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Assembly to Focus on Food Allergy School Safety

By Dan Flynn and Suzanna Schreck

The first-ever National Food Allergy School Safety Assembly is set to take place on June 19 at Le Moyne College in Syracuse, NY.
In partnership with the Eating & Educating, Living Life (ELL) Foundation, U.S. Representative Dan Maffei (D-NY) will Chair the Protect Allergic Children Across America! School Safety Event.  Maffei and other U.S. legislators will join top allergy and immunology specialists, school administrators and medical professionals, food allergic community members, food allergy safety product manufacturers and local and national media at the conference.
The event is being held in order to bring community leaders together to raise awareness and support for the reintroduction and passage of the Food Allergy & Anaphylaxis Management Act (FAAMA). 
The legislation includes voluntary guidelines as written by the U.S. Secretary of Health & Human Services in order to ensure that all schools are educated and can effectively foster safer learning environments for students with food allergies.  FAAMA was passed by the U.S. House of Representatives in 2008 and now must be reintroduced to both the House and Senate.
Attendees at the event will hear from Congressman Maffei about the importance of the passage of FAAMA as well as listen to talks given by leading experts and participate in a wide variety of activities.
Also present at the event will be a medical panel to include allergy and immunology specialist Dr. Juan Sotomayor and Lisa Morgan RN, the president of the N.Y. Zone 10 Association of School Nurses.
Founder and President of the ELL Foundation, Kathleen Silverman explained, "Our goal in sponsoring the Protect Allergic Children Across America School Safety Assembly is to encourage the passage of FAAMA which will provide the necessary support to schools so that food allergic students are better protected. This bill will assist the tens of thousands of families who struggle on a daily basis to ensure the safety of their food allergic children and it will empower and direct the majority of educators who are not currently equipped with proper protocols at their school to protect these students." 
Silverman continued, "Events such as this aligns with the ELL Foundation's crusade to train and educate schools, camps, child care facilities, hospitals, culinary institutes and food allergic families on food allergy safety through its Protect Allergic Children (PAC) Program. We are grateful to Representative Maffei for his support and involvement in this important initiative and we invite communities across the country to join the ELL mission in support of the passage of the FAAMA legislation."
ELL is a national not-for-profit organization based in Geneva, Illinois that supports the right of every child to eat safe foods, learn in safe environments and live a safer life with food allergies and anaphylaxis.

Full post as published by Food Safety News on June 09, 2010 (boomark / email).