As mentioned in the last post, I have had MANY allergic reactions through my life. When these kept happening, I came to the conclusion that this would be something that I would have to deal with for the rest of my life and expect to happen to me sometimes.
Occasionally, I thought about how I could change things to make eating out easier for myself and for other people with the same issues, however this never really went further than a fleeting thought in my head. This was until an opportunity arose for me to take all of this a step further...
This then brings me to this website. I wanted to find an accessible way for people in the restaurant business to understand allergies and how to cook for people suffering from them in a safe manner. My initial thought was that I would make an educational video that would ideally be shown to everyone when they started in the restaurant business. As I got more involved in the process however, I came to realise that a video would not be accessible to many people, unless it was published on a website or on a platform such as YouTube. As a result, I decided to shift my objective to a website instead. With a website, I found that I could present information in a more effective, accessible and resonating way while still getting the correct message across. To create this website I had to do a fair amount of research, both of my own (interviews and surveys), as well as seeing what information was available on the Internet. A lot of this website is my own thoughts and experiences, however. As an example, the 'Guidelines for Cooking With Allergies' page is vastly my own thoughts and suggestions purely from what I have experienced in my own life.
What can I do now? Well this is something I have given a lot of thought to. Cook With Care is a website that I have put a lot of time and effort into and just because I am presenting it soon does not mean that I want to give up on it just yet.
I would love to see Cook With Care become a strong campaign that will actually have some effect on restaurants, and seriously see them change their ways because of it. Perhaps I can create a social media page for this as well to expand the number of people who will see it and to actually make a difference. I think that the purpose of this website is extremely relevant and will only continue to grow in relevance as the number of allergy sufferers increase. This is why I want to continue to grow this campaign and website and see it have a real effect in the future.
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