for

> special needs. If they

> give you a hard time, I'd say " Well, I guess I'll

> have to call the Post

> or XYZ station to see if they are aware of issues

> like this.... " I bet

> they'd work with you then. ;-)

>

I have a large purse just for movies too. It is so

much easier (and cheaper) to bring my own popcorn,

than to contact every potential theater and check if

their particular pop corn is GF.

Molly

__________________________________

Yahoo! FareChase: Search multiple travel sites in one click.

http://farechase.yahoo.com

[Guest guest]

Just an idea for anyone writing letters..... I make sure I always make sure I

include in my

letter a very brief description of what celiac is and that it is for life. I

also cite a few

numbers (X-million people likely have it, yet 95% don't know it) and that

increasing awareness will only have the diagnosis rate increasing. Show them

that this is

not just a fad, but something that will be a necessity for millions of fans. And

if they are

smart...... they will cater to those buying the tickets.

That said, I do the big purse too. And the packed ahead cooler. Both work great.

Also,

wearing a medic allert bracelet can work wonders too. I have flashed my bracelet

and told

them that if they had ANYTHING I COULD eat, I would have been glad to pruchase

from

them. This sometimes softens managers up. Especially when they see a large group

of

people in threat of turning around and leaving.

Cheryl in Tampa

[Guest guest]

Here's what you do. Stop supporting the Redskins and go see the

Philadelphia Eagles!

Seriously, go up to Lincoln Financial field to watch the Redskins

play the Eagles. They will let you bring in whatever you want to

eat. It was a huge deal when they built the stadium. They first said

no outside food would be allowed, but the public lost their minds.

In the old stadium, you could bring in anything. So, the city caved

in. There's some funny news on it out there. Search the web

for " hoagie gate " .

Also, you may remember, someone posted here over the summer about

the Eagles special " Celiac Awareness Day " at training camp. One of

the Eagles front office people, Joe Banner is a Celiac, so the team

is very aware of the disease.

Having said that, they have pretty limited food options at

the " normal " concession stands. As I said, though, you can bring in

your own food.

paul

>

> This past weekend my celiac men (husband and two boys) went to see

the

> game. They do this once a year and usually have a great time. This

> time, however, was their first time since being diagnosed. For my

> husband it was very annoying! Has anyone else gone to a game and

had a

> good " food " time?

>

> 1) You are not allowed to bring in any of your own food;

> 2) All they have that is gf is: chips, shakes and cotton

candy...btw,

> they were all out of shakes and chips;

> 3) Yes, they have hotdogs and burgers...NO! They will NOT give you

one

> without a bun. They are prewrapped and stop annoying them by

asking!!!

>

> My 11 year old had only cotton candy. Neither my husband or 16

year

> old can stand the stuff. I do assume they had water or soda, but

still!

>

> Now, has anyone else had this kind of situation? Do they give up

their

> yearly trip? (My 16 year old is slightly hypoglycemic and by the

time

> he got home, he was pretty sick.) Is there ANYTHING they can do

next

> time? They had a good time watching the game, but it would have

been

> much better if only there'd been even a little cooperation on the

part

> of the concessionaires.

>

> PS. Sorry, can't remember the official name of the stadium.

>

[Guest guest]

You have some good ideas, and I recently invested in a medical

bracelet, portable food cooler, etc.

I do not think that there are, or ever will be, " millions of fans "

with Celiac disease that will have to be accommodated at big league

baseball stadiums - simply because there are only 3 million people

(in the U.S.) with celiac, and women with CD outnumber men by four

to one. Even if every American with CD was diagnosed today, and went

on a GF diet, this would not account for a large percentage of

attendees at the games. I'd estimate about one person in a thousand,

at best, in this scenario, would represent the total number of

Celiacs at most games - maybe even less. At this point, with the

lack of diagnosis in 97% of people with CD, the percentages we are

talking about are that much more miniscule.

Exaggerating the numbers will not convince the sports industry that

accomodating the GF is important.

-- In SillyYaks , " rxp_us " <rxp_us@y...> wrote:

>

> increasing awareness will only have the diagnosis rate increasing.

Show them that this is > not just a fad, but something that will be a

necessity for millions of fans. And if they are smart...... they

will cater to those buying the tickets.

> Cheryl in Tampa

>

[Guest guest]

I know situations like this can be very annoying. However, in

extremely large metro areas, such as ours, (the DC area), you do

have to take into consideration things such as this:

Concessions are highly priced to help pay a lot of costs associated

with the entire sports experience... and if " everyone " were to bring

in their own food and run the concessions out of business, then the

cost of tickets would be even higher.... so in a sense, places such

as this (and theme parks) do rely on those concession revenues (or

the fees paid by the concession francises to the stadiums to be

allowed to have a location there). So,q we can't blame a business

for wanting to make money.

