Excited for the trick-or-treat season but worried that you might trigger a kid's allergy with a sweet treat? Then the Teal Pumpkin Project is going to help you.
CNN reports that Halloween, with the annual highlight of going door-to-door asking for treats, causes people to worry about kids having problems with food allergies.
For this reason, the Food Allergy Research & Education (FARE) organization has organized a campaign called the "Teal Pumpkin Project." This project aims to let kids (and their parents) enjoy the fun of trick-or-treating without the worry of their kids having problems with their food allergies.
"The Teal Pumpkin Project is an easy way to make a big impact in your community. Food allergies can be life-threatening, and they affect 1 in 13 children in the United States. We are thrilled to see so many people embracing the Teal Pumpkin Project as a way to ensure kids with food allergies can enjoy a safe, fun Halloween experience just like their friends," said Veronica LaFemina, spokesperson for FARE.
Launched last year on Facebook, the Teal Pumpkin Project is relatively simple: it encourages families to put a teal-colored pumpkin on their porch, indicating that they are giving away non-food items to kids who have food allergies. Not only does this eliminate with the food allergy scare, it also helps raise up the neighborhood's awareness about food allergies.
Preparing the teal pumpkin is easy too: just paint a pumpkin using teal-colored acrylic or spray paint, avoiding milk paint if you are allergic to milk. Additionally, for those who are allergic to pumpkins, plastic pumpkins are available and these can be used yearly.
Alternatively, participating families can put up FARE's teal pumpkin posters (there are two versions) next to their doors, notifying neighbors and visitors that they are handing out non-food items.
There are a lot of non-food items that FARE encourages people to give, such as glow bracelets or necklaces, pencils, markers, boxes of crayons, erasers, bubbles, mini Slinkies, whistles or noisemakers, bouncy balls, coins, spider rings, vampire teeth, mini notepads, playing cards, bookmarks, stickers, and stencils.
For those who don't want to participate in the teal pumpkin project, CNN suggests that separating allergy-free candy from those candies that might trigger an allergic response will be helpful.
Additionally, parents should be more careful to check the candies that their child will receive on Oct. 31.
"Checking labels becomes very pivotal because during the holidays, including Halloween, when the manufacturers make those mini small-sized candies and they're often mass-produced on shared equipment," said founder and CEO of the Bay Area Allergy Advisory Board, Mireille Schwartz.
"Candy that's safe other times of the year might not be safe during Halloween."
