Food Allergy Hero of the Month: Zacky Munoz
https://www.zackysuniverse.com/
Meet Zacky and his mom, Priscilla! Zacky and Priscilla are amazing food allergy advocates!
Zacky is a caring, Spiderman and dinosaur loving 9-year-old who has multiple food allergies, from nuts to sesame. Like many food allergy kids, Zacky has had a lifetime of hives, eczema and other allergy invoked symptoms. During his 1st grade year, Zacky had is his first anaphylactic reaction that required the administration of epinephrine at school. He hopes to share his story to help create awareness and education about what it is like having food allergies. His personal journey has taught him and his family a lot so far with so much more to learn.
Priscilla does advocacy work with Food Allergy Research and Education (FARE), and Zacky and the Hernandez Munoz Family are featured in Zacky’s Kitchen:-Our Family Recipes on FARE’s Living Teal Network. She has also authored a children’s book series, Super Zacky. Go check it out!
Most recently Priscilla has lead the mission to pass a new bill in her home state of California. AB 2640 would create the California Food Allergy Resource Guide to provide school districts, parents, caregivers and students with necessary information to keep students with food allergies safe at school. The bill directs the Department of Education to include state and federal resources, methods to initiate individualized food allergy management and prevention plans, and other ways to minimize risk of food anaphylaxis in school.
AB2640 is named after Zacky, who suffered two anaphylactic reactions in his 1st grade school year. He, with his family, has made it his personal mission to advocate and champion a state resource guide to help ensure that all kids with food allergies and caregivers have the most available and comprehensive information possible in school.
Food allergies were an issue that was no longer just about how to protect Zacky but how to protect and provide a voice for ALL food allergy kids and make their parent’s life a bit easier too. Zacky has since served as a leading voice in food allergy awareness.
The family wrote a bill and a legislator listened. Together, Zacky and family hope to move the needle a tiny bit and bring change and awareness to an issue impacting 32 million Americans and 6 million kids.
UPDATE:
Zacky’s Bill was signed into law on September 30, 2022!!
Thank you, Hernadez Munoz Family, for all that you do!
