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Archive for the Training Tools Category
CYBER MONDAY SPECIAL
Monday, December 1st, 2014 | Permalink
Support Kyle Dine’s Kickstarter Campaign
Friday, November 21st, 2014 | Permalink
I first met Kyle in my role as President of Food Allergy Education Network. We had hired him to be the entertainment for our Dance-a-thon fundraiser. I had heard some of his songs, but had never seen him in action.
That May, he put on a show that had all the children singing and cheering that “Food Allergies Rock!” He also sang about important messages like carrying and using epinephrine when needed. He did it all in a fun, engaging and age appropriate manner using humor, puppets and songs. I was hooked. I became a Kyle Dine Fan immediately.
Making a diagnosis, that is challenging at best and downright scary at its worst, into something fun and a point of pride is a spectacular feat! That is why I was very excited when Kyle contacted me to tell me about his idea and to ask me to be an advisor for his new project. He would like to spread his positive message and educational tools to a broader audience by creating a video.
In order to achieve this goal, he has launched a KickStarter Campaign to raise funds to create this video. If you believe in using the power of fun and music to help educate children, I hope you will consider donating to this campaign.
(For the record: I was not asked to write about this campaign. I am offering my expertise on this project as a volunteer, not a paid consultant. I believe strongly in importance of creating fun educational tools for children. )
Heading to Wisconsin!!
Thursday, November 13th, 2014 | Permalink
I am already packed and ready to go! I am really looking forward to being part of this awesome conference spearheaded by Jenny Schumach of Food Allergy Association of Wisconsin and sponsored by Food Allergy Research and Education. It is a full day conference jam-packed with fabulous information and best of all, it’s FREE! It’s important for me to acknowledge Jenny and FARE for all their hard work and financial support of such an important educational conference. I am honored to be a part of what I view as a true service to the community. I can’t wait to hear my fellow food allergy educators speak.
I will be discussing one of my favorite topics, “Tools to Help Children Stay Safe and Included at School.” If you are attending, I hope you will come up and say “hello!”
Check out the conference agenda!
For more information, visit HERE.
Preschool Food Allergy Handbook: Book Release & Sneak Peek
Wednesday, October 22nd, 2014 | Permalink
Book release and sneak peek!!
Laurel Francoeur and I put the finishing touches on our new book, the Preschool Food Allergy Handbook, this September. We launched it at the Food Allergy Bloggers Conference and were overwhelmed by the support of this much needed book addressing the preschool setting.
For those of you that aren’t able to meet us in person at one of our book signings, we wanted to give you a little sneak peek.
There are so many wonderful resources we created just for this book that cannot be found anywhere else.
- How Will Your School Prepare for Food Allergy Emergencies? Important Questions to Answer
- Overview of Labeling Laws
- How to Create a Healthy & Safe Educational Environment
- How to Prevent Cross-Contact
- Food Allergy Management and Prevention Plan Worksheet
- Parent Checklist
- Questions to Ask When Looking for a Preschool
We also included the best resources currently available.
- How a Child Might Describe a Reaction
- Label Reading 1-2-3
- Tips for Avoiding Your Allergen
- Free Staff Training Options
- List of Free Educational Resources for Children
- Children’s Book List
- Books for Parents List
- and much, much more….
To order yours, visit Amazon.com. A special thank you to The Bugabees: Friends With Food Allergies
and Kyle Dine for sponsoring our book!
AWESOME Food Allergy Resources for Halloween
Monday, October 13th, 2014 | Permalink
I am so excited about the great resources developed this month for the food allergy community. Below are my Top 3.
The first is a tip sheet I was honored to create for Kids with Food Allergies, “Tips to Safely Celebrate Halloween.” It is a 2-page handout for both home and school and includes tips, reminders, craft ideas, non-food rewards and more.
The second resource is a blog post, “Finding Halloween’s Magic with Food Allergies,” written by my friend Caroline Moassessi for Allergic Living’s site. It is a wonderful piece with great ideas all written in Caroline’s signature style. I really like that it includes ideas for teens as well as younger children, as this age group is often overlooked.
The final resource is actually an initiative started by Food Allergy Community of East Tennessee. A year or two ago, the group shared the Teal Pumpkin Project. The concept is relatively simple, if you provide non-food treats simply paint a pumpkin teal and put it on your front door step. This allows families with food allergies or other food-related conditions to easily identify your “safe” house. I think it’s a fantastic idea and so does Food Allergy Research and Education. This year the non-profit greatly expanded upon the idea creating badges, flyers, and posters all in an effort to encourage people nationwide to participate. For free downloads, check here.
