Nut Awareness Policy

Nut Awareness Policy

NUT AWARENESS POLICY

Léman Manhattan is a nut-aware school. We do our very best to be as nut free as possible. This ensures the safety of all our students with life threatening nut allergies. No food that is brought into Léman Manhattan can contain peanut, tree nuts, nut oils, and/or products containing nuts. This includes food brought on class trips, after school snacks and food for special occasions. Please note that no food of any kind is permitted on the Selby school buses some students take. Families must pay close attention to ALL the ingredients on food packages and must take great care to avoid cross contamination of any kind when preparing food in your kitchen that will be brought to school. Do not use products that indicate they have been prepared in factories that process buts or peanuts.
Note that there are several products and mixes that may not list nuts in their ingredients, but this cannot ensure that cross contamination has not occurred. If you would like to prepare a home-baked treat, we suggest that you use a product from the recommended product line and bring in the box to show that the product was made from that “nut free” line. If you purchase a product from a bakery, please do so only from those bakeries that are certified nut free, such as those attached.

While we make every effort to eliminate nuts from our school, we cannot insure that it is nut free. Therefore we must work together to make sure those children with allergies are clearly identified. Each of these students must have a safe and well communicated plan that has been formulated by their caretakers, including their parents, doctor(s), school nurse, teachers, and administration. The students themselves should also be educated age-appropriately regarding their allergies and emergency plan, including not eating anything with unknown ingredients or any food know to contain any allergen. Anaphylactic reactions are time sensitive and responding quickly can save a life. Note that for all students, if an EpiPen is ordered, two EpiPens must be available. One is kept in the nurse’s office with the official order. The second must be kept in the students’ homerooms or on their persons, depending on age, at all times.

For a safe food guide, please refer to:

Tree Nuts to Avoid

Traces of nut products are contained in a wide variety of foods. Sometimes it is not obvious that a product contains nuts. While the FDA requires manufacturers to list the eight major allergens on labels, it does not require advisory labels such as “may contain nut products,” “traces of nuts,” or “was manufactured in a plant that contains any kind of nut product.” Therefore in addition to checking labels, if you have any doubt about a product, do not use it or call the manufacturer directly. Also keep in mind that manufacturers change ingredients and their packaging without warning.

Additional Recognized Allergies

In addition to nuts, peanut, and their products, the Léman Manhattan administration and the food service team has made great effort to eliminate several other serious allergens from our school, including sesame seeds and their products and shellfish of any kind. Due to the severity of the allergic response these allergies may cause, we ask that all Léman Manhattan families and staff comply with this effort any time they bring food into school.

Please review carefully the list of nuts and products you may not realize can cause contamination.

This list includes all foods that may be brought to the school for holiday parties, and birthdays.

If you have any questions, please contact the Léman Manhattan School nurse.

This is not an all-inclusive list. Please read labels carefully. Tree nuts are added to a variety of foods including BBQ sauces, cereals, ice cream and crackers.

•Almonds

•Beechnut

•Brazil nuts

•Cashews

•Caponata

•Chestnut

•Chinquapin

•Coconut

•Filberts

•Hazelnuts

•Gianduja

•Ginkgo nuts

•Hickory nuts

•Lychee nuts

•Macadamia nuts

•Mandelonas

•Mashuga nuts

•Nutella

•Nutmeal

•Nu Nutsa--artificial nuts (peanuts deflavored an reflavored with a nutlike pecan or walnut)

•Nut butters

•Nut oil

•Nut paste

•Pecans

•Pili nuts

•Pine nuts

•Pistachios

•Pralines

•Shea nuts

•Tehina

•Walnuts

Products That May Contain Tree Nuts

•Cereals

•Chex Mix

•Artificial Nuts

•Nougat

•Many ethnic dishes

•Some candies

•Baked goods (i.e. cookies and pastries)

•Grain breads

•Ice cream

•Dried soups

•Granola

•Chili

•Some meat substitutes

•Egg rolls

•Vegetarian burgers

•Marzipan

•Nougat

•Chocolate flavoring

•Milk formula

•Pesto

•Seasoning

•Satay sauces

Purchasing Peanut/Nut-Free Products

Due to continual changes in manufacturer packaging and processing, please double check any of the products below before using to insure that they do not contain peanuts/nuts or the products of peanuts/nuts, and that they are not “manufactured in facilities that process nuts or peanuts.

Nut-Free Products (found in stores)

Cherry Brook Kitchen Products – Cake, cookie mixes and frostings. These products can be found at some Whole Foods stores or ordered online at (Please note that Whole Foods bakeries, which the school previously recommended, cannot guarantee that their baked goods are not cross contaminated with nuts; no products should be brought in from the Whole Foods bakery).

Enjoy Life Foods- Packaged nut-free (and several other allergen-free) snacks such as cookies, granola, bagels, trail mix, and chocolate bars. They are available in stores or can be ordered online at

For parties, cooking projects, class trips and school bus rides:

Party Foods:

•Fruit

•Cheese

•Crackers (Nabisco/Ritz / Keebler Saltines)

•Celery Sticks/ Carrots

•Pretzels (Rold Gold, Snyders of Hanover)

•Potato Chips (Lays and Ruffles)

•Corn Chips (Fritos, Doritos)

•Frozen Fruit Bars/Fudgesicles (Minute Maid, Tropicana, Good Humor, Nestle, etc.)

Not Party Foods:

•NO CANDY

•No Dunkin Donuts

•Bagels (due to poppy/sesame seed allergies)

•Pizza

•Anything containing any nuts or seeds

When purchasing snacks be aware that there are continual changes in manufacturer packaging and processing. Please read the ingredient label of your snack to ensure that it does not contain any of the following:

•Peanuts/Nuts

•Peanut / Nut Butter

•Peanut/ Nut Oil

•Peanut/Nut Flour or Meal

•Do not bring any store bought foods with labels that contain the statement “manufactured in a facility that also processes peanuts or other nuts.”

•Home baked treats are permitted but please scrub your utensils and baking implements well before use and all ingredients must not contain the above statement.

The following are the only permitted bakeries allowed at Léman:

•Magic Sprinkles Cupcakes

Nancy at 212-874-0045

•Eleni’s Chelsea Market Store

75 9th Ave. And Madison Avenue Store, 1266 Madison Avenue

Delivery or pickup 1-888-435-3647

•The Donut Pub

203 W. 14th St. #1

212-929-0126

•Doughnuts- Krispy Kreme “Original Glazed” only

•Baby Cakes: Baby Cakes specializes in gluten-free, egg free and

soy-free products.

248 Broome Street

Baking Mixes:

•Cherrybrook Kitchen

•Namaste

•Gluten-Free Pantry – For baking mixes only (there are nuts in the facility that produces chocolate bars, wafers, cookies, breadsticks, pretzels and organic bars).

Nut-Free Products (from the internet):

• (peanut, tree nut, egg and dairy-free treats). Divvies will deliver nut-free cupcakes.

• (dairy, tree nut, peanut, egg and gluten-free chocolates)

• (peanut, nut, dairy, and egg-free baking mixes)

• (nut-free chocolates)

Please remember that our children have frequent parties (sometimes more than once a week when including birthdays) with many treats and it is not necessary to have large displays of food.

The excellent food service team at Léman Manhattan makes every effort to keep peanuts, tree nuts, or products that contain them, out of the cafeteria. However we require that families work with us to ensure the same for any food that is brought in from the outside world. We need your help to keep Léman Manhattan a safe and healthy environment for all.