The number of children with food allergies continues to rise. This fact and the desire to best serve and protect our students with food allergies, prompted MPA to make a commitment to becoming an Allergy Aware School.

Mounds Park Academy is dedicated to fostering the health, nutrition, and well-being of students with food allergies by providing education and a supportive school community. For anyone living with chronic health conditions requiring special dietary needs such as food allergies, the teaching and fostering of self-management skills is also crucial to optimizing health and social normalcy.

MPA has a series of school-wide guidelines and protocols in place. The overarching principle we embrace is to minimize as many risks as possible while realizing that it is impossible to eliminate them all. We have followed the lead of both independent and public schools in the development of the guidelines as well as federal agencies and national advocacy organizations.

As a Food Allergy Aware School, Mounds Park Academy prohibits foods with peanut and tree nuts (walnuts, almonds, hazelnuts, pecans, cashews, pistachios, Brazil nuts, pine nuts, and macadamias) listed as ingredients throughout the school and at all school events. If a food is “manufactured in a facility” or “processed on the same equipment” it will be allowed in Middle and Upper School. However, those food items are prohibited in Lower School. These are the two allergens most often linked to anaphylaxis, a life-threatening reaction that can include difficulty breathing, vomiting, and in extreme cases, death.

For much more information, please visit the Current Families section of our website. Please direct any questions to foodallergies@moundsparkacademy.org.