Food Allergies Complicate Food Insecurity

Brianne Kellogg, MS RDN LDN, Beyond Hunger Nutrition Education Coordinator and Dietitian has been making a measurable impact in the quality of nutrition we distribute. After reading a recent article by Kathleen Ronayne of the Associated Press published by the Chicago Sun-Times, "Food allergies complicate hungry Americans’ search for meals" Brianne was reminded of the importance of her work over the past few years ensuring that all Beyond Hunger clients, even those with special dietary needs such as food allergies or dairy intolerances, have access to high-quality nutritious foods.  Read the article linked above and then learn more about the initiatives we've instituted at Beyond Hunger to provide safe and nutritious food. 

The combination of worrying about what kind of food you can feed your child and also worrying that you might not have enough food to serve for dinner, really strikes home with me. This article made me tear up. It's an awful feeling to not be able to provide safe food for your family. When my daughter was just a year old she was diagnosed with more food allergies than seemed manageable—even for me—a dietitian!  We had two very severe and scary food allergy instances, almost back to back, as I was weaning her from breastmilk. The thought that food could be so dangerous was overwhelming. I had never looked at food that way before in my life. It was eye opening and changed so much in the way I work with clients. 

I started becoming more and more aware of our clients' various food allergies and intolerances during Beyond Hunger's grocery store tours and cooking classes. People would ask about healthy alternatives to various foods because of food allergies they had in their home.

We started by initiating a food allergy policy for our cooking classes and now screen for allergies and intolerances as participants register for classes. The more classes we organized, the more we learned about the extent of food allergies in our pantry community. It occurred to me that those food allergies were not limited to cooking class program participants. Those food allergies were impacting families and individuals who shopped at our pantry too.  

A number of years ago I began working with our Volunteer and Pantry Manager, Ricardo Garcia, to separate foods containing potential allergens, like nuts, out of our storage area. When people would come to the pantry and shop we made sure they would feel safe in knowing there hadn't been any cross contamination. In the past year, as we've had to pre-pack food boxes to distribute in our drive through, we've made sure to have boxes prepared for individuals who might have a food allergy, need gluten free options, and now for those who may even be vegan or vegetarian. 

It's a bit of a personal mission, and one that Beyond Hunger embodies: Everyone should have equal access to nutritious and SAFE foods. We work hard to make sure we provide healthy food, prioritizing fresh produce and whole grains, but at the end of the day, if someone can't safely eat the food we offer we are not addressing food accessibility in an equitable and dignified manner.