I remember the nerves before my daughter Emma’s oral food challenge at the allergist’s office in 2024. For those unfamiliar, this is a medical procedure where patients eat increasing amounts of a food they are allergic to under medical supervision to test their tolerance.
Even with faith in her allergist, I worried: Would she react? Would we need her epinephrine? And if she didn’t pass, how would she handle the disappointment?
Hours into the challenge, which she thankfully passed, I started feeling hot and itchy, and my daughter noticed I was having my first-ever allergic reaction to something in the room.
You couldn’t miss the irony. I’d spent the last five years building the Food Allergy Fund to help solve food allergies. And now, I’ve acquired multiple food allergies as an adult. This has only deepened my commitment to ending food allergies.
A Terrifying Beginning and on Fire for Answers
Emma had her first anaphylactic reaction at 13 months. It was terrifying not knowing what was happening or why. Over the next six months, we discovered many more food allergies, many of them life-threatening.
At the time, we were straddling two cities and receiving conflicting medical advice. What frustrated me most was the lack of answers. What caused Emma’s allergies? Could we treat them or prevent more? Avoidance was our only option, and it didn’t feel like enough.
So, I started researching. I was amazed to learn that, despite affecting 1 in 13 children and 1 in 10 adults in the U.S., research funding for this disease is surprisingly limited.
I thought, “We can’t wait 100 years for answers.” Emma was three at the time. Fast-forward to today, and I want her to be able to go to college free from the burden of food allergies.
That urgency led me to found the Food Allergy Fund (FAF) in 2019.
How We’re Changing the Game
From the start, I wanted FAF to take a different approach. I studied how nonprofits in other disease areas, like cancer, Crohn’s, and juvenile diabetes, had accelerated progress. Then I assembled an unparalleled advisory board of experts across immunology, microbiology, and bioengineering to guide our grantmaking and keep us bold and innovative.
I’m also proud that 100 percent of donations to FAF go directly towards food allergy research.
In 2019, we hosted our first Food Allergy Fund Summit, bringing together scientists, entrepreneurs, advocates to spotlight promising research and foster collaboration. Our first $100,000 grant went to a multi-institutional team in the U.S. and U.K., focused on pioneering microbiome research.
Since then, we’ve funded 13 studies, hosted nine more Summits, and recently launched our first Research Week, which included our Research Retreat. During this immersive retreat, leading researchers, AI innovators, and health-tech entrepreneurs worked side by side. It felt like an escape room for scientists: two days of brainstorming where you could feel ideas sparking in real time.
Breakthroughs That Give Us Hope
Progress happens when science, funding, and lived experience come together. We’ve focused on high-potential areas like the gut microbiome, funding research, including:
• The first fecal transplant for food allergy at Boston Children’s Hospital.
• New gut barrier research showing how allergens breach natural defenses.
• Applying AI and CRISPR to decode allergic disease.
I’m especially proud of our Drug Repurposing Program, the only global initiative focused on finding new uses for existing drugs to treat food allergies.
Northwestern Medicine researchers we funded discovered that an inflammatory molecule helps food allergens move from the gut into the bloodstream. The game-changer? An existing asthma drug, Zileuton, blocked that process in mice, entirely preventing reactions. We’re now funding an early clinical trial to test its potential in people.
Because Zileuton is already FDA-approved and available as a generic, the path to patients could be shorter and more affordable. Imagine giving your child a pill before a birthday party so they could eat the cake without fear. It would be life changing!
We’re also supporting an AI startup developing predictive models to help allergists personalize oral food challenges—which food to test, in what order, and at what dose. That means fewer surprises and safer outcomes like the one Emma and I experienced.
For families like ours, these aren’t just scientific advances. They represent hope.
Raising Awareness, Building Community
Alongside funding research, we’re raising awareness and building community.
This year, we partnered with Nickelodeon’s Tiny Chef and social media star Merrick Hanna, who has food allergies, on a PSA for Food Allergy Awareness Month. It aired nationwide across Nickelodeon platforms, including displays on Times Square and Union Station billboards, reaching millions of viewers. Our goal? To make food allergies part of the national conversation with heart and humor and to help families feel seen.
Since our first Summit, we’ve welcomed CEOs from more than 30 companies showcasing innovations from epinephrine inhalers to wearable tech predicting reactions. Each Summit reminds us that a future without food allergies is possible.
The Road to Food Allergy Answers
Emma is now a fourth grader, and her allergies still shape our daily life—from groceries and travel, to restaurants and holidays. I call her our Chief Household Officer because she needs to guide so many decisions.
At our 2025 Summit, Emma told the audience she wants to eat cake at birthday parties and order items from restaurant menus. It’s a familiar feeling for all food allergy families, and it’s why I do this work.
I know food allergies are a solvable problem. With brilliant minds, bold science, and community support, we can find food freedom for our kids, ourselves, and our families.
Follow @foodallergyfund, learn more, and donate at foodallergyfund.org.
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Ilana Golant, a food allergy parent, patient and founder of the Food Allergy Fund, is on fire to solve the food allergy puzzle so we can have a future without food allergies. |
| About the Author: Ilana Golant founded the leading nonprofit bridging the funding gap for scientific research to prevent, treat, and cure food allergies — Food Allergy Fund (FAF). A lawyer with over a decade in PR and marketing, she launched FAF in 2019 to drive investment in cutting-edge research and elevate the national dialogue on food allergies. Follow @foodallergyfund on Instagram, Facebook, X, and LinkedIn. | |
Images: Courtesy of Food Allergy Fund