Who We Are
PACT
Protecting Allergic Children Together (PACT), founded in 2007, is an educational foundation that provides support services for families, educators, camps, and other child care providers that deal with food allergic children. This organization is dedicated exclusively to food allergy issues. PACT provides food allergy education with a focus on risk reduction, assistance in implementing safety protocols, and anaphylaxis training. We assist with Section 504 and Individual Health Plan development and offer training and workshops on issues relating to life-threatening food allergies.
Why are we concerned?
Food allergies affect up to eight percent of school age children - that's one in every twenty-five kids. According to recent published studies the prevalence of food allergies has risen at alarming rates in the last five years. Forty to fifty percent of those persons diagnosed with food allergies are judged to have a high risk of anaphylaxis (a life-threatening allergic reaction). Studies suggest that the number of food allergies will double again in the next 5 years.
There are many misconceptions about food allergies, even within the medical community. Many people still believe that severe food allergies are rare and that most peanut allergies are "mild". This is simply not true. Every food allergy reaction has the possibility of developing into a potentially fatal anaphylactic reaction. A life-threatening reaction can occur within minutes or even hours after exposure to the allergen, and symptoms often occur within seconds of exposure.
How PACT can help
Our goal is to help educate parents about food allergies and provide them with resources and support to send their children to school or day care safely. More importantly, we want to support and educate these organizations about how to keep these children safe and included in a healthy learning environment. All schools view safety as a top priority, however, each school has its share of daily challenges and caring for special needs children is just one of them. Food allergies are a societal issue and these schools need community support. PACT was formed just for that reason, to create an alliance between families and schools. PACT offers training courses for parents and educators, advocacy for families, support for families and schools, legal counseling and help preparing legal documents. Please see our For Parents and For Educators pages for more specific information on our programs.