For Food Allergy Awareness Month, I wanted to feature some organizations and resources that help bring awareness, raise funds, or simply provide support to families living with food allergies. And I found 3 great ones within the AllergyBites group!

(If you know of any initiatives worth adding, please let me know in the comments below.)

1. Turn It Teal

Turn it Teal’s mission is to light buildings, bridges, and attractions in teal during Food Allergy Awareness Month. It all started in 2014 with the idea to have a local Cleveland building lit up to promote food allergy awareness. There was such a positive response from the food allergy community that the initiative expanded (and continues to expand) throughout the continent. Turn It Teal’s founder, Stephanie Lowe, is on a global mission committed to educating others about food allergies and their daily impact on people, how to help those with allergies, and perhaps to help find a cure. Turn It Teal will be hitting Toronto as well this year, thanks to the help of Debbie Bruce from the Canadian Anaphylaxis Initiative. You can find a list of local lightings here. If you have suggestions for lightings, feel free to submit them.

2. Walk for Andrea

In 2016, Walk for Andrea was founded by allergy parents Jyoti Parmar and Peter Deboran to honour Andrea Mariano, an Ontario teenager who died after sipping a drink that contained either dairy or peanut products (both of which she was allergic to). This initiative is an official community fundraiser for the Hospital for Sick Children (SickKids), and all funds raised go the Food Allergy and Anaphylaxis Program to find a cure. Walk for Andrea is also dedicated to helping people with life-threatening food allergies by raising awareness and advocating for safe inclusion. Visit the website if you’d like to take part in the walk or make a donation.

3. HypeFoodie