Ep: 231: Creating an Allergen-Friendly Restaurant Chain from Your Heart

In honor of Food Allergy Awareness Month, we’re sitting down with Tara Gilad, a mover and shaker in our food allergy community. Tara is a co-owner and co-founder of the Vitality Bowl Franchise, and we learn more about what inspires her and how she engages with the food allergy community.

Resources to keep you in the know:

• Vitality Bowls
• About Vitality Bowls (Co-founders)
• Vitality Bowls on Instagram 
• Order the Super Berry Bowl near you throughout May in honor BJ Hom for Food Allergy Awareness Month, and Vitality Bowls will donate to FAACT!

You can find FAACT's Roundtable Podcast on Apple Podcasts, Pandora, Spotify, Podbay, iHeart Radio, or wherever you listen to podcasts.

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Sponsored by: Genentech

Thanks for listening! FAACT invites you to discover more exciting food allergy resources at FoodAllergyAwareness.org!

Transcript

Caroline: Welcome to FAACT's Roundtable, a podcast dedicated to navigating life with food allergies across the lifespan. Presented in a welcoming format with interviews and open discussions, each episode will explore a specific topic, leaving you with the facts to know or use.

Information presented via this podcast is educational and not intended to provide individual medical advice. Please consult with your personal board certified allergist or healthcare providers for advice specific to your situation.

Hi everyone. I'm Caroline Moassessi and I am your host for the FAACT Roundtable podcast. I am a food allergy parent and advocate and the founder of the Grateful Foodie Blog.

And I am FAACT's Vice President of Community Relations.

Before we start today's podcast, we would like to take a moment to thank Genentech for being a kind sponsor of FAACT's roundtable podcast. Also, please note that today's guest was not paid by or sponsored by Genentech to participate in this specific podcast.

In honor of Food Allergy Awareness Month, we're sitting down with a mover and shaker in our food allergy community. Joining us today is Tara Gillid, co owner and co founder of the Vitality bowl franchise, to learn about what inspires her and how she engages with the food allergy community.

Welcome, Tara, to FACT's roundtable podcast. We're absolutely thrilled and delighted you're here. As a food allergy parent, I. I'm just exceptionally and personally excited to talk about what you do and your inspiration and how you change our world.

Tara: Thank you so much for having me. I mean, your organization is so near and dear to our heart and having our daughter having food allergies. We appreciate all that you do.

So thank you for having me today.

Caroline: Thank you. And so now we're going to help our listeners to get to know you better. So can you share your background and then your family's journey with food allergies?

Tara: Yeah, absolutely. So currently, I am a mom, I'm a wife, I'm a sister, I'm an aunt, but I am also president and co founder of Vitality Bowls, which is a superfood cafe.

And my journey with food allergies actually began when I became a mother to my daughter, which was my first child. She was born with severe food allergies, literally born with them.

Nothing else caused them. Her first day or two in the hospital, I realized she was allergic to nuts because I had my husband bring me some trail mix and where I was kissing her or rubbing her arm, she broke out in a rash and I couldn't believe it.

I didn't even know what to do. And from that day forward, it literally completely changed our lives from what we ate and what we had in our house, and then how we navigated meals,

just what we ate at home, but what was available when we were dining out. And realizing that most restaurants don't practice allergy safety, especially when she was born, you know, 15 years ago.

So as we realized each allergy, we would kind of clear that item out of our house so that there weren't any mistakes or cross contamination. And once she could eat, I ultimately began preparing all her food like baby food, bottling it in jars.

And sadly, we had a lot of allergic reactions in the beginning because I didn't know what she was allergic to, and I didn't really know what to do. And thank God I didn't kill her unknowingly.

And thank God we got through all of her allergic reactions because there were so many, you know, just crazy things. Like I put hummus on a cracker, you know, when she was probably nine months old, and she had an allergic reaction because, oh, I didn't know at the time she's allergic to sesame,

which is in the tahini and the hummus. And then she's allergic to chickpeas.

