Issue link: https://www.e-digitaleditions.com/i/1524818
While food pantries provide food to people with hunger or disrupted food access, many have logistical and economic challenges in accommodating visitors with food allergies and specialty diets. These [challenges] are often rooted in long-standing procedures, time and budget constraints, or limited understanding of food allergy,” according to the organization Securing Safe Food (SSF). During the COVID-19 pandemic, situations worsened. BACK PAGE Inhalation August 2024 35 Student volunteer organization coordinates donations of 100,000+ allergy-friendly food items to pantries While food pantries provide food to people with hunger or dis- rupted food access, many have logistical and economic challenges in accommodating visitors with food allergies and specialty diets. ese [challenges] are often rooted in long-standing procedures, time and budget constraints, or limited understanding of food allergy," according to the organization Securing Safe Food (SSF). During the COVID-19 pandemic, situations worsened. A lready expensive baseline prices increased for allergen-friendly foods. At the same time, supplies of those foods became scarce at grocery stores and even more difficult to find at food pantries. "Visiting a food pan- try during [the] lockdown could result in waiting in long lines, with no promise of obtaining scanty resources…and further narrowed the restricted diets of people with allergic and gastrointestinal con- ditions," explained SSF. In March 2020, high school stu- dent Rachel Brooks saw these impacts on people with food allergies, like herself. In response, she and members of the Food Allergy Research & Education (FARE) Teen Advisory Group founded Securing Safe Food (SSF) to provide local deliveries of allergen- free foods. Today, SSF is a United States national nonprofit organization that coordinates the consistent donation and distribution of shelf- stable and refrigerated allergen- free foods and educational materials to select US food pantries. Since its founding, SSF has distributed more than 100,000 allergen-free food items. Currently, it serves approximately 30 food pantries in California, Connecticut, Florida, Illinois, Massachusetts, New York and North Carolina. Its staff of a dozen volunteers is led by high school and university undergradu- ate students who are also pursuing academic careers. Pantries required to support users with medical needs Some pantry visitors "avoid the common allergens for strictly ideological, religious or preference- based reasons," notes the Securing Safe Food website. However, SSF requires a com- mitment from their pantry part- ners to keep the donated foods separated and targeted to visitors from allergen-avoidant house- holds, who have food allergies or medically necessary dietary restrictions such as celiac disease or lactose intolerance. Collaborations with medical centers to support patients According to an article from the New York City Food Policy Cen- ter at Hunter College, SSF also supports patients facing food aller- gies and food insecurity by collab- orating with medical centers and clinics, such as the Stanford Uni- versity Sean N. Parker Center for Allergy and Asthma Research. ese partnerships use a referral program that enables clinicians to direct patients to local pantries stocked with allergen-free foods provided through SSF. Considerations for new pantry partnerships In establishing new pantry part- nerships, knowledge of food aller- gies and dietary restrictions is not required of pantry staff. However, SSF looks for long-term sustain- ability. It will consider food pan- tries who request its support but