San Francisco, CA (PRWEB) May 05, 2016
FoodFor (http://www.getfoodfor.com), a company started by working parents who struggled to find the time and energy to remember everyone’s food allergies, restrictions and tastes, launched an open beta of their Groups & Events feature today just in time for Food Allergy Awareness Week. The feature is currently free and open for the public to use while it’s being piloted directly with a top San Francisco preschool system. While the Pilot helps users with picky taste preferences, it also affords the FoodFor team an opportunity to work on their core mission directly with families that have children with life threatening food allergies.
FoodFor’s mission is to increase satisfaction and safety for dining guests, while also reducing costs and waste for hosts by making their menu selection more targeted and faster to put together.
“It’s a real challenge keeping up with the many varying and changing dietary needs of our kids,” shared TEEP preschool director Heather Posner. “We’re excited to be working with FoodFor to support our efforts to provide the most welcoming, safe and enjoyable experiences for all of our kids and their families.”
When a close friend confided in FoodFor’s founder, Matt Kaufman, that she felt there was a deep negative stigma cast on her and others that have harmful food restrictions, including her 3-year old son who is allergic to several dietary staples, Kaufman decided to see if he could pull together a team to help.
“Food restrictions are a genuine concern, regardless of how some may downplay them,” offered Kaufman. “Over 15 million Americans are plagued with life threatening food allergies. Those allergies impact all of our communities to the tune of a $25 billion annual economic cost.” Kaufman continued, noting that “a recent study [FoodFor] conducted found that over 97% of people surveyed confirmed they know one or more people close to them that have a serious food restriction. Our respondents confessed they usually forget about their friends’ restrictions or have no clue how to support their friends. We believe this just adds to the social isolation. And let’s face it, we’re all picky in some way, whether its for safety, health or taste.”
The new Groups and Events features will allow organizations like schools and camps, as well as corporate caterers for offices and event planners, to develop menus for large groups with a click of a button.
The new features are live today and in open beta. Since the features work for events as small as toddler play dates, book clubs and at-home dinner parties the company encourages everyone to check it out for themselves by setting up their own free FoodFor account (http://www.getfoodfor.com). They’ve also shared plans of future integrations into restaurant reservation systems and event planning sites but have not confirmed specific release dates.