If you have any other great Halloween resources, please feel free to share them here.
Food Allergy Bloggers Conference: A True Community Event
Tuesday, October 7th, 2014 | Permalink
Dubbed “The Power Panel” Caroline Moassessi, Laurel Francoeur, me, and Jan Hansen
I was honored to speak at this year’s Food Allergy Bloggers Conference held at the South Point Hotel in Las Vegas. Last year was it’s inaugural year and there was so much buzz about it that I entered this year with very high expectations. Not only would I be able to meet, in person, people I have been working with for several years but I would also be in an environment like no other. This conference is not associated with a specific non-profit is very much a conference about building our food allergy community and its businesses. As a result there were food vendors, app creators, website designers, social media experts, bloggers, authors and people like me, (food allergy educators and consultants) all there to talk shop.
I finally got to meet my friend, Caroline Moassessi.
I started out my weekend by meeting a woman I have grown to love even though we had never actually met, Caroline Moassessi. Let me say, that I was not disappointed. She was just as wonderful as I imagined her. She is the woman behind GratefulFoodie.com. Her blog keeps us all up-to-date on the latest happenings in the world of asthma and allergies including product reviews and personal musings.
On my way to drop off all our luggage, I hear….”Gina!” from down the long hotel corridor. Who did I find? The one and only, Keith Norman, chef and allergy educator. Again, we’ve never really met but hugs were in order anyway. He is a warm, kind person and I was thankful to get to know him a little but more.
Breakfast with the ladies and Chef Keith Norman.
Front: me, Keith
Back: Caroline Moassessi, Cheryl Viirand (Freedible.com), Tricia Gravankar (RockFoodAllergiesConsulting.com), Rebecca Sherrow, and Adrienne
The next morning, several of us met for breakfast. I was happy to finally meet another compadre, Tricia Gravankar. We have had lots of discussions about our individual passions to help spread the word about food allergy management in way that is fact-based and clear. She is a true asset to the food allergy community with her background as a nurse and her experience as a parent and a patient. She launched her own consulting business at FABCon, RockFoodAllergiesConsulting. Her specialty is anaphylaxis education and management. I also met the ladies from Freedible.com, a wonderful website designed specifically to engage the food blogging community.
FRIDAY
Friday night was the official beginning of the conference. Earlier in the day, I registered and received a literal mountain of freebies from the show sponsors. A special thank you must go out to the sponsors: Sanofi, Enjoy Life, Mylan, Nature’s Path, Allergic Living, Food Allergy & Anaphylaxis Connection Team, Asthma and Allergy Foundation of America, Kids with Food Allergies, Food Allergy Research and Education, Gluten Free and more, SunButter, South Point, AllerBling, AllergyEats, I.M. Healthy SoyNutButter, Luke’s Organic, SoDelicious, Cybele’s, Freedible, Don’t Go Nuts, Anaphylaxis Canada, Pinto Barn, Pascha, YoDish, Orange Geek, Tiger Nuts, SunCups, Zego, Growing Naturals, Rock Food Allergies Consulting, Ian’s, Affinity, No Biggie Bunch, Vine Market, Divvies, Udi’s Gluten Free, Celiac Support Association, Massel, and Content Checked for their generosity.
The Friday night dinner and social were highlighted by the “surprise” awards given to some of my personal heros, Lynda Mitchell (Founder of Kids with Food Allergies), Linda Coss (Author of How to Manage Your Child’s Life-Threatening Food Allergies and two cookbooks), Beth Hillson, and Dr. Paul Erlich. To top it all off, I was able to meet Robyn O’Brien (food allergy warrior and author of The Unhealthy Truth)
Pictured here: Jenny Sprague (FABlogCon Founder), Linda Coss, Lynda Mitchell and Homa Woodrum (FABlogCon Founder).
SATURDAY
The next day was a blur of activity and workshops by some of the best blogging/food allergy/social media minds around. My only regret is that I cannot clone myself. I was only able to attend one session. It was with blogger/author/editor, Alisa Fleming from godairyfree.com and I was happy to learn some valuable tips from her. I missed a couple of session because I was finally able to catch up with a dear friend, Yael Kozar. I was honored to be interviewed by her for her enormously popular Food Allergy Podcasts. I also got to meet the camera man, Yael’s hardworking, very supportive husband!
