Brooklyn Boy With Rare Allergy Wants Movie Theaters To Relax Outside Food Policy
NEW YORK (CBSNewYork) -- Most movie theaters won't allow outside food, but for some children with allergies that means missing out on theater snacks.
As CBS2's Ali Bauman explained, one little boy from Brooklyn wants to change that policy.
Daniel Desouza, 9, and his food don't always get along.
His mother said the boy has a rare gastrointestinal disorder that causes him to have an allergic reaction to many foods.
"Dairy, wheat, soy, gluten, seafood, peanuts, tree nuts, lemons, legumes, garlic, rice," his mother Gladys Gardner said.
Gladys prepares all of his food to avoid allergic reactions. So when Daniel went to Williamsburg Cinemas on Sunday, she packed him all natural popcorn.
The theater has a no outside food or drink policy, and the lunchbox wasn't allowed past the lobby.
"The guy who checks the tickets stopped us and said I couldn't take the bag with my food in. He confiscated is and put it behind the concession stand," Daniel said.
Representatives from the movie theater wouldn't go on camera, but told CBS2 their popcorn is dairy and gluten free. The kettle used to make the popcorn has never made anything, just popcorn.
Daniel's mother said with the severity of his allergies, the risk of cross contamination is too high.
"There's a lot of people that come in contact with those foods. They don't handle it the same way a restaurant would and the same type of care," she said.
Daniel said even though he was only going to be there for two hours, he didn't bring popcorn just to satisfy his hunger. He brought it to feel like a normal kid at the movies.
"Not being able to eat what everybody else can eat, having to get my own stuff, and just everybody is like, why can't you eat the popcorn here? And I'm like, I can't because I have food allergies," he said.
"He has to deal with feeling different all the time, everywhere he goes. He always has to explain himself, and to be dealing with an adult it would have been nice to make those exceptions for him," his mother said.
The theater said the 'no outside food or drink policy' is an industry wide practice. They enforce the policy to ensure the cleanliness and safety of the theater.
