Special Dietary Needs
Allergies and Dietary Accommodations
Allergies and Dietary Accommodations ![]()
Allergies and Dietary Accommodations
We care about your child’s health and safety! We are dedicated to ensuring your child can eat healthy, nutritious food at school. This includes making options available to those with special dietary needs, such as those caused by physical impairments or food allergies.
Our goal is to provide parents and guardians with the tools they need to self-monitor our menus for the ingredients of their concern. We have several of these tools implemented for monitoring allergens, but feel free to contact a nutritionist for more information at SRVUSDEats@srvusd.net or (925) 824-1836.
Allergens:
Our online menus indicate if a meal contains one of the nine most common allergens found in foods: Milk, Eggs, Fish, Crustacean Shellfish, Tree Nuts, Peanuts, Wheat, Soybeans, and Sesame. We have recently added Flax to this list. You will find the symbols for these allergens below on our menus posted in Nutrislice.
We do not serve any food containing nuts in elementary and middle schools. However, we do bring in products that may be produced in facilities that handle and process nuts, so we cannot guarantee that meals are completely free of traces of nuts or nut residue.
New Plant-Based Beverage and Lactose-Free Milk Options Available to All Students
Parents and caregivers can complete the online request form for plant-based beverage or lactose free milk here. Once submitted, the request will be sent to the Child Nutrition staff at the student’s school. When the student comes through the breakfast or lunch line, they can let Child Nutrition staff know they have requested either lactose-free milk or a plant-based beverage.
The specific type of plant-based beverage may change depending on availability. For Spring 2026, soy milk is being offered.
Under federal nutrition guidelines, milk is one of the five meal components that make up a reimbursable school meal. The other components include fruit, vegetables, protein, and grains. Therefore, milk, or now a nutritionally equal substitute, must be offered to students at both breakfast and lunch.
However, under the updated Federal Dietary Guidelines for Americans, certain plant-based beverages are now allowed as substitutions. In addition, requests for non-dairy or lactose-free milk no longer require a form signed by a medical provider. Parents and caregivers may now request these options directly.
We would like to share SRVUSD’s practice of accommodating students with food allergies and/or other impairments:
Dietary Accommodations:
For medical conditions requiring special diets, the USDA requires a Medical Statement to Request Special Meals and/or Accommodations Form stating the foods to be omitted and the foods that can be substituted. The form must be completed and signed by a licensed medical professional. Any changes in a student's needed accommodations require a new Medical Statement. Once the form is completed, please submit it to SRVUSDEats@srvusd.net.
Soy, Cheese, Eggs, and Wheat are common ingredients in many of our meals. Though we cannot guarantee general alternatives for these ingredients, we are happy to work with parents and guardians to provide more substitutions for these ingredients.
Although we strive to make sure all of our students are safe on a daily basis, participating in a large food service program does potentially come with some risk due to the sheer numbers of students that are being fed daily, but we will always do our best to make sure your student is safe.
Dietary Accommodations No Longer Needed:
Parents or guardians of students without disabilities must provide a written notice to the school to end special meal accommodations. If the request was due to a medical condition, a licensed healthcare professional's statement is required to confirm that dietary restrictions are unnecessary. Send requests to SRVUSDEats@srvusd.net, including the student's name, ID number, parent contact information, and an effective date.
Please note that we are unable to accommodate food preferences or food restrictions due to religious reasons, however we do offer some halal certified meats. We offer non-meat options and many cheese-based items daily.
For more information regarding Special Meals and/or Accommodations, please email the Child Nutrition Department at SRVUSDEats@srvusd.net or call the office at (925) 824-1836.
Created by Amulya Uppar, CHS Student, Class of 2024
