Too much research not associated with my degree

[nclean]

Other people know more about much of this than me. Anyone got any input (Hey Nicki!)
Sorry about the crappy formatting!  Updating to include suggestions by commenters will come with changes for vague completeness - later
Establishing guidelines for
catering for special dietary needs
An introduction: Why guidelines are needed

Comments

[traeemery]

OK, I see what you're trying to do, but I think less on the statisitcal approach and more on the practical advice. If you want to put this forward as a C&S policy/guideline, what you have above is a nice prelude or justification, but it does nothing for equiping clubs for dealing with the issue. Stats are nice but misleading. (The vego stat is from my experience a severve underestimate. The MonUCS vegetarianism rate is double that. While the coeliac rate is twice what my experience tells me to expect.)
How about approaching is with practical solutions on
-how to gather catering requirements before events (e.g. allow for a space on membership forms as well as space on RSVP forms for events, always list a contact email for special catering requirements on event adverts, etc)
-some suggestions for recipies that can serve multiple "special diet" groups like risotto works really well for vegans/vegos and coeliacs, or suppliers of halal meat
-tips on kitchen safety for handling allergens

When I started catering for uni groups it was the SCA and amongst the "Knowne World Handbook" and "Tournements Illuminated" and SCA websites there was a wealth of articles on how to cater for special diets. You might want to see if you can track these down. I remember a couple of great articles; one on hygeine for handling allergens another on how to keep both meat eaters and vegos happy for their protien needs.

I can see the temptation to emphasise your point with stats. But considering your audience, what they'll really appreciate is the actual 'how to's. Like your point about buying veggie burgers without alfoil (or in my experience veggie burgers that contained non-free range eggs and so weren't vegan).