What is the Teal Pumpkin Project?
The Teal Pumpkin Project is a campaign started by FARE (Food Allergy Research & Education) to support children with food allergies, intolerances, and other food-related conditions, and to keep them safe during Halloween. The idea is that in addition to handing out the typical candy to trick-or-treaters, people will have a separate bowl of non-food items to hand out. Having these non-food, allergy safe items allows children with allergies, intolerances, or other food-related conditions to enjoy trick-or-treating in a safe way.
Why is the Teal Pumpkin Project so important?
Food allergies impact roughly 6% of young children in Canada. That is roughly 300,000 trick-or-treating aged children. There are also roughly 975,000 children who are living with food intolerances and even more children living with food-related conditions such as diabetes and IBS. That means well over 1 million Canadian children cannot eat the candy that they go trick-or-treating for every Halloween.
The Teal Pumpkin Project helps to create a safe and welcoming Halloween for these children!
How to participate
You can participate in the Teal Pumpkin Project by following 3 simple steps.
- Have non-food, allergy-friendly items in a separate bowl at your doorstep for Halloween.
- Put a teal pumpkin on your doorstep to alert trick-or-treaters that you are an allergy-friendly home.
- Add your home to the Teal Pumpkin Project Map so that trick-or-treaters know where to find you!
You can access the Teal Pumpkin Project Map HERE!
Allergy-friendly items to have on hand include:
- Glow sticks
- Allergy friendly Play-Doh
- Bracelets, necklaces
- Pencils, crayons, markers
- Bubbles
- Bouncy balls
- Finger puppets
- Spider rings
- Vampire fangs
- Mini notepads
- Playing cards
- Halloween activity books
- Stickers
- Stencils
- Allergy-friendly chalk
- Halloween themed erasers, pencil toppers
- Whistles
- Bookmarks
Enjoy Life has several allergy friendly treats – https://enjoylifefoods.com/collections/seasonal
Enjoy Life products are all made in a gluten-free facility and are free of the following 14 allergens:
- Gluten
- Wheat
- Peanuts
- Tree nuts
- Dairy
- Casein
- Soy
- Egg
- Sesame
- Mustard
- Lupin
- Added sulfites
- Fish
- Shellfish
- Crustaceans
Try these Enjoy Life hacks
- Melt your Enjoy Life white chocolate or semi-sweet chocolate Mini Chips and pour them into a lollipop mould or ice tray. Add a lollipop/popsicle stick to each mould or cube. Allow the chocolate to harden for 5-10 minutes. Remove each chocolate sucker carefully by the stick.
- Melt your Enjoy Life chocolate and gather your favourite allergen-free snack foods such as bananas, apples, strawberries, chips, marshmallows, and more! Dip your snacks into the melted chocolate for an allergy-friendly chocolate fondue.
- Combine your favourite Enjoy Life Seed and Fruit Mix with your favourite Enjoy Life chocolate mini chips to create a delicious allergy-safe trail mix.
- Using Enjoy Life Brownie Bites as your base, and melted Enjoy Life Mini Chips as your coating, make your own allergy-friendly Cake Pops! Crumble your Brownie Bites and roll them into bite sized balls, then insert a stick and dip the brownie rolls into the melted chocolate. Top with your favourite allergy-friendly sprinkles or other toppings.
Trick-or-treating with food allergies, intolerances, or food-related conditions can be scary! To ease your fears, book an appointment with one of our team members.