Homemade

The Founders of FAST


Nancy Melissa
Mother Daughter
FAST is unlike any other support group, as it is 100% free. We don't sell your e-mail address, we don't send you spams. We don't ask for yearly fees. We just want to help you. At the same time, the absence of "fees" does limit our capabilities to reach out to others.. To find out more about us, please read below. (BTW, we don't even get paid for sponsor banners on the site -- that's just how the services we use afford to offer US their services for free.)
FAST is not a business. We have never made money off our visitors and do not use FAST as a means to make money. In fact, the founder is literally in debt due to paying upfront costs for the cookbook, which has so far not paid for itself. We know that one of your biggest concerns is getting free information and not having to send donations in. One of the compliments from visitors is often "I'm so surprised you're not a business." Still, because we don't collect dues we aren't free to travel around to meetings, food expos, etc. even though we have been invited. So to those of you who have seen me (Melissa) at these meetings -- it wasn't really me! :)

Many of you wonder, "How do I join?" "What can I get through the mail?" The truth is that FAST is only online.
Who is behind FAST? A mother and daughter came up with the concept of an interactive newsletter in 1994, after the daughter Melissa's diagnosis with food allergies. Unfortunately, the newsletter was free and too time-consuming. In 1997, Melissa decided to make a small webpage, and submitted the URL to Yahoo. Although very miniscule, it was accepted, since few food allergy sites were online at that time, most likely. Visitors came, and the site has expanded.
It's true...FAST is homemade. The concept for an interactive support group through virtual contact (originally a newsletter) was first developed by a sixteen-year-old girl. At the age of nineteen she turned this small newsletter into a website. That she is me!
There are a couple of things that must be pointed out since this webpage is homemade...
  • I try to answer most e-mails that I can, but contacting your local support groups (some are listed on this site), as well as the small support groups established on this site (see "Small Groups") will get you more personalized attention.
  • The information on this site may be outdated, since one person has to update all information. Also, the information comes from many different sources, including Small Group leaders and individual members on the mailing list. Remember to contact your trusted, board-certified allergist in the event of questionable material. Contact me if you notice something that is wrong or someone who repeatedly gives out incorrect information. The main rule of thumb for this site is to question everything you read within it, since it is a conglomeration of individuals' opinions that are not monitored by any medical body.

    • FAST does not have any offline resources (other than a limited-edition cookbook in 1999). There are no fees to join -- everything is free and online.
    I hope that FAST will become like "family" to you. Those of us on the mailing list are a strong support group, willing to help others. I hope FAST will become to you what it is to me...a support group that comes to my house, to my very computer, and straight into my heart.
    One common concern is whether or not the information on the site is reliable. FAST only agrees with traditional medicine, and avoidance as the "treatment" for food allergies. Nevertheless, some of the sections on the site (such as the chat room) are open forums and may contain inaccurate information. If you have updated information for any section of the site, please feel free to send an e-mail to the webmaster. I want the information to be as accurate as possible. Nevertheless, we do still advocate that if you have any questions that you should contact your allergist.

    A Note About Self-Help

    We are living in the age of a "self-help" society. One of the most popular things to do in this day and age is to forgo traditional medical treatment and instead look through resources to diagnose ourselves.
    FAST does not agree with self-help in the case of food allergies. It is virtually, if not completely, impossible to self-diagnose food allergies (unless the reaction is immediate and life-threatening), as diet/nutrition is nothing to experiment with without being under the care of a doctor.
    Therefore, FAST only subscribes to the belief that those who visit this page should already be diagnosed with food allergies, or are interested in becoming tested for food allergies, by a traditional allergist. This page, thus, does not discuss how to self-diagnose or determine whether or not you have food allergies. Instead, you should visit a board- certified allergist to determine whether or not you or your child may be allergic.

