Track Twelve: Food Allergies and The Young Artist’s Club

I run a non-profit called The Young Artist’s Club, and strangely enough, it would not exist without Eli’s food allergies. I think, had Eli not had food allergies, I would have just volunteered in both of my kids’ classrooms and never done more. That is what I had been doing with my oldest son who was in school. At that point, I didn’t really know anyone from the school besides Steven’s teachers, and even then, not very well. 

Enter food allergies. No matter the school or classroom, I have to be in close contact with everyone involved in Eli’s care. To this day, I still meet with the principal and classroom teacher before school starts. I get to know the office staff,  they know me and they know my son. Some personally text me. I do not have the luxury of being uninvolved or only waving as I pick my kids up from school. It is strange to have to build a trusting relationship with his teacher every year. The anxiety I feel before I meet them is always pretty high. We need cooperation, to build trust, and to have open lines of communication. It is a lot of pressure to know that my ability to connect with the people involved makes the difference between him being safe and included or not. I think sometimes, because he is covered by the Americans With Disabilities act and legal protections through his 504 plan, it can seem like the trusting and friendly relationship I insist on isn’t necessary. However, I know that a person who loves Eli and wants to protect him will always be better at keeping him safe than someone who is compelled to do so by law. If a teacher or staff member actually likes me, they will do an even better job. It isn’t a criticism, it’s just how it is when we are human, and all of the people who help Eli stay safe at school are human beings. With a kid like Eli, it takes everyone working together- the teacher, aides, staff, family, and the system itself. It can’t be adversarial.

I’ve written a little bit about our first experience at school and the 504/ accommodation process. His teachers have always been amazing, and his kindergarten teacher was no exception. It was her first year of teaching and she was kind and gentle and easy to get along with. 

However, the times when he wasn’t in the classroom were the most dangerous. I came to lunch each day and ate with him, I met with the principal more times than I care to count, and I personally talked with the aides and substitutes in his classroom and at lunch to make sure they knew about him (they often didn’t, hence my meetings with the principal). It never really got to a point where I felt there was a good system in place to keep him safe, there were so many people and so much food and so many substitutes, and a lack of a plan as to how each of these groups of people would know about and be sure to accommodate him. Not to mention the chaos of the cafeteria, where kids spill milk every other minute and every single one of his allergens is present, and that kids brought food out to recess (where there is even less supervision). So, I was there. A lot. And I knew just about everyone. 

I don’t really recall how it happened, but I was looking for a way to volunteer while I was there and someone mentioned they didn’t have art. As in, no elementary school in our district has an art teacher, and they didn’t have art even in the after school clubs. Again, for reasons I can’t even remember, I started running an after school art club. It wasn’t a non profit at this point or anything, I was just a parent volunteering at their kids’ school. It was a good fit for me as a former elementary school teacher and a person who likes to make things. 

Eli’s kindergarten year was also the year that the COVD pandemic hit the world and three quarters of the way through the year, we were in lock down at home. At some point after that, we offered an online version of the after school art club, just for something for kids to do and pretty quickly I learned that my neighbors didn’t have the same access to art materials that my family did (our school is a Title One school, which means a high number of the families who attend live at or below the poverty line). It just seemed so solvable, we could give them the art supplies they needed to be creative at home! And we did. Pretty quickly, my very generous friends and families wanted to give money toward the project, but I didn’t feel totally comfortable putting it in my own bank account and keeping track. Then my best friend sent me the details for a class through her church called Illumination Labs, which helped start-up entrepreneurs and non-profits form. I took the class, eventually applied for non-profit status, and formed a board of people who were already working with me to bring art to our neighborhood. We’ve been working as a non-profit for five years now and we run ALL kinds of art programs at the school- we address both art at school and art at home- I love what we do! 

As a side note, we pulled both Eli and Steven out of the school where we run The Young Artist’s Club, after COVID. There are a lot of reasons, and a lot of them have to do with accommodating Eli’s food allergies. I hope it is obvious when you read this that our family still loves and cares about this school, we are still there as a family, just not as parents or students. My husband Adam is on the YAC board, my kids attend our events and help behind the scenes, and my parents are two of my best volunteers. The real scandal of public schools in my area is not that the people who work there don’t care or don’t work hard or are trying to indoctrinate kids- it is that they are underresourced and overburdened by the systems they work under. I could write pages on the injustices that staff and teachers face in their jobs each day, about the children who are at the mercy of adults fighting it out for political power, and the families who are working so hard to provide for their families but never have enough. But that isn’t what this is about (it IS what The Young Artist’s Club is about though!). 

When I stop to think about it, there are so many moments where The Young Artist’s Club might not have ever formed, and the very first moment was me having a child with food allergies. I often wonder that if he had never had food allergies, or our experience had been “better” or run more smoothly with accommodating his allergies, would I still have started The Young Artist’s Club? Would I have been involved with the school at all? The difficult answer is, no, I don’t think so.

The Young Artist’s Club was born out of difficult times, both for my family, the school, and for the world. Without these things, all of which I would change if I had the power to go back and do so, The Young Artist’s Club would not exist. The joy and connection and love that not only I, but my whole family and all of my friends (including my parents!) get to experience, would not exist. I love running The Young Artist’s Club, I love the school and the staff and especially the kids. I love the faithful volunteers who have been there from day one (Cassie, Alyssa, Angie, my family )and the new ones I add each year. I feel so incredibly lucky that I get to do what I do, and at the same time, I still grieve for the difficult things that lead us there. I would not wish food allergies on Eli or COVID on the world, in order to be running The Young Artist’s Club. But, with all of that in mind, I am thankful that this is what came out of it.

This is a picture of my oldest son, volunteering at one of our Young Artist’s Club events!