What's New for Kids With Food Allergies Foundation

Kids With Food Allergies Announcements:

December, 2010

• New Online Tutorial for Parents of Food-Allergic Kids

A year ago, KFA published a comprehensive starter guide to parenting a child with food allergies called, From Confusion to Confidence. Today we are excited to announce that this guide has been published as on online tutorial using Flash technology. Learn about managing food allergies, diagnosis and treatment, where to shop, hidden ingredient names, nutritious substitutions and much more! We have made the URL easy to remember so that it can be shared easily.

Click Here for Details.

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December, 2010

• 19 New Allergy Friendly Foods Special Report (Fall/Winter2010)

Read our most recent report on new allergy-friendly foods to find out what products are now available or are coming in early 2011 for you and your children.

Nineteen new foods are profiled including gluten-free croutons, corn-free popped sorghum, chocolate bars, candy canes, cookies and pizza kits.

For your convenience, our report includes information on company websites, product descriptions and photos, allergens and cross-contamination, and how to purchase these products.

Click Here for Details.

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November, 2010

• KFA's medical advisory board grows by three.

Our MAT members represent multiple disciplines from allergy to psychology and serve our mission by composing and reviewing KFA's educational materials, reviewing and approving books in our book shop, providing general guidance for our peer support forums, and designing and conducting food allergy research.

I am delighted and honored to welcome these three professionals to our team:

1. Joy Hogge, PhD, is a psychologist in Mississippi who has been a long-time KFA member. She has first-hand experience with one of the peanut oral immunotherapy studies, and will offer valuable insights on the psychological aspects of living with and managing food allergies. These are clearly issues of major importance to our members and Joy can help us continue to address them.

2. Nancy Payne, MD, is associate professor of pediatrics at the University of Virginia. She has been recognized as an outstanding teacher and mentor, and also initially came to KFA as a member. She is enthusiastic about joining the team, and very interested in improving patient education around food allergy issues.

3. David Stukus, MD, is an allergist/immunologist and assistant professor of pediatrics at Children's Hospital of Pittsburgh. He is an excellent clinician and educator, and an outstanding advocate for his patients.

Click Here for details.

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October, 2010

• KFA holds second annual online Halloween parade

Thanks to everyone who participated and made this such a great event! It is wonderful to see that our community enjoyed a safe and happy Halloween!

CONGRATULATIONS TO OUR WINNERS!

Photo #44: Cheryl Stokes Burge
Photo #30: Laurie Bowles
Photo #94: Erika Thornes

Click Here for Details.

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September, 2010

• Practical Food Allergy Management: A Quick Guide

This free guide, written by Michael Pistiner, M.D., M.M.Sc., contains essential information for parenting a food-allergic child, including how to apply prevention and preparedness to managing food allergies.

Special thanks to Nutricia North America, the makers of Neocate, for providing the funding for this educational handout.

Family Membership Welcome Kit NEW!
Subscribe to a new or renewed KFA Family Membership and receive a free welcome kit that includes:

- 6 1/4" x 8" x 2" travel bag — perfect for carrying medicines
- A special welcome edition of KFA's Support Net® publication
- The most recent edition of KFA's Support Net®
- Baker's Dozen: KFA's Favorite Sweets & Treats
(a collection of 13 recipes)
- An informational brochure about KFA
Annual subscriptions are $25, or you can save $10 by subscribing to a 2-year membership for $40!
Complementary welcome kit offer is for U.S. residents only. Non-U.S. addresses will require postage fees.

Click Here for Details.

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July, 2010

• KFA Awarded $20,000 from Chase Community Giving Campaign!

We asked for your help, and you really came through for us! Thank you so much for casting your votes in support of Kids With Food Allergies in the Chase Community Giving summer campaign. We are proud of our supporters who cast enough votes to make us finish as #18— out of 500,000 eligible charities!

We know we have a fantastic support community, but this shows it in ways we can't otherwise explain. Thank you for helping us earn this grant that we will use to help families and their children.

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June, 2010

• Four More Physicians Join KFA's Medical Advisory Team

We are pleased to announce the following physicians have recently joined our Medical Advisory Team. We are very lucky to have their guidance as well as their expertise and involvement in creating reliable and accurate educational resources for families.