However, is also another big point to remember when dealing with

large masses of people and safety. Security does not want everyone

bringing in bags of this and bags of that into largely populated

areas, because it does slow down the admission process and in some

instances (and the levels of the security threat at any given time),

security must somewhat " check out " the bags of things that everyone

brings in.

However, that's not to say that these things are always right... but

a fact that we have to deal with sometimes.

Here is what we do...

I always carry a small " lunch tote " sort of thing with clearly

labeled GF non-parishables that can easily consitutes a decent meal

(with or without heating ability) and some other GF snacks which are

also clearly labeled. Inside that bag, I also have copies of two

letters from our daughter's pediatric GI (on letterhead) which

clearly explains CD and that adherence to a GF diet is required for

medical reasons. (I also have back up copies of this letters

downloaded to my PDA b/c I have had the letters get wet inside of

the lunch bag and had to make new copies).

Sure, it's not always " ideal " to tote along your own food, but if

you want to make 100% certain that there is always a GF food option

available for you, then you may want to consider doing that. At the

risk of somewhat sounding like a sexist comment... women are

generally accustomed to toting along a " purse, " a " diaper bag " or

some sort of contraption to carry along " stuff " and men seem to get

by with just a wallet. I doubt your husband and son really care to

tote along a " lunch tote " when going places, but that could be an

answer. Another idea is that they carry along a GF snack bar, fruit

leather, peanuts, or something like that which is small, would not

get smushed easily, is GF, and can be toted along in a pants/shirt

pocket.

We also live in the metro DC area and vistit a lot of the tourist

type attractions and this area is known for sometimes having exreme

security issues to contend with. My hubby works in the Pentagon

(and he was also working there on 9/11, which is another story), so

I am somewhat used to dealing with people who do not want to " allow "

you to bring in your own food to places. As one of our other fellow

SY stated recently in an email to me.... just remember things like

ADA, etc. and people are happy to work with you.

The same is true for going to all sorts of events we've done over

the past year... Disney on Ice at the MCI center, NASCAR car races,

College Football games, large theme parks, etc.... I think if you

are prepared (either with a letter and/or your own stash of food if

necessary) and kindly explain the situation to the people at

security, the first aid/medical center area of the location, or even

the conessions manager, most people are very nice and like to be

accommodating. I think people have to try hard to be a butt-head

about things... and there are always people like that in every

crowd... no matter what the issue may be.

Just trying to offer some insight....

Melonie

>

> This past weekend my celiac men (husband and two boys) went to see

the

> game. They do this once a year and usually have a great time. This

> time, however, was their first time since being diagnosed. For my

> husband it was very annoying! Has anyone else gone to a game and

had a

> good " food " time?

>

> 1) You are not allowed to bring in any of your own food;

> 2) All they have that is gf is: chips, shakes and cotton

candy...btw,

> they were all out of shakes and chips;

> 3) Yes, they have hotdogs and burgers...NO! They will NOT give you

one

> without a bun. They are prewrapped and stop annoying them by

asking!!!

>

> My 11 year old had only cotton candy. Neither my husband or 16

year

> old can stand the stuff. I do assume they had water or soda, but

still!

>

> Now, has anyone else had this kind of situation? Do they give up

their

> yearly trip? (My 16 year old is slightly hypoglycemic and by the

time

> he got home, he was pretty sick.) Is there ANYTHING they can do

next

> time? They had a good time watching the game, but it would have

been

> much better if only there'd been even a little cooperation on the

part

> of the concessionaires.

>

> PS. Sorry, can't remember the official name of the stadium.

>

[Guest guest]

Thank you everyone who replied to my post last week (or so!) I've been

having an insane Halloween time here and hadn't been able to get

online much at all in the past few weeks. (I'm sure all of you with

kids are in the same situation, lol!)

The many suggestions were great! Unfortunately, the sneaking food in

idea (except in my son's pockets) probably wouldn't work. Since I

don't attend there is no oversized purse to bring. I think next time

we'll go with the bringing food (in a non-descript backpack for

instance) and calling ahead to speak with a manager or something of

the stadium about this. I agree with whoever wrote that not allowing

us to eat is discriminatory. Now, just to get it dealt with!

Now, another question, I recall reading here (it might have been a

news article reprint) that the wife of a team owner (Redskins?

Ravens?) was recently diagnosed with Celiacs. Does anyone recall this?

(I'm hoping it's the Redskin's owner. That would be perfect!)

Thank you again!