Our Partnership With The Natasha Allergy Research Foundation
Your wholesaler who delivers Stir it up to you each month is a member of The Country Range Group (CRG), a leading foodservice buying group. This year we’re delighted to announce a new partnership with The Natasha Allergy Research Foundation. The first foodservice provider to support The Natasha Allergy Research Foundation, the Country Range Group will embark on a special three-year journey to raise compassion, understanding and crucially, vital funds to help make food allergy history.
The new partnership follows a big fundraising year in 2022 which saw the Country Range Group raise a remarkable £186,190 for various national and local charities as part of their 30th anniversary celebrations. The money raised is to be split between Hospitality Action and selected charities in the local areas of the Group’s central office and each member around the UK and Ireland.
As well as becoming our chosen annual charity for the next three years, The Natasha Allergy Research Foundation will become a regular contributor and an editorial partner of Stir it up. “We’re proud to be entering into a partnership with The Natasha Allergy Research Foundation and are committed in their aims to help make food allergens a thing of the past. Although some important policies have been introduced since Natasha’s tragic death, there’s still so much more that can be done to prevent and eradicate allergic disease. We hope that this far-reaching partnership will bring about positive change and offer hope to those living with allergies.” Comments Martin Ward, Chief Executive of the Country Range Group.
Nadim Ednan-Laperouse OBE, Co-founder & Trustee of The Natasha Allergy Research Foundation, said; “We’re delighted to welcome the Country Range Group to Natasha’s Foundation and are overwhelmed by their generosity to name us as their chosen charity for the next three years. Our vision is to make allergy history, something we wouldn’t be able to do without the support of companies like the Country Range Group. Their knowledge, expertise and reputation in the foodservice sector is second to none so we’re thrilled we’re able to partner with them and their incredible independent members on our ground breaking work.”
Key Allergy Dates in 2024
The following dates all offer great opportunities to make some noise about allergens and do your bit to consign them to history.
Winter
Time to Talk Day – 2nd February
Random Acts of Kindness Day – 17th February
Spring
Allergy Awareness Week – 24-30 April
Food Allergy Awareness Week – 8-14 May
Summer
World Allergy Week – 5-11 June
Back to School – First two weeks of September
Autumn
Free From Fortnight – 1-14 October
About The Natasha Allergy Research Foundation and Clinical Trial
The Natasha Allergy Research Foundation was founded in June 2019 following the tragic death of Natasha Ednan-Laperouse, who died from eating sesame seeds that were baked into the dough of a baguette. There was a legal loophole in food legislation that meant prepackaged foods made and sold on the same premises didn’t have to list their ingredients. The label on the packaging didn’t include this ingredient and they were invisible to the naked eye.
Set up by Natasha’s parents, The Natasha Allergy Research Foundation is the only charity in the UK dedicated to scientific and medical research into allergy. Through their campaign, Natasha’s law came into effect on the 1st October 2021. This means that businesses now have to label prepacked food for direct sale with a full ingredient list that clearly details if it contains any of the 14 major allergens.
The charity’s vision is to eradicate allergic disease and help prevent food allergy deaths, but it also aims to bring about positive change by focusing on law and policies, investing in medical research, educating and raising allergy awareness.
One key area is the Natasha Clinical Trial. This focuses on children and young people with milk and peanut allergies in a ground-breaking £2.5m oral immunotherapy trial. The study aims to plug the current Oral Immunotherapy (OIT) research gap by proving that everyday foods instead of expensive pharmaceutical drugs can be used as a practical treatment. If it’s successful, the trial could open up potential life changing treatments for hundreds of thousands of allergy sufferers at a fraction of the current cost for the NHS.
What The Partnership Entails
The unique partnership will see the Country Range Group and its members work alongside the charity to help drive the delivery of its charitable objectives through:
Employee Engagement – Connecting Hearts & Minds
Throughout the partnership, we will be working with the Foundation to ensure our members and their incredible people can engage fully on allergy related issues. This will include staff surveys and conversations to understand how many of our Group’s team are affected, how it has impacted them and by tapping into their personal experiences and stories.
A series of regular inspiring talks, workshops and videos with Nadim and Tanya will also take place to provide key information, updates and to help further engagement on the topic. Through the partnership, we will also be able to access the latest data to review our product portfolio for allergens and will be looking to incentivise our people to be allergen ambassadors moving forward.
Engaging Customers
In addition to bringing our workforce with us, we also want to engage with our customers and ensure they have the tools, knowledge and best practice to lead the way when it comes to making allergies a thing of the past. This will include specific campaigns such as #MakeAllergyHistory to help our customers drive awareness of allergens, product collaborations and special meal promotions to raise additional funds, plus marketing support and materials to help them bring their campaigns to life and take advantage of key dates, occasions and opportunities during the year.