Breakfast and lunch times were perfect for catching up with friends old and new. I was happy to see Lori Sandler from Divvies, Eleanor Garrow and Carol D’Agnese from FAACT, Kim and Jodie from AllerBling, Heather Mehra from The No Biggie Bunch, David Bloom and his lovely wife, Debra of SnackSafely.com and many others. Here are few pictures from my personal FABCon album.
FoodAllergyMomDoc, Donna DeCosta
Me, Allergic Living Editor, Gwen Smith and No Nut Traveler, Lianne Mandlebaum
Loved meeting these fabulous ladies! Support group leaders and amazing advocates, Connie Green and Kelly Morgan.
Super Advocate, Sharon Wong
Kyle Dine, me, Tiffany Glass and our “friends”.
The final session of Saturday featured Dr. Li and Dr. Gupta presenting one of my favorite topics, Food Allergy Research. I was impressed by the results of the use of Traditional Chinese Medicine. Dr. Gupta had a message that was so happy to hear, I had to cheer from the back of the room. “Epinephrine must be used as a first-line treatment for anaphylaxis. Not antihistamine.” She also surprised us all by launching an educational music video featuring her rendition of Gloria Gaynor’s “I Will Survive.” For more information about the session content, visit my twitter feed for #fablogcon.
Saturday night, Laurel Francoeur and I launched our new book, the Preschool Food Allergy Handbook (sponsored in part by BugaBees:Friends with Food Allergies and Kyle Dine). The response to our book was very exciting! It is our mission to reach this important population with the information and resources they need to have a successful foundation at preschool.
Our first customers, Summer and Sara, advocates from Nevada and super nice people.
The amazing Dr. Li even stopped by to buy our book!
SATURDAY NIGHT SURPRISE!! Jerome Bettis came by to speak to the crowd and spend a moment with each of us.
SUNDAY
Sunday was show time. I presented two workshops with colleagues Jan Hanson, Caroline Moassessi and Laurel Francoeur. The first was “How to Influence Change in School Policy”, and the second was “504 Plans”.
After our presentations, we were ready to relax and have fun!
The only downside to presenting is missing the other sessions. There were many fantastic people to meet and learn from that I couldn’t possibly see everyone. Next year, I’m making it a priority to see more sessions.
Sunday night, I was truly honored to have dinner with some of the most amazing women in the food allergy community. Even though I was thoroughly exhausted, it was wonderful to look around the table and see the faces of people I admire so much and to be able to toast to them and all that has been achieved through their efforts. It was an experience I won’t soon forget.
Pictured here: Heidi Bayer, Jenny Sprague, Homa Woodrum, Collette Martin and Laurel Francoeur. Not pictured: Mary Vargas, Gwen Smith, Lianne Mandlebaum, Caroline Moassessi, Lynda Mitchell, Linda Coss and many more.
I cannot end this post without acknowledging the two women that were responsible for creating not only a conference, but a true experience, Homa Woodrum and Jenny Sprague. I am extremely grateful for their dedication to bringing our community together for the common good and for their tireless efforts in making the weekend run smoothly. Thank you, ladies! I’m already gearing up for next year!
Homa, Jenny and Selena.
New Jersey Food Allergy Educational Conference Resources
Monday, September 15th, 2014 | Permalink
Gina Mennett Lee, M.Ed.
FoodAllergyConsulting.com
This weekend, I was honored to be one of five speakers to present to a SOLD OUT audience in Saddle Brook, NJ hosted by the Asthma and Allergy Support Group of North Jersey. It was wonderful to see friends old and new. As promised, I am providing a list of resources that I presented (and a few I didn’t have a chance to present). Enjoy!
If you didn’t have a chance to at the conference, be sure to sign up for my newsletter by sending your name and email address to: gmleeconsulting@gmail.com. Also, be sure to sign up for my blog by entering your email to the right—–>>>> under “Subscribe to Blog via Email”.
Thank you!!
P.S. I also forgot to mention that I wrote a book with Laurel Franceour that will be available to purchase in later this month. It is called the “Preschool Food Allergy Handbook”. I will be offering a special price for those that attended the NJ conference. Stay tuned….
Free Posters:
Free Online Awareness Videos for Children without Food Allergies:
Hayden’s Food Allergy Video (YouTube): This provides an excellent, simple explanation of food allergies and how to keep friends with food allergies safe. It is appropriate for preschool through 4th grade.
