How To Make Halloween Special With A Teal Pumpkin

You’ve probably heard of the Teal Pumpkin Project. But if you haven’t, maybe you’ve seen some teal pumpkins on door steps and in stores and you are wondering what that’s all about.

Over 8% of children have an allergy to at least one food. I know from my own personal experience that most kids with autism have food allergies. But of course, this is not limited to kids with autism. Anyone who has a kid in school and gets the annual classroom allergy list knows that food allergies are on the rise. I don’t remember that when I was a kid. Needless to say, holidays centered around food, like Halloween, can be difficult for a lot of kids. For years, I would run ahead to houses before my kids so that I could put lollipops or candy that was safe for my son to eat in the neighbors treat basket.

The Teal Pumpkin Project

Enter the TEAL PUMPKIN PROJECT! Food Allergy Research & Education (FARE) wants EVERY child to be able to celebrate the joy and tradition of trick-or-treating.

How Can You Participate?

Commit To Offering Non-Food Items

Add other treats to your choices for trick-or-treaters, like stickers, spider rings, and other non-food goodies. Not sure what to get? Here are some ideas (and lots of these come in bulk so it’s really easy for a neighborhood buy):

Glow sticks, which are not only fun, but help kids safe trick-or-treating in the dark
Assorted Halloween pencils and erasers
Festive stamps and tattoos

Paint A Pumpkin Teal

And put it on your doorstep. This will let trick-or-treaters with food allergies know that you have non-food items available. If you don’t feel like painting a pumpkin, you can find artificial teal pumpkins that you can use year after year on Amazon and Oriental Trading and at Target and Michael’s. You can also download promotional material (including stickers and signs for your yard or windows) from the FARE website, which you can display.

Spread The Word

Please tell others about the Teal Pumpkin Project so that more people are aware that so many kids have food allergies. Let’s help make more homes welcoming to trick-or-treaters with allergies! Here are some ways to spread the message:

Take advantage of FARE’s free social media resources, like Teal Pumpkin profile pictures, profile frames, support badges, and more.
Distribute the Teal Pumpkin Project flyer in your neighborhood or on bulletin boards at your local library, school, or supermarket.
Share this blog post on social media!

Check Out FARE’s Website

You can learn more about the Teal Pumpkin project, food allergies, and more ways to help. They also have a lot of free resources, including yard signs, stickers, and fun Halloween activities. And it isn’t just for Halloween. FARE is a great resource for those with food allergies and those who want to help all year long.

Hopefully, you think this is a great idea. But, if you think that it is so benign that no one could possibly be upset by it, you’d be wrong. So on the off-chance that the idea of anyone participating in the Teal Pumpkin Project is somehow triggering to you, I just want to reinforce a few points.

Participation is completely voluntary. If you don’t want to do it, don’t put out a teal pumpkin.
Participation really requires minimal effort. Painting a pumpkin doesn’t take very long. But, if that’s too much, (as mentioned above) teal pumpkins are for sale all over the place now. Or you can just print out a free Teal Pumpkin sign and hang it in the window or on the door.
Participation is not expensive. Most of the non-food item listed above can be found at your local dollar store.
Participation will mean a lot to kids who miss out on so much due to food allergies.