Do you want a cure for food allergies now?  The founders of E.A.T. (End Allergies Together) not only want a cure but they are taking action to find one.  E.A.T. is a new, national non-profit.  As soon as I heard about them, I contacted them to find out more and to ask some hard questions.  I was happy to find that Elise, one of E.A.T.’s founders, had all the right answers.  I am delighted to introduce E.A.T. to all of you.  Please read my interview, below with E.A.T. Founders Elise Bates and Kim Hall, and visit their website for more information.
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What is E.A.T.? 
 
We launched E.A.T (End Allergies Together) earlier this year to fill a need in the food allergy world. 
 
We all know that food allergies are growing at a tremendous rate with now 1 in 12 children diagnosed and 17 million Americans suffering.  With those numbers, you’d assume that a lot of government and private funding would be going towards the quest for answers and better treatments. Unfortunately, this is not the case. 
 
Annual food allergy research costs are an estimated $500 million, and with private and public funding in 2013 there was still an over $400 million research gap.  
 
We founded E.A.T to help fill this gap. E.A.T is a non-profit organization solely focused on raising money to accelerate the pace of research.  E.A.T will give 100% of the net proceeds we raise directly to researchers seeking a cure.  
 
Who are its founders? 
 
We, Kim Hall and Elise Bates, are two mothers of children with life-threatening food allergies.  We met in 2013 at a local food allergy meeting.  Having never spoken to each other, we started passing notes about how badly we just wanted a cure.  We talked on the phone every day after that hatching plans to build a non-profit to raise money for research.  We wanted to use our business and marketing backgrounds to help fund the quest for answers.  
 
Over a year after that meeting, our families launched End Allergies Together, Inc. (E.A.T), a nonprofit organization solely dedicated to funding food allergy research.
  
What thought process went into the selecting your advisors?
 
We believe that it’s important to build a medical advisory team comprised of highly knowledgeable scientists and practitioners who are leaders in the field but not conducting their own studies.  We’d like to keep the funding allocation process as objective as possible.  
 
It is a great deal of work founding and running a national non-profit, what inspired you to move forward with this idea? 
 
The more we read about the prevalence of food allergies, how many other people were fighting daily to keep their children safe, and the lack of funding, the more passionate we became about our mission.  
 
On a personal note, in 2013, Kim flew across the country four separate times for her daughter Lindsay to try and qualify for one of 60 spots in a Phase I FDA approved multi-allergen desensitization study at Stanford.  The study cost $4.5 million just for 60 kids.  It was eye-opening.  
 
So, the more Kim and I talked and met with other researchers we realized  
 
A.) how little funding there was across the board. With only $37m in NIH funding and roughly $25m in private funding (2013), researchers have to spend too much time fund-raising instead of doing the work they need and want to do.  
 
B.) there are many scientists doing excellent work to bring treatments or a better understanding of “why” to light.  So, we started E.A.T to try and bring more money to multiple researchers as we believe there isn’t a “one size fits all” solution.
 
I noticed on your website that 100% of the donations will go directly to research. Knowing that operating expenses for a non-profit can be expensive, how will you cover these expenses?
 
100% of net proceeds, means that every dollar we raise, after paying transaction expenses, goes directly to research.  We are fortunate to have private funding sources covering our overhead costs. 
 
We all work hard for our money and are discerning about where it goes.  We respect that and keep it in mind at every turn. 
 
We have secured pro bono accounting and legal services.   We negotiated hard (and will continue) to make sure things like credit card processing fees are as minimal as possible.  Our strategy is to build as virtual an organization as we can and to have a scalable marketing strategy.  Yes, we will need to spend money. However, we seriously weigh the cost of doing something ($, time, resources) versus the projected benefit.  
 
What makes your non-profit different from the other national non-profits now in existence?  What need will you fill?
 
1. We are solely focused on funding research.  That’s it.  We do not fund other food allergy related initiatives such as educational programming, educational publications, advocacy related efforts, operations for treatment/out patient centers, etc.  While these are extremely important initiatives, we believe other organizations do them very, very well.  
 
2. 100% of net proceeds goes to research.  We underwrite our overhead so that every $1 counts.  Even the smallest donations really add up.  We just need everyone involved.
 
Are you only funding research in the USA? How will funding be determined? What is the process by which researchers will be funded?
 
In the short-term, yes.  But, we have an advisory board aware of and following research globally.  We hope to fund the most promising research no matter where it’s based.  
 
We are funding short and longer-term research areas:
A. Food desensitization
B. Medical treatments
C. Basic science 
 
Who should donate to your organization?  Why?
 
Anyone who is touched by food allergies and wants to see progress come at a faster pace should consider donating.  Medical research takes a great deal of money and time.  If we can take care of the funding, then we can start the shot clock towards getting better answers for our kids.
 
Is there anything else that we should know about EAT that I didn’t ask?
 
Our goal at E.A.T is to represent everyone managing the daily fear, struggle, worry, work, planning…. caused by living with severe food allergies.  As moms, we get it.  And, as business people, we want to channel that to make a real difference.  Even a $10 donation goes a long way and we hope people will consider donating or joining our cause www.EndAllergiesTogether.com
#Just10BuckstoEAT