It’s that time of the year again, Halloween is just around the corner! There are many posts and articles about how to decorate your home and what you need in order to create the best Halloween costume yet, but there are more serious issues when it comes to this holiday.

There is nothing more exciting for a child than dressing up as their favorite superhero or princess and getting buckets of free candy for it, so imagine the disappointment that would come with having to give up half of that candy. Growing up with a peanut allergy, I had to give away a decent portion of my candy every Halloween, and it was such a bummer, but there are children out there who have to give up more candy than I ever had to because of more severe allergies.

According to foodallergy.org, researchers have estimated that up to 15 million Americans have food allergies, which also includes 1 in 13 children. This is roughly 2 kids in every classroom.

“Chances are, there’s at least one child in your neighborhood or right down the block that lives with a potentially life-threatening food allergy,” says Nancy Gregory, Food Allergy Research and Education (FARE)’s senior director of communications, in Jane Ridley’s article Why some people are putting out teal pumpkins this Halloween for the New York Post.

Parents can tell you that not only can food allergies be stressful and frustrating, but also extremely worrisome. This time of year, consuming one piece of the wrong candy can result with dangerous effects because some of the most common allergies (nuts, seeds, dairy, etc.) are found in many popular candies given out on October 31st.

The Teal Pumpkin Project was launched in 2014 by FARE to create a happier and safer Halloween experience for little ones with food allergies, diabetes, and/or other medical issues. A teal pumpkin on your doorstep not only looks cool, but signals to the parent(s) of trick-or-treaters that you offer non-food treats such as glow sticks or stickers; something any child can enjoy without an impending trip to the hospital.

Anthony DeNicola lost his son, Joseph (pictured below), in 2014 due to food allergies, as found in Jane Ridley's article. Joseph was 7 years old, and in second grade, when he went into anaphylactic shock after trick-or-treating and spending time at a pizza party at a relative’s home. Despite the effort to use an EpiPen, the shock led to cardiac arrest. He had been in a separate room eating his own nonallergenic pizza, but the doctors believe he had such strong case of asthma and milk allergy that inhaling particles from regular pizza or candy containing milk may have triggered the reaction.

“I cry every day thinking about Joseph and what happened,” DeNicola told the New York Post, “If raising awareness about these killer food allergies helps just one child, then that’s another reason he didn’t die in vain."

Children like Joseph are the reason the Teal Pumpkin Project is so inspirational and important.

To help support this project and get more information on this trend, you can visit www.foodallergy.org/teal-pumpkin-project/get-invol.... You can also take part by purchasing or making your own teal pumpkin for this year’s passersby on Halloween.

To spread the word, share this article! You can also post on social media with the hashtag #tealpumpkinproject and can even enter your teal pumpkin in FARE’s contest by using the hashtag and tagging @FoodAllergy on Instagram, Twitter, or Facebook.