You know, one time I gave her little black beans to pick up and see if she could put it in her mouth and realized she was alert to beans. And.

And we gave her scrambled eggs and realized she was allergic to eggs and all dairy. We were at my dad's house one time picking blackberries and realized she was allergic to blackberries, which later we realized she's allergic to any fruit with a seed.

Strawberries, raspberries, kiwi, watermelon seeds, anything with a seed. So. And then we figured out she had a gluten intolerance. And, you know, by about 1 years old, we finally realized all of her allergies and was able to get her tested.

They wouldn't test her before she was one, which I'm not sure why they do that. Maybe that's changed, but that's how it was 15 years ago. And so we started importing fruits from other countries that she wasn't allergic to, surprisingly, which I thought was strange.

Still to this day, don't know why she could have fruit with seeds from other countries. I've always had a passion for health and wellness, and my husband and I decided to start Vitality Bowls, which is a superfood cafe.

And we kind of looked at it and said, well, we. We can make lemonade out of lemons here. And it's it kind of brought us down this amazing journey of building a brand that's rooted with a purpose, but also bringing awareness to allergies.

And our mission now is to bring allergy safe foods to all community in an allergy safe manner, and to spread allergy awareness.

Long winded. Sorry.

Caroline: No, not long winded. And you know, that just makes my heart sing as a food allergy parent. That's amazing. And wow, what a young age to have that diagnosis. I think that's the youngest I've ever heard.

Tara: Yeah. So. And that's what's hard because there's so many conspiracy theories out there for why kids have allergies and what we're doing wrong as parents or what we need to do differently.

And she was born with them. And from what our allergy doctor told us, she was just missing certain digestive enzymes and the fact that she broke out in a rash.

You know, thank God she wasn't allergic to it. In the airborne. Airborne allergies are probably the most challenging any parent or child or any person can go through. But literally, like a walnut will almost like burn a wound in her skin.

It's so bizarre. Like, it'll scab over and it's very bizarre. And I can't explain allergies. I don't understand it. But we were told that she was born with these. And I said, of course.

What did I do wrong? What did I eat when she was pregnant? What did I do? What could I do different with my next child? And he said, there's really nothing you can do.

It's kind of one of those things where it's luck of the draw. You could have 10 kids and kids three and seven has a genetic predisposition and they're going to be born with allergies no matter what you do or don't.

That's what I'm told. I'm not a doctor.

Caroline: And that's true. We all look back and go, what did we do wrong? What could we do better? But I love how you just took it and turned it around.

And so now let's dive into that. Let's talk about Vitality Bowls and what you know Vitality Bowls is. And we know it's more than just a yummy place to get good, healthy food.

So if you can talk to us about your mission there and what you do and what we can find and expect.

Tara: For sure. Yeah. I mean, Vitality Bowls was born out of a necessity, really. Right. For our daughter. And both my husband and I were entrepreneurs, so it wasn't scary for us to say, okay, well, we can't go to any restaurants, we can't risk eating out, so let's start a business.

You know, we really wanted to make sure that because we had that health and nutrition background and because we're so strict with our health and nutrition, that we weren't going to open a burger restaurant or a pizza restaurant.

Right. It had to be born from superfoods. And because we were able to get so many of these incredible superfoods from other countries, that's kind of how Vitality Bowls was born.

And we really wanted to focus on truly healthy and allergy safe meals. So we built one and opened our first location when my daughter was about 19 months old and I was five months pregnant with my son.

So that was quite a project I took on. And we wanted to offer, you know, the world's most nutritious superfoods that my daughter was able to eat. And then we kind of created everything in an allergy friendly environment.

So as the concept took off and we were received well by the community, it, it was really heartwarming to see how many other people in our community have food preferences, intolerances and allergies.

And so we really wanted to create a safe environment for them while providing healthy options. So now at Vitality Bowls, our menu, you know, here we are, we're 14 years later.

Our menu primarily focuses on acai bowls, smoothie, salads, wraps, grain bowls. We have bottled juices, so much more. And so we've made all of our menu items that can be also made gluten free for those that are gluten free.

