Patience Turns Mother’s Quest for Information Into $2.5-Million Charity

I’m the oldest of eight children, and since my parents worked outside the home, I was often left in charge. One of the things I quickly discovered is that if I didn’t get my brothers and sisters to see my position and to come to a

ANNE MUNOZ-FURLONG Age: 50 First nonprofit job: Secretary Time Inc., New York Current job: Chief executive officer, Food & Allergy Anaphylaxis Network, Fairfax, Va.

meeting of the minds, I would not have any control over them. Of course, I also learned the value of listening to various points of view and learned that everyone sees things differently.

However, if you can find some common ground, you can usually work things out. It’s something I practiced with my siblings and still do today, whether it’s with families dealing with food allergies or scientists or those working in the food industry.

In 1976, I relocated from New York, where I grew up and worked as a secretary for Time Inc., to Alexandria, Va., where I worked as a researcher for Time-Life Books. At the same time, I was going to college in the evening and eventually got my degree from George Mason University. In 1982, after the birth of my first daughter, I left Time-Life and began working as a freelance writer.

When my second daughter was born in 1984, I knew immediately that there was something different about this child. She was always sick and crying, and when she cried, she would pull her knees up as if she had cramps.

For the next nine months, I went from pediatrician to pediatrician trying to figure out what was wrong. Back then, the thinking was that babies do not get allergies, and typically children were not tested for allergies until they were 3 years old. The problem with this child was that there wasn’t a dramatic reaction that would have landed us in the emergency room and gotten us some serious attention. It was more like water torture — constant stress, but not so awful that anyone would really take note.

Finally I took her to Children’s Hospital in Washington, because I was afraid there was something terminally wrong with her. There we saw an allergist who determined that she was allergic to milk and eggs. He pretty much said, “Avoid milk and eggs and have a happy life.”

At that time there was no information, no milk substitutes, no calcium-fortified juices, no support groups, and no Internet. I began learning how to read a label and all the various words that actually meant milk, knowing that every time I made a mistake she would get sick. Because of my background as a researcher at Time-Life, I started researching food allergies and found where there were reliable sources of information.

Today it’s estimated that there are seven million Americans who have food allergies, and it appears those numbers are going up. In 1991, I started the Food Allergy Network, working out of my home and with no salary for the first two years. (In 2002, we changed our name to the Food Allergy & Anaphylaxis Network — it better reflected the work we were already doing.) I would take freelance writing assignments and pour all that income into my “Food Allergy News” newsletter. The way I began reaching members was by going to meetings of allergists and dropping the newsletter off at tables. We began to reach more people when physicians, who liked the newsletter, recommended it to their patients. Then Dear Abby picked us up, noting that the annual fee for the newsletter was well worth the money. That really put us on the map — we got 10,000 pieces of mail in three weeks.

In 1995, we moved into real office space. Fortunately, we began getting some grants, and the organization really took off after that. Now, we have a staff of 17 and an annual budget of $2.5-million, which comes from grants, membership fees, donations, and the sale of our books, videos, and cookbooks.

I really had no idea what this organization would turn into, but our agenda quickly became directed, and it still is, by what the public needed and wanted. For example, I never imagined that our group would be working with those in the food industry or with those making public policy. I’d hear from our members that the food companies would not give them accurate information, so I started writing to the companies enclosing copies of the letters. We worked with the U.S. Food and Drug Administration to require that companies put more complete information, and put it in laymen’s terms, on their labels. When the FDA began sending information to the food industry, awareness really began to build.

In 1992 our group contacted Kellogg’s because children who were allergic to milk were having a problem with one of their cereals. Kellogg’s checked and it turned out that there was milk in the product, but that wasn’t indicated on the label. The company corrected the label, did a product recall, and sent a special notice to our members.

I think in some respects I was something that the food industry hadn’t seen before. I was a consumer, but I understood their language and the importance of the bottom line.

I wasn’t always warmly embraced, but I never took the rejection personally.

I often thought back to taking care of my brothers and sisters — that it was going to take some time to get them to understand. But if you treat people with respect and are patient, eventually you will get through to them.