Hey all, Marni here. We have been working on our end to gain more attention on this, and hopefully more is coming, but!...we have to ask you another favor. Since you cared enough to sign, and if this is that important to you, would you care to contact your sate rep? (and or any other politician you can). Actually, whatever you can do will help! If you haven't shared and gotten friends to sign please do, and any other ways that you can think of to gain us more support.
You see, Liam & I are feeling so thankful for all of your support, and it's great to be spreading awareness on this!! but that 100,000 signs that is needed for the White House to take notice is a biggie. We can do it! but!..we really all need to do all we can. Would you do this?
The rest of this email is a sample letter if you want to use it, so you really don't have to do much. Just copy and paste it into an email to your senator. (You will have to find out who your senator is, go to their web page and whalla paste. You can adapt it if you want to). If you have any other questions, comments or suggestions pls feel free to email me MarniBacker@yahoo.com & Thanks so much again for standing with us on this vital issue that could save Liam's life one day and many others. ....Ok, here it is:
A 14 yr. old boy Liam, with life-threatening Food Allergies, has started a petition, “Demanding Better Food Laws to Prevent Injury and Death in the US." (with almost 2,000 signatures in it’s first week). We need 100,000 for this to reach the White House! While, we understand this number of signs is required by law, where does it leave us all if we do not meet this goal?! Lives are in danger now, and many of them are kids!!! We need to be heard, and need representation. “The Faster Act”, that was just recently passed took over 10 years to get. We cannot wait. I would ask if it’s gonna take someone to die before someone fights to change this law,...but then again they already have died, and many are kids, and no one cares.
The Food Allergy community is forefront on feeling the affects of this issue. They are in a daily battle of trying to figure out if the food they eat is safe, and infuriatingly so, it is not. It is not labeled safely for those that could die from just a dusting of their allergen not being declared on the label. Contamination issues, knowing whether the food is made on shared equipment or shared lines is not an option for these people and it is endangering their lives. There is a dire need for better labeling in the US., foods but also (medicines and beauty products are even worse with no laws). This is not right, these people have a right to know what is in these products and have a right to safety protection.
Many people need to call the company of every single food they eat, just to be sure it is safe from any remote trace of allergens. And even then, have to trust who they talk to with the lives of our children!
Liam made this petition after he had a mild reaction to an ice cream bar. The product was labeled "Non-Dairy" yet once we called the company, they said there was no guarantee it had not been contaminated with dairy, as they do share lines with milk products! Luckily, it didn’t turn ugly, but he knew he needed to put a stop to this right now.
As the food allergy community knows all to well, it feels like nobody cares and any change on this may take years if any. So many products are not labeled safely for those that rely on knowing what is in them. This is a huge problem for anyone with food allergies or other food related issues. We can’t wait, we need change now. People are dying.
So yes, as it is passing a week into this petition, and thankful for so many supporters, but angry too. I am fearing that this petition is not going to reach it’s goal, and we, all that are counting on this, will fail and be letdown. As of today we have almost 2,000 people who would love to see this a law, and I know that is only a small percent of the people that would benefit and be grateful for it.
What is one to do? Sit back and again feel unheard by the government? Aren’t these people the ones that are suppose to be taking care of us? and yet they are unreachable. So, we will remain unheard, and I would ask if it’s gonna take someone to die for them to change this law,...but then again they already have died, many and many are kids, and no one cares.
Will you care and help us?