So all of our paninis and our wraps, we have gluten free. And the way we cook it is protected. And we have a lot of allergy safety protocols to protect our guests that have allergy safety requirements.

Caroline: Well, I tell you, I was looking at the menu and it was just really fascinating because it's really vast. So you can see how you've developed it, you know, over time.

But I do have a question. So when you say superfoods, what does that mean? Mean?

Tara: Yeah. So superfoods are basically some of the world's most healthiest food, right? They say that acai is one of the healthiest foods that our planet creates. That's kind of why most of our items are based around the acai berry, and they're basically some of the most nutrient dense foods out there.

Caroline: Okay, now that makes good sense. And so now let's talk a little more now about operating an allergy friendly restaurant. Cause that's a lot different than just any kind of eatery.

So can you talk to listeners a little bit about, like, what is your protocol and what you go through to make this an allergy friendly place?

Tara: Yeah, it hasn't always been easy, for sure, and we still face challenges, but, you know, we've always been focused on that mission of trying to stay focused on allergy safety. So part of operating an allergy friendly cafe means that we have to train our staff right, rigorously, and we have to have allergy training guides and videos,

and we have to have separate prep areas and dedicated equipment and have very clear protocols in place to avoid cross contact of food allergies, whether you're allergic to strawberries or bananas or peanut butter or almond butter or gluten, you know, whatever that means.

And so it also means that our guests need to have full transparency with us. So we encourage conversations about allergies before the order is placed. And then we can take every precaution back in the kitchen and to make sure that we are diligent and we can make sure that that guest can have a safe and healthy meal when they come in.

And so, you know, when you see families who are able to enjoy a meal with that peace of mind, I know it's worth it. So even if it's hard, we're going to keep on that path.

And, you know, it's pretty cool because my daughter is now 15 and she works at one of our locations, so it's really neat to see her be able to work in there and be able to talk to guests about allergies and make sure that she's following all allergy safety for her when she makes food.

Because, I mean, my kids will eat there seven days a week, three times a day, if we let them.

Thankfully, she's actually grown out of some of her allergies, which is amazing. And she can have, you know, certain amounts of dairy now and some fruit. She grew out of her strawberry allergy.

And she can have blueberries and some really great fruits. So she loves eating at Vitality Goods now.

Caroline: And you know that feeling of when your child or family member can sit down and order somewhere safely, it's like magic. I don't know even how to explain it for sure.

Tara: For sure. And just hearing people in our community thank us and say, oh, this is so great. Especially gluten free. Gluten free is a big one. So many people are gluten free, whether it's kids or adults.

It's just. It makes Me proud. It makes me happy. And you know, we want to continue to bring Allergy safe, healthy meals to all communities around the country. And so every time we open a new one secretly inside, I'm like, yes.

Now, you know, those that community or those with food allergies has a Vitality Bowls that can help cater to their food allergies.

Caroline: And that is like, I think the secret juju there is. It's showing the world we can all eat together and we can do this safely and it's yummy and it's healthy and it's fantastic.

And our kids are not eating cardboard and nor are they malnutritioned.

Tara: That's right. It's not garbage or junk.

And you know, I really pride ourselves in how healthy Vitality Bulls food is, but also that it is allergy safe for most allergies out there.

Caroline: Well, that's very exciting.

And, and so now turning to Food Allergy Awareness Month, you're a leader, a business owner, parent of, you know, child with food allergies. So can you share your thoughts about what this month means to you and then how you're celebrating this month?

Tara: Yes. So Food Allergy Awareness Month is incredible meaningful to me, both professionally and personally. And we've made it a big deal at Vitality Bowls now at every location across the country.

So it's a chance to shine a light on something that impacts so many families, yet is often misunderstood or not catered to by most restaurants. And so at Vitality Bowls, we use this month, which is, well, we use the month of May, actually to engage our guests in meaningful conversations and we partner with organizations like yours,

FAACT, which we're so proud to do, and we raise money and we raise awareness. And so we have, I believe, celebrated and partnered with FAACT to promote Allergy Awareness Month for over seven years now.

