Food Allergies are No Joke

Tracy Stuckrath [00:00:06]:
Hey, everybody, and welcome to another episode of Eating at a Meeting. And I'm your host, Tracy Steckrath. And today I am flying solo. I am actually in Nashville doing a site visit with a client, and I wanted to talk to you about April Fool's Day and food and beverage. I want to tie those into the same conversation. As the title at the bottom says, food and beverage is no joke. Rethinking what we think we know about event food and beverage. And April Fools is all about jokes and pranks and fooling people.

Tracy Stuckrath [00:00:41]:
But I have to tell you that when it comes to food and beverage at meetings and events, the myths that are still floating around there, they're no joke. I mean, we can actually harm somebody. The cost, food allergies, dietary restrictions, these jokes, these mistakes that we have, they can cost organizations money. They can damage trust, and in some cases, they put attendees at real risk. So today, I want to bust some of these food and beverage myths that we still believe in in a variety of different ways. And I'm going to give you some truth, some real talk with some practical fixes that we can take back. You can take back to your next program. We can all learn from each other.

Tracy Stuckrath [00:01:25]:
So actually, if you have any myths that you want busted or any solutions to some of these things, please let me know, because I am. I'm going to say I'm not the end all, be all of this. We can all learn from each other, and more eyes are better than one. So please pipe in. And what I'm sharing is, you know what? I know after 30 years of being in this business, and food and beverage is not a footnote. It is the number one expense on our food and beverage, on our event budgets. So we need to make sure that we are not treating it as a joke. We're not treating it as an afterthought when we're designing our menus.

Tracy Stuckrath [00:02:06]:
And it's just something that we don't need to think about at the last minute and consider it a footnote. And actually, there's a lot of conversations being had to around that. Food and beverage is, you know, a powerful tool that you can have, that you can make every single guest feel seen, heard, and satisfied. And it really plays into creating a great experience. And. And so we're just going to jump into some of these pranks and jokes and get the real deal on food and beverage here. Okay? So one that I like to talk about, and I've heard countless times from friends of mine that are CSMs, from chefs, you know, And I don't know what if it comes from a lack of, you know, wanting to figure this out or not, but it is. Number one myth is that we offered a vegetarian option or it's a gluten free vegan option.

Tracy Stuckrath [00:03:03]:
And so we're covered. We have everybody covered. But it's not necessarily true, because vegetarian does not mean it's allergy safe or that it's vegan or it's gluten free, or it's K kosher or hal. You know, one option is not inclusion. We need to think through how we design options across the board. And maybe your gluten free vegan option is fantastic and it's delicious, but I don't want you to be serving that at every single food function for those same people, because gluten free people are not vegan. And granted, they could eat vegan for three days, but they don't want to eat vegan for three days or vegetarian for three days. We need to understand how we can create options that, that meet everybody's need while reducing, not overly extending and doing a variety of things, you know, massive.

Tracy Stuckrath [00:03:56]:
A number of personalized plates. But we can't think that one option is the solution for every single guest. And actually last year, yeah, it was last year, a chef at a hotel, I was managing food and beverage for this event, and he served tofu over, I think it was vegetables. And he said, this is the meal for every single guest that has dietary needs. Well, we had somebody that was anaphylactic to soy, and that was the dish that he had prepared for that person. And so it didn't fit that. And I had to go back. I mean, and the attendees who got that, who are not vegan, who are not, I mean, they were like, flabbergasted, like, why am I getting served tofu over a plate of vegetables? So it's not.

Tracy Stuckrath [00:04:49]:
We need to give our chef some time to give us some options. And we have to go over those options before it comes out on the plate. Because it wasn't confirmed. The chef would not confirm what he was serving, and that's what his dish was. And as a person who manages food and beverage, and I push back, it still happens to me. So it is something that we need to push back on quite hard on that. And actually, I was chatting with a chef today in the Delta Sky Club of no play, of all places. When you get to the Sky Club in the morning and it's quiet, you.

