This Halloween, Chalfont Greene will be taking part in the Teal Pumpkin Project, a national initiative aimed at making trick-or-treating safer and more accessible for children with food allergies and other related conditions.
First conceived by the Food Allergy Community of East Tennessee, the Teal Pumpkin Project has spread far beyond The Volunteer State thanks to the Food Allergy Research & Education organization (FARE).
It involves offering non-food treats, such as stickers, bouncy balls, glow sticks, Halloween pencils and erasers and more, alongside the more traditional candy treats and in a separate bowl.
Houses participating in the initiative place a teal pumpkin on their doorsteps, painted or store-bought, to let trick-or-treaters know they’re taking part. Some houses also print out signs from the project’s website to post on their doors.
The project creates a version of trick-or-treating that protects children with specific dietary restrictions, such as those with potentially deadly food allergies, as well as children with celiac disease, diabetes, and more. The Teal Pumpkin Project allows them to take part in what would otherwise be an inaccessible holiday. According to the Food Allergy Research & Education’s official website, roughly one in 13 children currently lives with food allergies.
Chelsea Polanco is responsible for organizing the Teal Pumpkin Project in the Chalfont Greene community. Her daughter has a non-IgE-mediated food allergy and has had food reactive issues since she was an infant.
Polanco quickly realized that trick-or-treating, as it is typically done, would never be something her child could safely take part in.
She discovered the Teal Pumpkin Project last year as a way to allow her child and children with similar dietary restrictions to experience the joy of trick-or-treating. Seeing that houses participating in the project were often sparse and scattered, she began by asking her mother, who lives close by in Chalfont Greene, to take part in it.
But beyond posting about it on social media, Polanco said, that was as far as the initiative went back then.
This year, thanks to her hard work in getting the word out through custom-made mail flyers, at least eight additional Chalfont Greene homes are choosing to take part. Polanco has even agreed to provide teal pumpkins to any households that want to participate, provided they had reached out to her before Sept. 29.
Now, with her daughter still younger than 3 years old, Polanco is excited to take her trick-or-treating for the first time this Halloween.
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