    Webmaster's Photo Album

    Why is this here? Some of you have mentioned wanting to see what the FAST webmaster looks like. Well, here are more than enough photos!
    Here I am at less than one year old. I don't remember it, but I was awfully happy! Okay, so that's just a guess. ;o) I can't tell who is on my shirt, but don't worry -- it's definitely not Barney! I'm confused as to why there is white all over the picture (especially on my hand and face)...these don't appear in the original, and I'm too lazy to try to fix it. Each picture takes about 10-15 minutes to scan and edit, and I don't have the patience!
    Here I am a little less thrilled (I wonder what happened?!) than in the above photograph. I'm a redhead in this picture! That really came and went with me. The last time I had red hair was when I was about sixteen or seventeen. Pretty strange (and not due to a bottle). One of my mom's greatest wishes was to have redheaded children. Sorry, mom. (She was a strawberry-blonde turned redhead turned brown.)
    Here I am learning how to crawl, at about one year old. Isn't that yellow carpet ghastly? I had to have gold carpet in my room (in a different house) for about ten years. It was certainly no fun! No offense to anyone with gold carpet or anything... Apparantly from my hairdo, my mom must have been convinced I was a boy (in fact, I was named Nathan Mark the football player until my birth made my parents realize their error!).
    When I was about one or two years old, my dad taught me how to scrunch up my nose when photos were taken of me (this can be seen at right). Apparantly it was cute at the time, but from then on we have considered my brother the "happy baby" for smiling in all of HIS baby pictures! My pictures look like I must be reaping the olfactory "rewards" of a dirty diaper! (Sorry about the photo quality again. I promise the original looks much clearer.)
    This is me at my birthday with another bad haircut. I cut it off, but from the photo it appears I had all boys over at my party with only one girl! More on that in a minute...
    Here I am with an orange popsicle. Please note that I'm pretty sure it was one of those orange cream popsicles, meaning -- yep, allergens. Have you ever seen a scrawnier four-year-old? My dad once told me that as a child I ran better than my older brother. Shhh...don't tell him!
    This beam on my face is due to getting a box full of cereal for a Christmas present. When I was younger my favorite presents were a tangerine one year and a box of cereal another! We didn't always get our favorites when I was younger, and something like expensive sugared cereal was a real treat. Now that our family can afford eating sugared cereal (or fruit) every day, it's hard to remember the joy I felt grabbing a tangerine out of my stocking or unwrapping a box of flavored cereal, but it sure makes me feel good to know I once did!
    I've always loved reading. Here I am in my tomboy hand-me-downs in my old front yard with a book. It felt nice to have the breeze in my hair, and to be all alone on the sidewalk reading a book. It was wonderful living in a safe, quiet neighborhood with little boys for friends! We wouldn't even let a girl into our all-boys club. We used to take a donated bike (which the lady later took back -- I forever deemed her a mean old indian-giver!) and jam it on the side between the street and the sidewalk viewable in this picture (with help from the training wheels) and use it as a stationary-bike! Our all-boys club provided inspiration for writing a true story years later when we lived in a new town. My teacher enjoyed the story so much that she read it to all of the grades she taught...even the older kids. It was about us not letting a girl into our club, about our secret password and our initiation process.
    I would guess my brother and I are about six and eight here (?). Our parents don't label photos. I still have chipmunk cheeks, although not this badly! Yes! My brother has on an ATARI jacket!!! I should hold this for blackmail. I really like this photograph since it's a lot clearer than some of the other ones we have of me (like the one of me reading, which is basically just a shadow!).
    This is one of my favorite photos. The original (if it doesn't show up well on your screen) is various shades of pink. I tell how to do these on the Glamour Shot page (it's so much fun, it deserved its own page).
    This is also a recent photo (November 1999). It's my best Marilyn Monroe impression. ;) I figure you're never too old to dress up and have FUN! (The picture turning out all faded and old-looking was coincidental! You can get strange effects when taking digital camera photos!) As you can see, my friend got into the act as well.
    I want to take a moment to thank everyone who has ever visited FAST and contributed. You make FAST what it is. When I first started this site it was just me, a few recipes, book reviews, and cooking tips -- and the site was miserable and small. But with your help it has grown into one of the largest and most popular food allergy sites on the Internet. Thank you for all your hard work, and for helping others in the same boat!
    As an added note, make sure that when you tell sites and friends about FAST that you include that it is FREE! It is possible to get accused of spamming, and FAST does not support putting our name/address on a forum where it will not be appreciated or accepted. You may need to get a webmaster's permission before mentioning FAST on a message board, for example.

    THE END
    More pictures!
    Since people enjoyed the pictures I've uploaded some more! :)
    Red-headed again! If this doesn't look red on your screen it's because the scanner, for some reason, darkened some of these most recent scans. Probably because I had to hook it up without any directions on a different computer. Oh well!
    Although I cut it off the picture, surrounding me were books on the couch. Even before I could read I pretended, and unfortunately we don't know when I started reading "for real," although I was talking at six months!
    Oh, what a girl will go through to look her best!
    This is my first documented allergic reaction (that we have a picture of). The picture says I was three years old. I felt just AWFUL and collapsed in a chair while we were on vacation in California. Instead of becoming concerned, my parents thought the illness was cute and started taking snap-shots. Thanks a lot, mom and dad! :P
    For a while my brother and I looked a bit like twins. Here I am wearing a boy's football outfit and carrying a little girl's purse! I wore boy and girl hand-me-downs while growing up and wonder what people thought of my strange mixed-up attire! ;)
    Making people laugh is something I've always enjoyed doing. I used to dress up like this and pretend I was Daniel in the Lion's Den...well, not exactly like this, but in a head-wrap and bathrobe. I think I was trying to look like a gypsy here.

    My brother always has been a bully (sorry, bro.). Here he is dressed as a monster and chasing me. Notice my primordial scream.
    Here I am at a birthday, smiling for the camera. Just a simple snapshot! :)
    The last photo is of a doll, made in Summer of '99, of me as a child! The company that does this is online. They make them for children and also for adults who want a reminder of their childhood.
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