The Teal Pumpkin Project for an Allergy-Friendly Halloween
Reposted from Food, Allergy, Research and Education (FARE) Website
This Halloween, FARE is encouraging food allergy families to start a new tradition: painting a pumpkin teal and placing it on your porch as a sign to other families managing food allergies that you have non-food treats available at your home. Your teal pumpkin is also a way to raise awareness in your neighborhood about food allergies!
Purchasing inexpensive non-food treats to hand out is a great way to include all children in trick-or-treating, and we hope that the Teal Pumpkin Project will be a tradition for years to come.
Examples of non-food items include: 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. Oriental Trading or Amazon are websites used by many parents to order these items (Visit smile.amazon.com to shop on Amazon and donate a portion of your purchases to FARE. Just search for “Food Allergy Research & Education”).
Print out FARE’s teal pumpkin poster to post next to your door to notify visitors that you are handing out non-food items in support of all children with food allergies.
Download FARE’s Non-Food Treats Halloween Poster to show your support (This poster is formatted for A4 paper, but will also print on 8.5×11 and 11×14 paper using the “fit to page” setting)
Download a flyer about the Teal Pumpkin Project and share it to spread the word (This flyer is formatted for A4 paper, but will also print on 8.5×11 and 11×14 paper using the “fit to page” setting)
For those with pumpkin allergies, you can paint a plastic pumpkin. Painting a plastic pumpkin is also a way to reuse the same pumpkin year after year. Acrylic or spray paints are recommended, and those with milk allergies should avoid using milk paint. For instructions on how to paint a pumpkin, view this wikiHow tutorial.
FARE would like to thank the Food Allergy Community of East Tennessee (FACET) for this wonderful idea. We are pleased to bring it to the attention of families across the country, and we hope you will join in our effort to make Halloween more inclusive for children with food allergies!
For media inquiries about the Teal Pumpkin Project, please email Nancy Gregory, Director of Communications, at ngregory@foodallergy.org.
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