Do your kids have Celiac or food allergies?

[Amber]

Sparking Community Pride While Making Gluten Free Modeling Dough

April 8, 2010 by Nancy
Filed under News

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I just ran across this article about a Bloomfield IL entrepreneur who broke ground on a factory that will expand his soy based, gluten free modeling clay (as well as a soy free version) business.

I have posted an article in the past about a Seattle mom that is making a gluten free modeling dough product as well, but this one catches my attention for a reason other than the gluten free-ness of the product.

Sawyer Sparks, a 23 year old Purdue college student has been making Soy-Yer Dough in his mother’s kitchen with a staff of 3 – himself, his mother and himself, and PlayDough offered him $500,000 for the product. I saw Sawyer on the ABC show, Shark Tank, in Spetember trying to raise funds after turning down the PlayDough offer.

Sawyer’s passion, besides kids who are sensitive to wheat, is helping the community he grew up in recover from the down economy. He insisted that whoever would invest in his company would have to promise to let him build the factory in Bloomfield to provide jobs. He raised $300,000 on Shark Tank, and now is following through on his dream to help his community.

“Sparks, who is senior in the Purdue University School of Agriculture, said the world-wide headquarters for Soy-Yer-Dough will encompass about 3,000 square feet of a 6,000 square feet building that Davis’ firm — Paragon Force — is constructing at the business park that opened January.” (http://gcdailyworld.com/story/1623924.html)

Way to go Sawyer – for helping kids with gluten sensitivities, and for helping your community at the same time when you could have cashed out and just helped yourself.

You can buy his dough online, and I suppose he still makes it in the kitchen with mom and girlfriend for now.

Soy-Yer Dough comes in 11 fun scents and colors like Root Beer, Mint and Watermelon – and also a soy-free version. $2 per resealable can.

Order Soy-yer Dough here.

[rrcjamato]

Awesome I have some friends this would help out and will send to them. Thanks

[loucook]

Mmmm I hope it still tastes good!!!

[mike]

I'm a little late to the party on this, but this was HUGE news at our house:

http://www.kingarthurflour.com/glutenfree/

"Our mixes, and some of our baking ingredients, are Certified Gluten-Free™ by the non-profit Gluten-Free Certification Organization (GFCO), a program of the Gluten Intolerance Group (GIG®). GFCO products are tested to be less than 10ppm (parts per million) gluten. This is stricter than even the FDA requirement of less than 20ppm gluten."

[loucook]

Though I joked about the taste, it truly is good news. Through my work, I've come across a growing number of individuals who have allergic reactions to gluten as well as dairy and eggs. A few clients have discovered their allergies through an elimination diet, in which they remove foods from their diet hoping to find the culprit. I remember in my youth how rare it was to meet someone with a food allergy. Back then it was usually peanuts. A sad sad day during middle school when we could no longer bring in our beloved PB&J. Fast forward to just the other day when I was at a local farm discussing organic foods and GMO's and up popped the subject of food allergies and how prevalent they were becoming. The farmer suggested that there may be a correlation between GMO's and all our new allergies. Certainly causes one to think about what we're putting on our table and in our mouths.