Tracy Stuckrath [00:05:23]:
You get to meet the chef. And he was telling me about a Guest that. And I think he said it was a celebrity that comes in and is vegan and has some other, you know, other allergens or dietary needs. And they said to the chef, like, I can't eat anything that's on this buffet in this God club. And he's like, okay, what do you got? What do you want? What can't you have? And went down and made him. Made this person a dish free of the. And that was delicious. And actually he fed it for 15 people.

Tracy Stuckrath [00:05:56]:
That was his entourage that was with that person. And now that person comes back to Chef Preston all the time and say, okay, what do you got for me? You know? And Chef Preston, he's like, this is my job, you know, this is what I need to do. And to. Because I'm here to create an experience for these, attend for these guests. You know, in the Sky Club, I really love that. And vegetarian, just to note, you know, that's a dietary, I'm going to say preference. Some people might need to be eating vegetarian or vegan for medical reasons, but it's not a safety standard. And so we can't rely on that as being, hey, you know, we're making this medically possible or whatever.

Tracy Stuckrath [00:06:42]:
It's. We have to really work, work through it because it does a lot of vegetarian and vegan dishes contain. Vegetarian specifically contain dairy and eggs and they contain gluten and nuts. I mean, they're not free of allergens. And even vegan dishes are not free of allergens. Because if you think of the nine, the top nine allergens, they're still in vegan dishes. Soy nuts, tree nuts, sesame. Those are four of the nine that actually can still be in vegan dishes.

Tracy Stuckrath [00:07:17]:
So it's not a solution across the board for all of those. So that was myth number one, that we're offered a vegetarian option. So we've got everybody covered. A vegetarian gluten free option where everybody that is busted. So myth number two, free of, free of labeling is good enough. And I wish I could. There was a menu that I saw recently at an event and they put all five food functions on one eight and a half by 11 sheet of paper. All the menu items for it, and beside every single item, it said sf nf, gf E.

Tracy Stuckrath [00:08:00]:
I, I don't even remember. V, V, G. They did have a key at the bottom, which is great, but it was like Alphabet soup on this, on this menu. And it was five different food functions. So there was probably 40 items on the 40 or more items on this menu that just had all these random letters behind it. And what cracked me up the most is, and I think I took a screenshot of it here is like the club salad, it is sf and that meant shellfish free. So the club sandwich or the club sandwich was a turkey club sandwich. Do you.

Tracy Stuckrath [00:08:38]:
When would you expect that a turkey club sandwich would have shellfish on it? But because it only had SF behind it, am I supposed to then assume that it also has egg and milk and wheat and gluten and peanuts and tree nuts and shel fish and sesame? I mean, are all those other allergens in there? Is, if you're only putting SF behind it, where you have all the other letters on the pasta station, they had the word spinach and they have gf, df, veg, vegetarian, nut free, shellfish free. So does that spinach then now mean that it contains eggs and milk? So it's, it's not telling me anything about the dish. It's telling me what it's free of. But it doesn't protect me as a person with food allergies. So that is, you know, we need to think about how we do that. And I know when you're thinking about a prepackaged food, free from or free of is kind of a marketing claim, it's not a legal one. The only thing that the Food Allergy Labeling and Consumer Protection act and the faster act from the FDA require is that it contains language for the big nine. So if it contains those items, it's those allergens.

Tracy Stuckrath [00:10:03]:
That's what it's supposed to be listed. Again, we're talking about a restaurant buffet or not a restaurant buffet, but a catering buffet. And there is no law. Well, there is soon to be a law in California that will require that unpackaged food be labeled with the top nine allergens in the restaurant settings, any food service setting. So. But we need to free of creates a lot of confusion and false confidence because you're not actually telling me what's in it. And that's what's the most important part when you're thinking about somebody that's going through the buffet. And when we're saying that we're in a convention center and our hotel, they're going to say, well, our hotel is not nut free.

Tracy Stuckrath [00:10:50]:
Our kitchen is not nut free. I completely understand that. But you can. Like two years ago, we had an event at a hotel. We were the only people in the property. Pretty much 99% buyout. No one else else is in our meeting space. And I'm like, I want to make my event completely nut free.

Tracy Stuckrath [00:11:10]:
No nuts are going to be served on my menu at all for five days. And they, they did it wrong the first day. First two days they served nuts on my menu. But they kept claiming, well, we're not a nut free environment. And I get that. But you can sanitize the kitchen. You can sanitize your pots and pans. You can do that and create that experience.

