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Grain your freedom!
Cheerful Giving
Our About Us section detailed our struggles finding gluten-free food for our daughter during several natural disasters and the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic. We knew we couldn't just go to any restaurant or drive-thru when gluten-free food became hard to find. We resorted to paying for grocery delivery services and traveling to other cities to find meat and fresh produce. We even traded food with our neighbors. Scared would be an understatement. We never want anyone to feel like they can't get the gluten-free food they need. Making matters worse, gluten-free food is much more expensive. Talk about a double whammy!
Finding a food bank in Houston, Texas, that provides specific gluten-free and top-nine allergy-friendly food is next to impossible. Most food banks in the United States have minimal options for those with dietary needs. People with limited incomes and with food allergies, intolerances, diabetes, and celiac disease face decisions about what food they can eat. Diabetes, food allergies, and intolerance do not discriminate and are on the rise.
Every day in Houston, Texas, 1 out of 4 preschool-aged children may not know where their next meal is coming from. Harris County has the 2nd highest child food insecurity rate in the nation, meaning our children have limited or unreliable access to sufficient, affordable, nutritious food. We must ensure we donate packaged fruit cups, juice boxes, allergy-friendly bread, fruit snacks, apple sauce, raisins, allergy-friendly soups that contain beans and/or meat, canned meat, canned tuna, and other gluten-free and allergy-friendly items to food banks.
Please note that summertime donations to food banks are notoriously slow. Become a cheerful giver! Look up your local food bank and ask how you can help!
Places we give to in Houston!
Christian Community Service Center
Houston Methodist Underwood Center for Digestive Disorders
Places we give to in Texas!
Camp Gilmont- The Great Gluten-Free Escape!
Places we give to in the USA!
Food Equality
Families with food allergies, intolerances, or celiac disease spend much MUCH more than families without food allergies. Unfortunately, government assistance programs like WIC and SNAP rarely cover specialty items like allergy-friendly and gluten-free products. That is where the Food Equality Initiative (FEI) steps in.
Check out the Food Equality Initiative. It is a great place that fights for food/nutrition security and health equity for all. They believe food is medicine to treat medical conditions such as food allergies, celiac disease, Crohn’s Disease, eosinophilic esophagitis, hypertension, etc.
Tips For Low- Income Families Managing Food Allergies
We believe every child should have the opportunity to experience sleepaway camp, regardless of whether they have food allergies or intolerances. Our goal is to create food equality for children. With funds raised, we donate to organizations and camps that are doing a great job offering safe food!
Encourage Your Congressman!
Write
FDA LABELING:
Want to make a difference right away? Get on your computer and write your U.S. Senator and U.S. Representative on the importance of supporting the Food Labeling Modernization Act of 2023 to make purchasing food items easier and safer for individuals with celiac disease or gluten sensitivity by disclosing if foods contain gluten. Right now, it is a voluntary claim with little to no regulation. At this moment, the bill has only been introduced to the House. The law requires to state that "wheat" is in a product, but that does not help the celiac community. The celiac community needs to know if other gluten-containing grains exist in the food, such as barley or rye. There are dozens of ingredients that contain gluten. Anyone who has lived or cared for someone with the disease must know the exact ingredients in whatever they are about to consume. For example, a popular puffed rice cereal looks harmless enough because "hey, it's just rice," but it contains malt, a barley derivative, making it unsafe to eat. The only way to know if something is genuinely gluten-free is to buy certified gluten-free products, carefully study the ingredient list, or buy an expensive gluten sensor and testing pods such as the Nima Partners Sensor. It is unfair that every day is a gamble on whether a product will make you sick.
THE CELIAC CAUCUS:
Urge Your House Members to Join the Bipartisan Congressional Celiac Disease Caucus. The Caucus will help Members of Congress raise awareness of celiac disease. They will raise awareness in their districts and Washington and give the celiac patient community a voice. They will also support federal funding of celiac disease research and help push legislation to ease the suffering of celiac disease patients.
