Have you met Dave? You should. He’s our hero.

While Dave Bloom may not be a name you’re familiar with, food allergy parents likely know his company, SnackSafely.com. I had the pleasure of meeting Dave and his lovely wife, Debra, several years ago, but probably not how you think. No, it wasn’t at a food allergy walk or related event; it was at a pre-school! Yep, our kids went to the same pre-school. What are the odds?

Anyways, at AllerMates, we love SnackSafely.com, and often look to Dave and team’s amazing work when planning the treats for our allergy-friendly Goodie Boxes. Read my recent conversation with Dave below, and see why we trust them so.

Dave, tell our readers how you got involved with the food allergy community.
Our eldest daughter, who is now 13, was diagnosed with peanut and egg allergies at a very young age. When it was time for her to start kindergarten, there were no resources available to help include her in school celebrations and functions where food was present.

My wife, Debra, took it upon herself to research and compile a list of snacks that were free of peanuts, tree nuts, and eggs, with the idea that the other parents would have an easy way to select the brands of pretzels, cookies and snacks that were safe for my daughter and another boy in the class with allergies. That was how the Safe Snack Guide was born.

I eventually put that list up on a website so Debra could keep it up to date and parents in our school district could download it when they needed the latest copy. As time went by, we began receiving inquiries from parents and teachers around the country and from ex-pats in far off places like Germany and Singapore.

As the incidence of childhood food allergies exploded, it became a priority for us to help schools accommodate these kids in the classroom and to help families accommodate them at home. That’s when I left my job as a CTO in the financial services industry and founded SnackSafely.com.

Ever since, we’ve been striving to help families and schools cope with the intricacies of dealing with food allergies.

And how does SnackSafely.com help them do this?
Our primary service is publication of the Safe Snack Guide, an extensive list of commonly available snacks and other food items that are free of peanuts, tree nuts and eggs. The purpose of the Guide is to provide safe options not only to allergic individuals, but also for those who consume foods in their presence, such as typically occurs in classrooms, youth sports leagues, camps, scout meetings, etc.

To source the Guide, we founded the SnackSafely.com Manufacturer Partnership which now numbers over 40 companies, including household names like Tootsie Roll Industries and Enjoy Life Foods. Partner companies use our proprietary software platform to disclose how 11 allergens are processed during the manufacture of each product, and in return, they earn listings in the Guide and Allergence, our allergen screening service.

Due to shortcomings in the FDA’s allergen labeling guidelines, we can’t rely on the label to determine whether a product is safe, so we work directly with manufacturers to help them engage the food allergy community in an easy-to-understand way that benefits the manufacturer and community alike.

We talk about that very topic – those pesky labels – a lot in the AllerMates community. What are you hearing from your community?
We have a wonderful readership that includes tens of thousands of parents, school nurses, teachers, principals and food service professionals that provide constant feedback on the services we provide and they rely on. The Safe Snack Guide is on track for over ½ million downloads this year, so we are making significant inroads into thousands of schools throughout the country.

We’re receiving especially positive feedback from families coping with multiple food allergies regarding our Allergence screening service. Some are dealing with six or more allergies in the family, and they rely on Allergence to help find foods that meet all of their many dietary restrictions. But as the number of families coping with food allergies keeps rising, it’s unsettling to think where we may be headed.

It sure is. What advice do you offer these families?
We take every opportunity to remind our readers to always take two epinephrine auto-injectors along everywhere, every time. To help remind parents as well as children who are mature enough to self-carry, we created our “Take Two” campaign featuring fun flyers you can hang everywhere at home and school.

That’s something we also share at AllerMates, and something I feel very strongly about personally for my son Ben’s safety. Speaking of personal life, how do you spend your time?

My wonderful wife and two beautiful daughters keep me hopping, so most of my time away from SnackSafely.com is spent with family. My other project is trying to be a “cool” dad, but my girls beg to differ. (*laughs*)

Dave, what lucky daughters they are to have you for their dad! (After all, you are our first dad hero!) Thank you so much for all you, Debra and SnackSafely.com are doing to make shopping easier for food allergy families and others. And an early Happy Father’s Day wish to you!

Iris

P.S. If you’re looking to taste some of the foods in SnackSafely.com’s Safe Snack Guide, check out our Top 8 Allergen Free and Peanut/Nut Free Goodie Boxes. You’ll get five to seven allergy-friendly snacks (as well as some fun) your kids are sure to enjoy. : )