Terri Brown-Whitehorn, M.D.
Assistant Professor of Clinical Pediatrics
The Children's Hospital of Philadelphia
Philadelphia, PA

Megan Edison, M.D.
Pediatrician
Grand Rapids, MI

Matthew Greenhawt, M.D., M.B.A.
Clinical Lecturer
University of Michigan
Division of Allergy and Clinical Immunology
Ann Arbor, MI

Vaishali Mankad, M.D.
Pediatric Allergy
Raleigh, NC

Click Here for details.

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May 2010

• Spring Report of New Allergy-Friendly Foods

In this second edition for 2010, KFA brings you 17 of the latest foods to enter the market for the food-allergic consumer. New foods include a new dairy and soy-free cheese that melts, peanut-free sunflower cups, sorbet squeezups and a new line of gluten-free flours. Click Here for details.

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May 2010

•Health On the Net Foundation (HON) awards HON Seal to KFA again for 2010

The Health On the Net Foundation visited our Web site again this year and found that it complies with HONcode principles for trustworthy health information. What does this mean? HON has certified for another year that KFA demonstrates its commitment to meet ethical standards in the presentation of health information. "

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May 2010

•Food Allergy Awareness Event

Kids, you can stand up and be counted among the 3 million children in the U.S. that have a food allergy! We have created an awareness event for Allergy and Asthma Month and Food Allergy Awareness Week - it's called [em]Faces of Food Allergies[/em]. It's an opportunity for kids to raise awareness that they not alone and that there are lots of other kids, like them, that have food allergies, too.

We are inviting all of you to participate with your children!download and print this form that says, "I Have Food Allergies":

Then, take a photo of your child(ren) holding the form and send it to us.

We will resize it and add it to our online collage. You can view a page with all of the details, where to email your photos and collage here:

Your kids can see all of the other kids who've submitted photos, and then try to find theirs and pick it out among the rest of them moving around the page. It's a fun activity they can enjoy."

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April 2010

• KFA's Support Forums are Now Open to All

Over the past several months, we've been working on plans to open our online support forums to all Associate as well as Family Members. We have exciting news to share with you: our support forums are now open to all and you can fully participate in our online community by simply logging in or registering (which is free).

We are making this change to strengthen the support we provide to the food allergy community-at-large. This is important for several reasons: 1) to better serve the public as part of our nonprofit mission; 2) to allow our online community to become larger and stronger as more parents share and connect with one another; and 3) to acquire a larger base of financial support that will help KFA better serve the food allergy community going forward.

We are also excited to announce that Deanna Graham, M.S.W., has taken on the role as KFA's new Online Community Program Manager as we move to this new phase in KFA's growth. Deanna's 15 years' of experience in social work, including leading a variety of support groups, make her a perfect fit for this new and important role. Deanna is also a KFA member and the parent of a young child with multiple food allergies.

As we make this transition, your financial support will be just as important as ever. Your support helps ensure that families who need day-to-day support, food/cooking help, and information can count on KFA to be there for them. In addition, we still encourage you to become a KFA Family Member. Family Members are the "backbone" of KFA, and enjoy exclusive access to our Safe Eats recipes, Support Net subscription and other additional benefits.

We hope you are as delighted about our improved access to online peer support for families as we are!

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February 2010

• KFA's special report for 2010 that reveals the latest food products that cater to food allergic consumers.

New foods include gluten-free whole grain blends, sugar-free candy, cereals, cookies and bakery items."

Click Here for details.

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January 2010

• KFA Welcomes T. Jason Smith to Our Board of Directors

We are pleased to announce that T. Jason Smith has been elected to the board of directors for Kids With Food Allergies.

Smith earned his undergraduate degree in journalism and public relations from Texas State University, and his J.D. from South Texas College of Law. He is a licensed attorney in Houston, Texas, and serves as an officer on the State Bar of Texas Computer & Technology Section Council.

Smith is the parent of three children, one of whom has EE (eosinophilic esophagitis) and life-threatening food allergies. He joined KFA in 2008, and brings to KFA experience in strategic business planning, Web development, fundraising and public speaking.

Smith's wealth of professional and business experience, coupled with his perspective as the parent of a child with food allergies and eosinophilic esophagitis, will be truly valuable in shaping the future direction of KFA. 

Read all of KFA's Announcements for 2009