Only about 700 — or less than one percent — of HISD students have special dietary needs that require restricted diets, but providing those children with healthy, nourishing food is all in a day’s work for HISD’s Nutrition Services department.
Dietitian Lindsay Smith works closely with nurses and kitchen staff to monitor students who need allergen-free meals, and HISD as a district eliminated all peanut and tree-nut products from its recipes two years ago as a precaution, to prevent accidental allergic reactions.