Thoughtless Act

As I previously mentioned, we got to hear an author living with food allergies speak at a meeting for parents’ of children with food allergies. First, I recommend the book. Its an interesting insight into food allergies. However, there was one thing that struck me while we sat at this meeting. Before it started, the meeting leader (a founder of this mother’s group) introduced a couple who were plugging their new product. It was for nut-free cookies, made in a nut-free facility, to be sold in individual packages or in raw form for schools and other food service providers. They provided wrapped samples. Here’s what got me. While nut free, the cookies had other ingredients that the speaker was known to be allergic to. Did the meeting leader suggest people refrain from eating the cookies until after the meeting? No! I was stunned, and upset for the speaker. The speaker did not comment, although was paying attention to the presentation. I guess she was so used to this, that she just let it go. I really wanted to say something, but I haven’t been to enough meetings. My husband and I abstained from the cookies, but all I could think of was how thoughtless and rude they were to their guest speaker, especially from a group who fight for their children over this very issue.