Books for Children:
The BugaBees: Friends with Food Allergies
The BugyBops: Friends for All Time
The Princess and the Peanut Allergy by Wendy McClure
The Princess and the Peanut by Sue Ganz-Schmitt
The Peanut Free Café by Gloria Koster
Nutley: the Nut-Free Squirrel by Stephanie Sorkin
Free Handbook for School Employees:
The Food Allergy Book: What School Employees Need to Know (www.neahin.org)
Free Printable Activities for Children:
Be A P.A.L. (foodallergy.org)
No Biggie Bunch (nobiggiebunch.com)
National Guidelines for Developing Policy:
Safe at School and Ready to Learn
Voluntary Guidelines for Managing Food Allergy in Schools and Early Care and Education Programs
FARE’s New Resource Is Even Better Than You Think!
Friday, September 12th, 2014 | Permalink
By Gina Mennett Lee, M.Ed.
FoodAllergyConsulting.com
It
Yesterday, Food Allergy Research and Education released “Creating a Food Allergy Safety Zone At Home” and I jumped for joy but not for the reasons you would expect. While I think this is a fantastic resource for the newly diagnosed, I believe it should be used to reach a much wider audience. This is the perfect tool to use to teach others about how to safely host someone with food allergies.
A few weeks ago, I took an informal poll on facebook. I asked, “What is the one aspect of food allergy management that you wish others understood?” By far, the area people wished others knew more about, was the concept of cross-contact. I find cross-contact to be the one of the most misunderstood concepts as well. People think that the only way to have a reaction is to directly ingest the food. When, in my personal experience, it’s much more difficult to avoid cross-contact. This is also what poses the greatest risk when people with food allergies eat away from home.
It’s the nuances of food allergy management that often are the most difficult to communicate.
Recently, a very kind mother offered to have my 9-year-old daughter over her house for dinner. She assured me that she would only serve safe foods. I was so thankful for her generous offer. I felt awful having to then engage in an awkward discussion about the fact that it’s not as easy as only serving safe foods. I told her about all the precautionary measures that would need be in place in order for my daughter to eat safely. Thankfully, she took it in stride and seemed willing to take on the responsibility (with help from me). She even went so far as to offer to host a few parents at her house for a “training” on how to safely host my daughter. I thought, “What a wonderful person!” Then, “That’s a great idea, but where do I begin!”
This guide is my answer. Although many of the tips are specific to the home of the food allergic person, there is a wealth of great information that could be used to educate those that wish to host a person with food allergies.
I love the kitchen dos and don’ts and the examples of direct and indirect cross-contact. This is exactly what I was looking for. It is straight-forward, easy to understand, and gives specific tips that can be immediately implemented. I recommend sharing this with family members, friends, coaches, PTA leaders, and school personnel as a way to communicate the precautions that are necessary to keep a child with food allergies safe when preparing or serving food.
Thank you Food Allergy Research and Education and Chef Joel Schaefer for making a valuable and effective resource! Now to begin preparing that parent training….
Related topics:
FREE POSTER: How to Read A Label for Food Allergens in 3 Easy Steps
How to Read A Label for Food Allergens in 3 Easy Steps
Tuesday, September 2nd, 2014 | Permalink
By Gina Mennett Lee, M.Ed. (FoodAllergyConsulting.com)
One of the most important (and often the most challenging) aspects of food allergy management is learning how to read a label for allergens. In my role as a consultant, I’m often asked, “How do you read a label?” I’m excited to finally be able to share with a resource that I hope will help people with this task. It is my “Label Reading 1-2-3” poster.
I created a poster that shows you how to read a label the way I personally read a label. I try to quickly eliminate unsafe foods (Steps 1 & 2), but also take the time to read every ingredient of those foods that might be safe (Step 3).
This poster is available to download for FREE-HERE: Label Reading Poster Please share!!
For more information on our current labeling laws, be sure to read here.
FREE Poster: Symptoms of an Allergic Reaction
Monday, July 28th, 2014 | Permalink
By Gina Mennett Lee, M.Ed.
Food Allergy Educator & Consultant
FoodAllergyConsulting.com
One of the most important skills in managing food allergies is the ability to identify an allergic reaction. Early identification is critical. I am sharing this FREE poster with you in hopes that you will download it and use it. The information provided on this resource is consistent with the CDC Guidelines.
I recommend that these be placed in school cafeterias and classrooms as a reminder to school personnel. Parents and other caregivers may also find it useful to post in the home on the fridge or in the kitchen.
DOWNLOAD HERE:
Related posts:
FREE Food Allergy Training Options for Schools
Managing Food Allergies in the Classroom: A Free Guide for Classroom Teachers
Best Resources for Managing Food Allergies in the School Setting
BUY YOUR COPY TODAY!
"One Stop Food Allergy Book Has It All!" -GratefulFoodie