Tracy Stuckrath [00:11:36]:
It's doable. And so it's not something that we need to say that we can't do this, because it is. And the laws that are coming about are going to say that as well, that you need to label this. You need to be clear and consistent about it. And you need to understand where your cross contact happens and where your pots and pans are or where things are stored. You need to really have the processes in place to make sure that you're talking accurately. And we do know individuals with food allergies that we are not going into a 100% dedicated free environment. But you as a food service provider do have a duty of care to provide that environment.

Tracy Stuckrath [00:12:22]:
Okay, so that was myth number two. Free of labeling is good enough. It is not good enough. You need to be telling me and telling us, your attendees and your guests what the food actually contains. And I'm going to make a note on it because I was talking to my friend Shandy the other day. Well, I'll get to that one in a few minutes, actually. We'll come back to that one in a second. So myth number three, we asked about dietary needs on the registration form.

Tracy Stuckrath [00:12:51]:
So we're done. Yeah. No, you're not. I remember being at a convention center at an event and that group, I was doing a presentation, speaking to the group, and I actually had the catering manager with me as well as the chef, and they were talking about it. They were handed a list of people with food allergies, probably 100 plus people that had different dietary restrictions. They were not sorted in any way. They just handed the list to the hotel. And the meeting planner said, we're done.

Tracy Stuckrath [00:13:25]:
We ask the questions and we're done. But that's not the case because you. And it actually goes into myth number four, which is the hotel or caterer will handle it. So I'm going to combine those two right now that, hey, we've asked the question and that's all we need to do. There are so many times where I've gone to an event and you've asked me the question. I don't get A card that says, hey, Tracy, we heard that you have a wheat allergy or you're gluten free or nut free and we've got you covered, right? I go to the event and there's nothing for me to eat. Why did you ask me the question? If you're not going to do anything about it and follow up, then there's no point in asking the question. But to me, collecting that data is step one and it is acting on collecting that data.

Tracy Stuckrath [00:14:24]:
And we need to make sure that that information reaches the chef and the catering manager and the servers, so that educating those banquet servers on what policies and procedures that you're following and that you've communicated to your attendees because you're going to create a false sense of, hey, I care about you, I've asked you about your dietary needs and that gives me the assumption that you're going to have options for me if you're looking for it. And it's only that information that you've collected is only useful if it's transferred accurately to our banquet event orders and to our production sheets and to the server briefings. I mean, I remember being in the Colorado Convention center and we were using these cards that I sell and design and the catering team was talking to the servers and saying, you're going to see these kind of cards being handed to you from attendees saying, this is the meal that I need. And those servers loved it because they could identify who had dietary restrictions and pre communicated that and knew what they needed to go back into the expediter or into the back of the house to get that information. I've also been to events where they've asked me the question and they've just randomly thrown cards on a table that's not known. It's just randomly over there with the ribbons and you're supposed to pick up what you. How you identify. Pick up the card that identifies you or that you want to identify when you're serving those meals.

Tracy Stuckrath [00:16:00]:
That's all they did. And there was no communication with the catering team. There was no communication with the servers front of house. How does that team know how many meals to plan for? How does that team. How do I as an attendee, what am I supposed to do with that card? Nobody said anything to me at registration desk. Nobody sent me an email to saying, hey, we've heard that you have a dietary need. This is what we're doing. This is the menus that we're serving.

Tracy Stuckrath [00:16:27]:
If you have any questions, call Tracy, our culinary, you know, what are those procedures? That you're having done. Because asking the question, just asking the question and not following through with it does not provide a good experience for your attendees. Now, I know I've got two people watching here. Please comment. I don't know where you're watching. I just see that you're watching. If you've got anything that you want to chime in here and offer up, please do let me know. I'm talking about myths for April Fool's Day because I don't want us to be fooled into thinking that managing dietary restrictions is an easy thing.

Tracy Stuckrath [00:17:07]:
It is not an easy thing. And it. But it also should not be considered a joke. So I wanted to. So I just did. Number three, asking about dietary needs on the registration form. That's what we did. And so now we're done.