MEDICAL NUTRITION THERAPY :
Please ask your Members of Congress to cosponsor an essential piece of legislation to cover medical nutrition therapy visits (recommended dietary adherence tool) for Medicare beneficiaries. The Medical Nutrition Therapy Act would expand Medicare Part B coverage of outpatient medical nutrition therapy services to several currently uncovered diseases or conditions—including celiac disease, pre-diabetes, obesity, high blood pressure, high cholesterol, malnutrition, eating disorders, cancer, and HIV/AIDS. Yes, you are reading this correctly!
GLUTEN IN MEDICINE DISCLOSURE ACT:
I can't even begin to tell you the hoops those in the celiac community must go through to determine if a medicine contains gluten. It is not as easy as reading the ingredients of packaged food. You have to ask your doctor; you have to ask your pharmacist; then you have to read the medicine pamphlet that came with the prescription, and then they refer you to the pharmaceutical company. Who can then only tell you there are no gluten-containing ingredients, but "we cannot guarantee it is gluten-free." Even though you are already sick, you may also get "glutened" by the medicine that is supposed to help with your other illness—adding salt to a wound here! Please write your U.S. Representatives to cosponsor this critical piece of legislation to make it easier and safer for individuals with celiac disease or gluten sensitivity to make informed purchases of needed medications.
THE WHITE HOUSE NATIONAL STRATEGY ON HUNGER, NUTRITION, AND HEALTH:
The Biden-Harris Administration's National Strategy on Hunger, Nutrition, and Health says, "Diet-related diseases are some of the leading causes of death and disability in the U.S." We need more federal funding for Celiac research that is proportionate to its disease burden and lack of treatment options. This is basic health equity, and we need to get gluten named as the 10th major food allergen in the US. Gluten is listed as an allergen in Europe and Canada.
Restaurants
Safe Gluten-Free Options While Dining Out
First things first. Gluten-free is a treatment, not a trend! We are not eating gluten-free to be trendy or annoy anyone at a restaurant. The heart of relationships is surrounded by a meal. Food becomes your identity because of your traditions and heritage. We share and communicate our emotions through eating. Furthermore, there is a mindset of sharing what you're eating. This is why going out to eat at a restaurant is so special. Going out to restaurants is not only social but has become a tradition. Think about when you celebrated or caught up with friends or family. It is easy to go to your favorite spot. Eating out is important even more so today as there has become a demise of social capital. Eating out with others is essential to one's overall mental health.
Going out to eat at a restaurant dates back to the 9th century. St. Peter Stiftskulinarium in Salzburg, Austria, was founded in 803 CE, making it the oldest restaurant in the world. Wow! You can't tell me food is not social. Having celiac disease makes it incredibly difficult to dine out, go to parties, weddings, birthdays, eat out at a friend's house, and even dating. Why do you ask? "Life's a picnic" when you are gluten-free as you have to eat beforehand or bring your own food. Even more perplexing is that restaurants and food companies cater to weight loss food but not to those with true food allergies, intolerances, and celiac disease. Unfortunately, going gluten-free has become a fad diet, so the restaurants that offer "gluten-friendly" food don't necessarily know how to handle the food properly. Or they claim it is gluten-free because they do not truly understand what makes something glutinous—making it unsafe to eat. There is a massive market for this food, and it is only getting bigger.
You can help by supporting safe restaurants doing a great job and THANKING THEM! Write an op-ed for your local newspaper asking for safer restaurants. Support a local bakery that does gluten-free correctly. Pay for a local restaurant or school to be trained through the Beyond Celiac GREAT Kitchens or Schools training program. Write a great review on Yelp for a restaurant that serves safe gluten-free food and perhaps "encourage" those who did not take it so seriously. Give a pat on the back to a chef or restaurant owner who can make celiac-safe, gluten-free food. Tell the manager that the waiter did a great job attending to your dietary needs. Wear a gluten-free shirt to the dining establishment. Most of all, talk and tweet it up!
Sadly, when you dine out, there is typically no safe eating option; a "gluten-free" option is usually a bowl of lettuce called "salad." The food offered does not compare to the rest of the menu. Making it exclusionary. We feel that important things happen around a table, and those with celiac disease and food allergies should not be excluded from the table. So gather together and share. Break gluten-free bread with glad and generous hearts, y'all!
