In recent years, there has been an uprising in the popularity of gluten-free foods and food options in restaurants. From gluten-free buns at Chick-Fil-A to completely gluten-free restaurants and food trucks, people with Celiac disease (CD) have been talking nonstop.

One in 300 children in America have Celiac disease and rises to one in 10 if a parent or sibling of the child has CD. CD is hereditary and can lead to delayed growth.

In an interview at Carbondale Community High School with freshman Elisha Wheetley, a teen with CD, he was asked how it felt to have gluten-free lunch options this school year.

“Included,” Wheetley said. “I feel included because pretty much everywhere I go, I have to get [food] without a bun. T’Neesha makes me feel happy knowing that someone is there for me. It makes me feel less like a part of the crowd.”

Wheetley was later asked how long he had known he had CD.

“Since February of 2024,” Wheetley said. “I was still eating gluten-not-free food around then.”

Celiac disease can show up much later in a person’s life, which is called Late-Onset Celiac Disease. As of September 26, 2024, there is no known cure for CD.

In an interview with superintendent Daniel Booth, he was asked how he would feel about implementing gluten-free options for the school permanently.

“There’s two things that are very important,” Booth said. “One of [them] is that [kids] show up. The other one is that they’re fed. If you don’t show up, you can’t learn. If you show up, but you are hungry, it’s . . . hard to focus on what the teacher is teaching.

“We [have] 1,000 kids here,” Booth added, “and they all have different needs and I think whatever we can do to meet the needs of our kids, we need to figure it out . . . especially when it comes to getting them here and getting them fed when they get here.”

Principal Ryan Thomas was asked in a separate meeting what one setback would be if he had to go gluten-free.

“When I go get pizza,” Thomas said, “I don’t necessarily want whole-wheat crust because it doesn’t taste that good to me. If I was gluten-free, to get gluten-free crust on a pizza, [it] isn’t going to taste as good as the other type of crust.”

At CCHS, there has been one lunch lady that has stood out the most. Her name is T’Neesha Jefro. Jefro worked at Carbondale Middle School for 4 years, and transferred back to the high school at the beginning of the 2024-2025 school year.

Jefro was asked in an interview how easy it is to make gluten-free foods.

“It’s pretty easy,” Jefro said. “I just order [foods] through my . . . vendor. . . I know that if the box says it has wheat in it, [Celiacs] can’t have it. I don’t struggle at all to make gluten-free options for the gluten-free kids.”

Gluten-free foods have never been an option for lunch at CCHS, however, with much thanks to the consideration from T’Neesha Jefro, Celiac kids at this school can now sleep easy knowing that they don’t have to take their lunch every single day if they don’t want to.