So it's really been something that's important to us and each of our locations nationwide participates and we're really proud to raise money for your organization each year. And of course, spreading allergy awareness, which is so important.

We have other franchisees who have children with food allergies and so they're proud to be able to participate every May as well. And just being a mom with a daughter with food allergies, you know, and leading a brand that offers allergy friendly options to communities, I'm definitely proud of that.

And it's really exciting to see how far we've come over the last several years. And we will always and continue to partner with FAACT during Allergy Awareness Month.

Caroline: We appreciate that to know. And it's so exciting. And so now, in regards to the fundraising you're doing, would it be best for us to come and order away and enjoy the restaurant, or could we come to you and give a donation?

What do you want us to do?

Tara: Yeah, so what we do is we take a Bowl of the month, which in May we do our Super Berry bowl and we donate 10% of the proceeds to factor for the entire month, every day, every sale, at every location nationwide.

So if any of your listeners want to come in in May and order the Super Berry bowl, that's how we donate.

Caroline: To fact and listeners, I'm going to make sure that in the show notes, I have the website link to Vitality Bowls and locations and franchise information and everything you're going to need.

I'm just going to make sure all the links are in there for you.

Again, that's so exciting. And thank you so much for partnering with us and again for sharing your passion in educating the community and how you've been able to combine something you love as a business with raising awareness.

I just think that's stunning and just thank you so much for that. And so now, before we wrap up, is there anything else you want our listeners to hear from you?

Tara: No, thank you. I mean, you, you know, we appreciate your support. We appreciate you spreading allergy awareness for our daughter. And she's got a lifetime of managing food allergies and severe food allergies at that.

She's anaphylaxic. So we do appreciate the platform that you provide and the allergy awareness that you spread. And at Vitality Bowls, we believe it's more than just a business. It's also a platform to promote wellness and raise awareness and support others who might be on similar journeys with food allergies.

You know, I'm a huge believer that clean eating doesn't have to be complicated. And I think it's important that everybody take allergy safety serious and support those that have allergies.

You know, it can be a very isolating experience for many children, especially when they're young. You know, we experienced many times where my daughter was excluded. Our parents didn't feel comfortable inviting her over into their house because they don't want anything to happen.

And, you know, birthday parties, she can't have the cake and the ice cream and she would cry. And, you know, obviously there's so many worse conditions that children go through, and we're grateful to not have anything worse.

But I hope that everyone who knows, anyone with food allergies can be inclusive while taking allergy safety precautions. And if you, you know, if your school has somebody where a child has severe food allergies, do the right thing.

Don't send your kid to school with say, a peanut butter and jelly sandwich. If somebody has a life threatening nut allergy at that school, it's okay, your child can have another sandwich.

It's not the end of the world. And we just hope that everybody really values and understands the fear that takes place when you have a child with severe life threatening food allergies.

So thank you. I appreciate you. I appreciate you having me on your platform. And again, thank you for all the allergy awareness that you spread every day.

Caroline: Well, thank you for sharing those sentiments and your wisdom and your passion and your energy. And then especially thank you for your time today.

Tara: Yeah, of course. And your listeners can follow us on Instagram at Vitality Bulls. If any moms want to reach out to me, I'm on Instagram as well and I love talking to other moms with allergies and you know, we're kind of a little support group together.

So thank you for your time as well.

Caroline: Ah, well, thank you so much.

Before we say goodbye today, I just want to take one more moment to say thank you to Genentech for their kind sponsorship of FAACT's Roundtable podcast. Also, I want to note that today's guest was not paid by or sponsored by Genentech to participate in this specific podcast.

Thank you for listening to FAACT's roundtable podcast. Stay tuned for future episodes coming soon. Please subscribe, leave a review and listen to our podcast on Pandora, Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google Podcasts, iHeartRadio and Stitcher.

Have a great day and always be kind to one another.