Gluten Intolerance Group Chef-to-Plate campaign a huge success!

As a proud supporter of the Gluten Intolerance Group’s Chef-to-Plate campaign during the Celiac awareness month of May, AllergyEats is very happy to pass on the following success story from GIG’s most recent eNewsletter.

Chef to Plate Campaign reached 3.9 million people! 

May 2010 was declared to be Celiac Awareness month all over the country and into Canada.  To help celebrate this, GIG announced its Chef to Plate Awareness Campaign Serving Up Gluten Free Awareness and reached out to restaurants all over the country.  The campaign was scheduled for the entire month of May.  The response was phenomenal!  The participating restaurants spanned 46 states and included 2 restaurants in Canada, 473 restaurants total, including several major chains – Cheeseburger in Paradise, Garlic Jim’s Gourmet Pizza, Lebanese Taverna, Godfather’s Pizza, and The Melting Pot Restaurant.  We sent out 12000 pieces of literature for this event and potentially reached 3.9 million people.

Both the participating restaurants and the campaign leaders involved in making the event run smoothly declared the event a success.  Restaurants received increased business and many more customers asking about their gluten free options.  Even non-gluten free customers were interested in the educational material provided.  One support group said, ” Through this experience, our group discovered our area is very gluten-free friendly where restaurants are concerned.  Seems everyday a new establishment wants to offer gluten free menus.”  We would like to extend a huge thank you to everyone who was involved in this campaign.  We appreciate all of the hard work involved and are grateful to those who helped spread awareness during this month.

Congratulations to the Gluten Intolerance Group, a valued partner of AllergyEats!

Please also note the fact that participating restaurants saw an increase in business during this campaign. That demonstrates once again the significant power of the food allergy and intolerance community to affect a restaurant’s profits. The more each restaurant understands this, the more they will cater to our community.

To that end, please remember to rate any restaurants you’ve recently dined at on the main AllergyEats site (www.allergyeats.com). As more food allergic diners patronize restaurants that we’ve given the thumbs up to on AllergyEats, the more influence we will have to help change restaurant behavior to meet our needs.