Tracy Stuckrath [00:17:20]:
That was myth number three. Jumping into myth number four is the hotel caterer will handle it. Typically, you know, we have to sign off on our beos. We like to sign off them. And we have to finalize our numbers at least 72 hours, five days in advance, sometimes, depending on where you are. We should not be sending the list of dietary needs to our catering team five days out. We need to be planning our menus in advance. And thinking that the hotel and caterer will handle it is putting an undue burden.

Tracy Stuckrath [00:17:53]:
Passing the baton without any oversight is where things can go wrong. I mean, seriously, you just think they have it covered. So your attendees are going to go get that plate of soy, soy tofu on some vegetables, and that person is gluten free and doesn't have any other dietary needs. And you're certain all you're going to do is serve them tofu for the next couple of days. We need to take joint responsibility for this. And I say joint, and that's the chef, the catering manager, the banquet captain, the event planners, as well as the attendees and everybody else that's in that mix of making those food and beverage things. You, as the event planner, you're asking that question. You want to create a great experience for your attendees, your members, your co workers.

Tracy Stuckrath [00:18:45]:
You want to create a great experience for them. So you have to own that as well. You have to own the responsibility with that hotel and your catering partner. Partners. And you need to question them. Question them on it. What are you serving? There are so many times, and I use the picture of this on my. In my presentations all the time, like you on the banquet event order.

Tracy Stuckrath [00:19:06]:
It'll say whatever the. Let's just say for breakfast, like this is the continental breakfast and it's got dairy yogurt, it's got box cereals and all the things that are in that continental breakfast. And at the bottom of it it says 25 vegans and 36 gluten free. And you know, whatever else that one halal, one kosher person, what are those people getting at the bottom do? Are there any options for them at the top? Because if you look at the catering menus that you're provided by hotels and convention centers, usually you're picking one or two things there and you have no idea what they're going to pick put in place for those attendees. That personalized plate is not personalized. It's just this standard run of the mill meal. And you have to, as an event planner, you have to cross check that, double check it, ask them, do tastings. What are you going to serve my attendees that are halal? What are you going to get? Where are you going to get your kosher meals from? Are they equivalent to what we're serving our attendees, the other attendees? Right.

Tracy Stuckrath [00:20:19]:
Is our vegetarian going to get the side dishes? So many times vegetarians and vegans just get the steamed broccoli and the rice that's on the side of the plate of the filet mignon. I mean that's, it's like you scraped off the filet mignon and gave them just the side things. That's not capiche. That's, that's just taking, not taking responsibility and ownership of what you're doing. And as the person who's spending $800,000 on your food and beverage menu, food and beverage for five days, do you really want that, your number one expense to be that bad? And that experience for your attendees and culinary teams cannot protect what they don't know. And so if we're not, you know, and this goes back to even before I was doing this work, I've been doing this work for 16 years now. And I am one of those people, like before 16 years ago it was like, okay, so the hotel will handle and just provide the vegan and vegetarian meals when somebody asks for them. You can't do that anymore.

Tracy Stuckrath [00:21:32]:
You need to have a plan. You need to tell them how many vegan and vegetarian that are there. Because otherwise you're going to have chefs in the back of the house who haven't prepared or thought through that. Oh, my friend Amy, on a podcast episode a couple of months ago, she said that the event planner and she's got a serious corn allergy. So hers is very detailed in what she needs to what she can and cannot eat. But she went to an event. The event did not ask about dietary restrictions in the registration forms. The attendees sat down for lunch and they were like.

Tracy Stuckrath [00:22:10]:
She's like, I've got a corn allergy. And somebody's like, I've got a. You know, I'm. Or they. They weren't necessarily. Sorry, they weren't necessarily already seated down, but they said to the chef, you know, at the pre con meeting or just before that, hey, we've got all of these people with dietary restrictions. That hotel ended up charging them $200,000 extra for having designed menus at the last minute to feed those people with dietary restrictions to meet the needs of their attendees. Do you have an extra $200,000 in your budget? I don't think you do.

