What Does It Mean To Be An Allergy Ally?

Everyone knows someone with a food allergy. You might have friends and family who are severely allergic to nuts, dairy, etc., or maybe they have a sensitivity to certain foods so they’ve just cut them from their diet completely. Food allergies aside, we know how good it feels to feel cared for, heard, and understood, and there are intentional ways that we can help our food allergy friends out when dealing with their food allergies. In this blog, we’ll be chatting about what it means to be an allergy ally!

Here are our top 3 ideas for ways that you can go the extra mile for your friends and family members with food allergies, and some scenarios you might find yourself in where you have the chance to show up for your people.

1. It’s Monday afternoon, and you’re already looking forward to the weekend. You text your best group of buds and invite them over to your house on Friday evening for a family-style dinner party. You know that one of your friends that you’ve invited, Alex, has a severe tree-nut allergy. One way that you can make Alex feel comfortable and safe with attending a potluck dinner, is to simply ask your group chat to bring side dishes that don’t use tree nuts as an ingredient. You can even go the extra mile and text Alex separately, and assure her that you will clean surfaces and utensils before cooking and serving the dinner to ensure there isn’t any cross contamination with tree nuts that you have in your pantry. These small actions will make Alex feel important and will mitigate any uncertainty she might have at the dinner party. 
2. It’s Friday afternoon and your office is hosting an end-of-week ice cream social to welcome new team members. Your office buddy has a dairy intolerance and you notice that the planning team is only serving dairy ice cream. Dan hasn’t arrived yet, and you don’t want him to feel left out. One way that you can make Dan feel included is by quickly running down the street to your local corner store and grabbing a pint of non-dairy ice cream. Or, try ordering quickly on Instacart (super quick delivery!). Afterwards, be sure to suggest to the planning team that they ask about allergies or intolerances before hosting a party. This way, they can better cater to their employees and include them in events where food and drinks are being served. 
3. You’re planning an afternoon to hang out and catch up with your friends from high school. The group chat suggests going shopping, seeing the newest movie at the theatre, and ending the night with dinner at a restaurant. You’ve been delegated the responsibility of choosing the restaurant to eat at, and you quickly remember that your closest friend, Audrey, who is included in the plans, is allergic to gluten and dairy. One way that you can support Audrey is by calling the restaurants in advance and ask if they are able to cater to people who have severe gluten and dairy allergies. Be sure to ask them to share how they prevent cross contamination to identify if your friend will feel comfortable eating there. Be sure to fill Audrey in on your conversation with the restaurant and welcome her to call them back if she has more questions.

It doesn’t take much to create a safe and welcoming space for our friends with food allergies. We hope these scenarios gives you a few ideas on how we can show up and make our people feel supported and cared for!