TEAL PUMPKIN PROJECT

by, Karen Loraine

Foodallergy.org is a website that promotes the TEAL PUMPKIN PROJECT, a safer way for parents with children, who have food allergies, to know that a particular house is a safe place for their child to trick-or-treat on Halloween.

For all the rules of the TEAL PUMPKIN PROJECT, go to foodallergy.org.

The Teal pumpkin on your front stoop, seen from the street, signifies that the only items available to the tricker-treaters at your house are non-food items.

The following project will show you one way of painting a pumpkin teal.

Supplies needed:

1 pumpkin, large enough to view from the street

1 paint brush

blue acrylic paint

green acrylic paint

white acrylic paint

1 palette

newspaper

paper towels

1 cup of water

Instructions:

1. Setup your workspace area to your liking.
2. Mix 5 parts blue paint and 5 parts green paint to create the teal color. Mix in a little white paint at a time to create the teal shade of your choice.
3. Use the paintbrush to brush strokes of paint all over the pumpkin except where the pumpkin touches the newspaper.
4. Let the paint on the pumpkin dry before dabbing wet paint on the areas of thin paint.
5. Depending on the size of the pumpkin, words could be painted as well. For example: we are allergy friendly or non-food treats here.
6. Let the pumpkin dry completely.
7. Set the pumpkin out on the front stoop in a place where the pumpkin could be viewed from the street.
8. Get ready for trick-or-treaters.

Getting ready for Trick-or-Treaters:

There are many items to choose from that could be handed out at Halloween. Here are just a few ideas of items that could be handed out to all trick-or-treaters:

unsharpened pencils,

erasers,

glow sticks,

glow bracelets,

or little trinket goodie bags.

All of these items could become “treats” for Halloween. What other non-food items could you think of handing out?

Have a happy and safe Halloween!