Tracy Stuckrath [00:22:44]:
So why not do that pre planning? Why not incorporate it and work with the chefs and saying, oh, they're just going to handle it. They're going to handle it and they're going to charge you $200,000. And what's your boss going to say or your client going to say when that happens? And it's a shared responsibility across the board. And I actually, in my presentations, I have this event food chain. It is a circle, and it's full circle. It starts with the attendee and then the host organizer, the meeting planner, the hotel or convention center salesperson, the catering person at that venue that's taking over, the chefs, all the line cooks and the sous chefs, then the banquet team, then the captains and the servers, the bartenders, and then it comes back to that attendee to make that decision on whether they feel safe eating that food. And we need to make sure that all of those people in that circle understand what we're trying to do. It's really important.

Tracy Stuckrath [00:23:51]:
And actually talking to Chef Preston today and Randy Thomas, who is in charge of customer experience at the Delta Sky Club. But this is the Raleigh Durham Airport. We were chatting about how it empowers your employees by educating the rest of the team. Those servers, those banquet captains, the bartenders, the sous chefs. Hey, this is our policy, this is our procedures on how we're doing this, and it empowers them. And chef, both of them, Randy and Preston, were talking about how their employees eyes light up like, hey, I just caught this. You know, we just put the wrong label out in front of this food and we. One of the things was like a dip.

Tracy Stuckrath [00:24:36]:
It was a black bean dip, and they threw. And the label said dairy free. Well, one of the servers caught it that somebody had Thrown cheese on top of it. And so they had to pull that food and. Or get the right label. They had to pull that food until they got the right label to put it out there. But what I loved about what they both said today was that their employees, they own it. They want to be part of that experience.

Tracy Stuckrath [00:25:00]:
And so we need to be able to give them the tools to do that. And we just can't say, hey, they're going to handle it. It's a joint responsibility. All of us in that food chain. Okay. That was myth number five. The hotel caterer will handle it. Yeah.

Tracy Stuckrath [00:25:19]:
Let them make it a joint effort. Okay. Number four, dietary accommodations are too expensive. Ignoring dietary needs is more expensive because you've got liability. If somebody gets sick, you've got reputational damage. You've got lost attendees. One of my podcast guests last year, she went to a conference they had asked about. She.

Tracy Stuckrath [00:25:43]:
They weren't providing food, so it was just the concessions. And she went and looked at the dishes before she had to go give a presentation. She's like, okay, I'm going to go and get this tomorrow. And it was. This was at a convention center. And she looked at it, and they. The. The next day, they had changed the theme of the food, and they changed that menu item out.

Tracy Stuckrath [00:26:06]:
And she asked those servers behind the. The servers about what was in the food that was. They were serving. And they're like, one of them's like, no, it's free of that. Free of nuts. The other one's like, I think it's free of nuts. And she. She was hungry.

Tracy Stuckrath [00:26:23]:
She needed to go give a presentation, so she ate something. But she did have a reaction to it. And so it was. She is not. And the point of telling you that is not that liability aspect of. I mean, there's the liability of it. She didn't do anything about it except talk to the culinary team about it. She didn't sue them, but she.

Tracy Stuckrath [00:26:42]:
That association lost her as an attendee and as a speaker for the next year because she doesn't trust them. She doesn't trust that organization to help her feel safe and participate in that event. Inclusive menus can also actually reduce waste and stretch the food and beverage budgets. Because if you think about, like, hey, I've got. I'm going to go and design 100 different plates for these people with dietary restrictions. That's a lot of extra labor on the hotels and our catering teams. Why not incorporate those dietary needs into your overall menus? So you're reducing the number of personalized plates that you actually have to make. And by asking the questions you actually can reduce the waste of meals.

Tracy Stuckrath [00:27:31]:
And because what if somebody is vegan and you're serving filet and you didn't ask the question how much did that filet just cost you? Because I am a vegan and I'm not eating that right. That I think filet mignon dinner is at $109 now at some properties and the price of meat is going up. So looking at that, I mean you just wasted money and you race wasted food. So that's more expensive on your budget because now they're having to go back in and make another meal for that person. And who knows if that hotel is going to charge you for that one off, right? But you might, that might be an additional add on to your food and beverage cost at the end. Hey, we had this number of special requests at the end. We're going to charge you these extra fees for that. The return on investment of inclusion is real because you're going to get a fan individuals who have dietary restrictions, who have food allergies, if you treat them right, if you feed them safely, you're going to get repeat business.

