Hello Friends-
It’s hard to believe April is around the corner! April is IBS Awareness Month–and as part of my #IBelieveinyourStory campaign, I have added a new goal–to help fight hunger and food insecurity in people living with food intolerance. We have titled this initiative, #EndHungerPain.
We’ll be visiting many wonderful food pantries and organizations helping feed people experiencing food intolerance and food insecurity, click here to donate and learn more.
Many common food pantry donations contain common allergens, FODMAPs and gluten. While these donations promote health for most people, they simply do not work for some people requiring special diet needs due to food allergies, celiac disease, or FODMAP intolerance.
I am thrilled to announce the GOLD sponsor of the #EndHungerPain initiative is FODY food co. , a low FODMAP (and gluten free) food company and the SILVER sponsor is Schar Gluten free, a company that provides gluten free foods with some of their products, also, low FODMAP certified.
These amazing companies have generously provided financial sponsorship to organizations working in the food intolerance and food insecurity space along with a boatload of food products for this mission. I am beyond grateful!
We have a pretty jam packed trip planned down the east coast (and back home) from March 29-April 4 to primarily raise awareness of the intersection of food intolerance and food insecurity…but we will ALSO be delivering food, educational resources, + food coupons too.
Here is a basic overview of our tour:
March 29: Hopkinton, Massachusetts: We will meet with Project Just Because Food Pantry and the National Celiac Association in Hopkinton, MA. We will be providing a $2500 donation from Schar Gluten free via the #EndHungerPain initiative to the National Celiac Center so they can help procure gluten free food for those that need these foods. We will bring along low FODMAP food, 88 Acres allergy friendly bars, Orgain bars and nutritional shake mixes and more for Project Just Because, that provides a wide variety of gluten free foods for their guests that require them.
March 30: Stamford, CT: We will meet with the Food Rescue’s Fairfield chapter, Person to Person Food Pantry, New Covenant Food Pantry and Silver Source Pantry! We’ll be dropping off food, educating about food intolerance and ways Food Rescue can be involved, as well as leaving low FODMAP educational tools. We’ll be dropping off 88 Acres bars, Fody Food co, salsa, pasta sauces and snack bars, Orgain nutritional shake mixes, and Schar gluten-free bread and rolls to the various pantries we visit here.
March 31 Kingston, PA: We will meet up with fellow dietitian, Clancy Harrison from the Food Dignity Project and the Al Beech Food Pantry. We’ll be providing low FODMAP education tools for staff helping put food boxes together for people with FODMAP intolerance. Barilla pasta provided gluten free and low FODMAP pasta and I will be bringing along FODY food co. low FODMAP and gluten free pasta sauce for distribution at the food pantry. Clancy Harrison was awarded FODY food co.’s sponsorship donation via the #EndHungerPain initiative, she will receive $3,000 to use toward helping meet the food intolerance needs in her community’s food pantry.
April 1 Washington DC/VA food pantry TBA.
April 2 Charlotte NC: We will meet at Atrium Health Meyer’s Park Clinic meeting with gastroenterologists, dietitians, and food pantry managers from Loaves and Fishes food pantry, this clinic has a high rate of food insecurity as well as low literacy. We have also curated educational a low FODMAP diet handout for low literacy for this community. Nestle Health Science donated 50 cases of nutritional formula for this campaign, FODY food co. donated several food products, coupons and educational tools for the low FODMAP diet as well!
We’ll create a small video capturing interviews with wonderful people doing great work in the food insecurity and food intolerance space. Stay tuned for that. I will also be posting via my social media channels as we go–find me here on Instagram and here on Twitter.
If you would like to provide funding to help organizations do more in the food intolerance and food insecurity space, click here to donate and learn more.
Thank you!!