[KHTS] – For kids who have food allergies, Halloween can be a scary time for them and their parents but food allergy experts are hoping the Teal Pumpkin Project will bring more safety to the holiday.
“One in 13 kids have food allergies, that means roughly two in every classroom,” said Veronica LaFemina, vice president of communications for Food Allergy Research & Education. “There is a good chance that a child on your block or in your neighborhood are dealing with food allergies.”
Experts from the FARE nonprofit created the Teal Pumpkin Project, a campaign that encourages people to raise awareness of food allergies, LaFemina said.
“This is the first year the Teal Pumpkin Project is being promoted by Food Allergy Research & Education,” LaFemina said. “It was inspired by a community in East Tennessee that started similar project in locally last year.”
Posts about the project were launched on the FARE Facebook page and raked in more than 5.2 million views, LaFemina said.
To participate, paint a pumpkin teal, the color of food allergyawareness or print out the sign from the FARE website and place it out on Halloween, LaFemina said. Instead of giving out candy, go to the dollar store and pick out some small toys.
“There are a lot of great options for inexpensive non-food treats,” she said. “Eyeball bouncy balls, spider rings, vampire teeth. Kids get excited about those.”
Other families can benefit from the non-food treats including families with diabetes, Celiac Disease or those who don’t want their children eating candy.
“Food allergies are potentially life threatening,” LaFemina said. “We’re talking about children who quite literally a small amount of food could send them to the emergency room. With non-food treats, all of the trick-or-treaters that come to your door can leave with a big smile.”
For more information about the Teal Pumpkin Project and how you can participate, visit the website.
Like this:
Like Loading...
Related
Tweet This
Facebook
Digg This
Bookmark
Stumble
RSS
REAL NAMES ONLY: All posters must use their real individual or business name. This applies equally to Twitter account holders who use a nickname.
21 Comments
If we stopped poisoning our food with GMO this would not be an issue. We never had this percentage of sick kids until Monsanto and it’s ilk destroyed our food. Maybe if they ate a non GMO pumpkin or anything else, it would not be a post here?
My kids don’t eat candy so I love this idea! Every Halloween I stress and now I finally can embrace it!!
This is even more awesome for those type 1 diabetic kids out there Huh Monica Wynn!!!
Back in the day that house would’ve gotten egged
Michele Hess Handley
Michele Hess Handley
Ain’t it time that the GMO-paranoid-baseless-bolllocks fad to fade now?
It’s just silly, move on.
Anyway, why teal?
Ain’t it time that the GMO-paranoid-baseless-bolllocks fad to fade now?
It’s just silly, move on.
Anyway, why teal?
They went Ebola viral… Monsanto is the latest DDT.
Do you have a better reason for everyone being allergic to this and that? Back in the day, people ate real food, grown in their backyards. Today, everyone searches for the best deal on Fruit Roll- Ups at Walmart, all in the name of saving a buck. If eating poison isn’t the culprit of this, I’d sure like to know what is…
Alright, well, Fruit Roll-Ups are not genetically modified food, just low in nutrition, which is a cultural issue. Even then, not tied to allergies.
There is no evidence I know of that GMOs have any affect on allergies arising in kids, so far it’s a very baseless correlation.
It makes more sense to me that better medicine leads to more people living, so more bodily issues.
The arguments against GMOs are still just giant emotional frustrations, with people looking for an easy blame.
As I see it.
It should be the parents responsibility to check the candy and see what their kids can and cannot eat. If they are old enough to trick or treat , the parents should know what candies the children can have. There are children with food allergies, diabetes and even some allergic to certain dyes. We can’t make special requests for everyone. That is the parents responsibility. Jmo.
Of course their parents know what candies they can have, and no one’s saying it’s not their responsibility to check the candy or asking you to provide a bunch of special requests for different people. It would just be a nice show of support to children who have food allergies, diabetes, or don’t eat candy to have an alternative so that they can participate in Halloween as well. It’s not difficult to grab a handful of dollar tree toys, books, stickers, or temporary tattoos for those kids.
I support kids with food allergies but I’ll still be giving candy. Sorry, but I don’t want to disappoint the vast majority of kids because a small minority may have an allergy. I trust that most parents of children with severe allergies will check the candy before letting their kids eat it. Maybe they could even trade them the candy they can’t eat for another safe treat. After all, if their child has a food allergy, they need to learn how to function and protect themselves from an allergic reaction when they’re in a mixed setting. Like it or not, that food is going to sometimes be presented to them. It’s up to the parents to teach them to function in the real world, not the world’s job to conform to the person with food allergies. Obviously, removing peanuts from a menu in an enclosed space is a reasonable enough request for someone with a severe nut allergy, who will react to the tiniest particulate of peanut in the air but refusing to serve any food item is too much.
But they aren’t asking you to remove any food item. They’re just suggesting the really nice idea that you also provide a handful of non-food items.
Its mainly to offer an option….some will have a small bowl for those kids with allergies, etc.
Mine has PA. We do check and trade candy…but this is a very nice gesture some are willing to make.
I’m sure there will still be alot of candy.
“Celebrity Pumpkins (Part 2)”:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4_peT8hd26s
The horror, the horror!
Y
Just Appalled By this really, pumpkins are orange
Just Appalled By this really, pumpkins are orange
We always offer small inexpensive toys, Halloween tattoos/stickers, even party sized playdoh as an alternative as well as our candy. Done it for years. No big deal for us to make it fun for all.