Tracy Stuckrath [00:28:43]:
And especially if you're a hotel that's a heads and beds. And one example of that story is my friends Addie and Robin Lau. And Addie is a nine year old girl who has allergies. She has multiple food allergies, but they, and they're Asian and they wanted to go eat Chinese food and they found a restaurant an hour and a half from their house that actually provides labels all of their food with all of the allergens, the top nine allergens plus. And they have options that meet Addie's dietary food allergies. And Robin said that was the first time that they have ever found a restaurant, a Chinese restaurant at that, that the whole family could eat safely. And they drive an hour and a half to go eat at that restaurant. Now think about that.

Tracy Stuckrath [00:29:39]:
Heads in beds, right? One chef that I met years ago, he had a client who came and stayed at his property Monday through Friday for work and then he would go home on the weekends and he had food allergies. And that chef managed those food allergies for him safely Monday through Friday. And he did it so well that in the summertime that guest brought his entire family for a month to stay there and they all had their own individual food allergies. And that chef like, was like, this is a no brainer. I'm going to keep, I want these people to come back. So it's not expensive. You're looking at lost revenue. Right.

Tracy Stuckrath [00:30:19]:
And somebody I was talking to the other day and I love this is that. And it's a technology company that said this to me. It's like the allergen's not the problem. It's your processes or your lack of processes and how you're managing that system and how you're labeling and what information that you have and what information you're communicating. And that can go from the planner to the, to our catering teams. Right. It is not the allergens that are the problem. It is how we manage them, what we do to fix that problem and to ensure that we're providing safer experiences.

Tracy Stuckrath [00:30:55]:
Okay, myth number six. Is there anybody asking me any questions? I don't see any questions anywhere. Does anybody have any questions? Jennifer Johnson, and she's watching from her office in Wake Forest. Hello, my friend. I just flew out. I saw you or I was near you this morning. And then. Okay, myth number six.

Tracy Stuckrath [00:31:16]:
Nobody really has that many food allergies. People are just picky. There are people who are picky, but there are people who have multiple food allergies and, and even they can have celiac disease and food allergies. There's one event planner I know out of Canada who was sick for a long time, could not figure it out, finally got diagnosed with celiac disease and then was still getting sick, was in the hospital six times in one year having anaphylactic reactions. She ended up being allergic to nuts and tree nuts and gluten free food is typically made with nut flours. So she didn't under. So she had celiac disease as well as a nut allergy. So that's mind boggling.

Tracy Stuckrath [00:32:02]:
And there are people who have a variety of different fluids. Food allergies. And, and it's. They've probably figured it out because it, they're, the, the food was bothering them or, or, or they've been tested a variety of different things. So yes, there are picky people, but there are people also who have multiple food allergies. And I think organization in Chicago, Ruchi Gupta and runs it, said that 1 in 10 adults has a food allergy and 45% of those adults have multiple allergies. So it's a large percentage of people who have multiple food allergies. And it could be a variety of different things.

Tracy Stuckrath [00:32:41]:
So we really have to think through it. This is a public health reality. I mean, in the United States, 33 million Americans live with food allergies and I said 1 in 10 of them are adults. And we need to make sure that these reactions, the anaphylaxis, the digestive issues that we, that they have as a reaction to ingesting this food or touching the food or inhaling the food, we need to make sure that we've got the, the equipment and the processes in place to handle that. Like, do you have epinephrine on site? You know, do you. What's your medical plan if somebody has an allergic reaction on site? There have been a couple of lawsuits that have happened because of people with multiple food allergies. And so it is a reality. We need to really, really think through that.

Tracy Stuckrath [00:33:45]:
I'm sure that. Jennifer, do you have any other myths that you think or these things that we think are not real? And because it is real, and food allergies and dietary restrictions are something that we need to take seriously and, and thinking. On that note, I'm actually in the middle of writing an article for North Star Meetings group on food allergy laws that are coming out. If you don't know it, in the European Union, it's actually been around for 12 years. They have the EU 1169, which requires the labeling of the top 14 allergens on unpackaged food. So restaurants, catering teams, they have to label for those top 14 allergens. California has just enacted a law last fall that becomes effective July 1st. And then the food code here in the United States, the 2022 Food Code states that unpackaged food should be labeled if it contains any of the top nine allergens.

