2024 FARE Summit
A few weeks ago, I got to go to my very first FARE Summit! It was in Washington, DC, at the Omni Shoreham. I didn’t know it until afterwards, but the floor we stayed on was apparently haunted! I drove up from Tennessee with my mom and we got to meet Debbie and Candice in person there for the first time! It was like meeting Taylor Swift to me!😂 Getting to spend the weekend with them — hearing from them and discussing our hopes and dreams for this community — was incredible! The sense of excitement, opportunity, and determination that came from those discussions and speaking with other people in the food allergy community at FARE, was, in my opinion, was the second-best part of that weekend! The first? The food!
If anyone knows the best AGS-safe restaurants in D.C., it’s the Two Alpha Gals! The first night, we went to D.C. Vegan, a small restaurant located in the North West side of D.C. We had a delicious meal (lasagna for me, pictured) and three hours of conversation! Debbie and Candice also gave us our special “ten.” t-shirts, signifying that Alpha-Gal is the tenth most common allergy in the United States, and highlighting Debbie and Candice and others’ efforts to have it listed as a major allergen (see the H.R. 9382 bill). They were definitely conversations starters and, I hope, helped us bring awareness about AGS to the broader food allergy community!
The second night, we ate at Planta Cocina, and oh my gosh, it was amazing! Have you ever heard of watermelon sushi or bang bang broccoli? Well, I hadn’t until I tried it at Planta and it was honestly probably the best vegan food I have ever had! After another few hours of conversation, we caught an uber back to the hotel so I could attend the Teen Silent Disco. It was my first ever silent disco (I spent the entirety of Friday and Saturday wondering what a silent disco was), but it was so fun and the D.J. played some really good music!
Getting to meet and connect with other teens during the Summit was another highlight for me! Some of the discussions or comments people would drop were so very relatable. While most people couldn’t relate to obsessing over labels in a grocery store, these teens certainly could! I recieved some very helpful tips on dealing with food allergies as a teen, including college search advice, and it was just incredible meeting teens who I could relate to! In addition, a lot of these kids are lobbying and doing advocacy work for better safe options, labeling, legislation, and accessablitity, to just name a few!
The topics of the different talks I attended throughout the conference varied from attending college to travel to dating, all with food allergies. There was also a talk specific to Alpha-Gal! The amount of knowledge the presenters possessed was priceless and my mom and I were so lucky to be able to attend this year! It has gotten us excited about bills being passed, food we can eat, the relationships we have built, and the future for the food allergy and Alpha-Gal community! Sometimes, dealing with a lifestyle-altering diagnosis like AGS can seem like a drag, but weekends, talks, and converations like the ones I was so lucky to experience at FARE are just what you need to find motivation! And that is just the beginning!