Tracy Stuckrath [00:34:48]:
Now, there's only a dozen or so states that have adopted that food code. And that food code is still, it doesn't have any, I'm going to say, teeth to it. And there's no law behind it. And those regulators, the health inspectors are educating while they regulate on those. But it is coming. We are going. There are a variety of other states. I think it's about seven other states that are actually enacting laws like California's.

Tracy Stuckrath [00:35:16]:
So we as planners will have a little bit more ability to push back on our catering teams that, hey, you need to do this. This is now a law. It's not going to be consistent across every single state. So that will be a challenge. But I think we. Managing dietary restrictions is not a joke. It's serious business. And I say serious business in the fact that, one, I don't want you to kill anyone, and two, it's an opportunity to grow your business and it's an opportunity to get more people in the door.

Tracy Stuckrath [00:35:57]:
Jennifer, I love this thing. Kosher and halal are more than just an inconvenience. They're not an allergy per se. And that's so true. And, and the food allergies fall under the Americans with Disabilities act as a major life activity. And so they're covered individuals who have celiac disease, food allergies. They are covered under the ada, but law and kosher religious based practices are not covered under the ada, but they are covered and under like civil, not civil rights protections. But I'm going to forget how they're covered, but we still need to provide for them.

Tracy Stuckrath [00:36:45]:
And one thing to say that, hey, we spend so much in kosher meals and halal meals and nobody picks them up. That's a myth that you need to bust right there. Because if you ask the questions, follow up with them and ask them, you know, what level of kosherat are you, you know, for your kosher meal? This program that I'm doing in Nashville in May, we have a couple of people, probably about three or four people that follow that are follow kosher or follow a kosher diet. One is orthodox too, so she's very strict. I need to make sure that we have kosher meals for her from a kosher caterer. Right. Well, the other two gentlemen said that they would eat off the buffet as long as we were labeling for the things that fall under kosher shellfish, milk and dairy, or beef and dairy at the same time. And one time we were during Passover, so they wanted to thank you.

Tracy Stuckrath [00:37:45]:
That's the Bill of Rights. You know, they wanted. We needed a label for wheat in leavened food and leavened dishes, things like that, and pork, of course. So they wanted that to be labeled and they would eat off the buffet. By doing that, I saved my client $2,500 because I didn't have to buy those meals from the kosher caterer for those two gentlemen. I only had to buy them for the one person. So thinking through that, hey, these are more expensive, but you're going to, you're going to bring about a better experience. And actually, last year this gentleman wrote me a note and he emailed me four days before the conference and said the subject line said halal.

Tracy Stuckrath [00:38:27]:
And then in the message it said, can you feed me at this conference? And I'm like, I looked up his registration. He didn't note that he followed a halal diet. I replied back to him and said that. And he said someone else registered for him. So that's a good note to say, hey, go check. And back. If you have other people registering for them, go back and ask the actual attendee if they have any dietary restrictions. And I called my chef chef fam at the Austin JW Marriott and he's like, oh, I got you covered, Tracy.

Tracy Stuckrath [00:38:59]:
Here's my, here's my chicken certification, kosher chicken certificate or halal chicken certification. And he chatted with the, with the attendee and he made the attendee at the end of four days said, I need to talk to chef because this is the best hotel meals that I've ever had. And he's like, I'll come back to this hotel all the time if you're going to cook me food, right? So that's just another heads and beds opportunity. So I just wanted to come here on April School's Day. Jennifer, thank you so much for joining me, listening to me in your office in Wake Forest. And, and please take food allergies seriously. Take food and beverage seriously. It's your number one expense.

Tracy Stuckrath [00:39:45]:
And it shouldn't be a joke and it shouldn't be the thing that we manage at the last minute. Sometimes it does and sometimes it happens, but we can't, we cannot make it a joke. So I wish everybody happy April Fool's Day. Hope nobody's playing any pranks on you. And until next Wednesday, stay safe and eat well. Thanks. It.