Why Are Boise Area Stores Selling So Many Funny Looking Teal Pumpkins?

If you’re super into Halloween, you’ve probably spent some time at JoAnn Fabrics, Michael’s or Hobby Lobby stocking up on spooky decorations. When you walked into those stores did you notice these? 

Earlier this season, many Boise area craft stores were selling artificial teal pumpkins in all shapes and sizes. Those pumpkins aren’t a new flash-in-the-pan trend for 2023. They’re actually part of an initiative started by the Food Allergy Research & Education non-profit.  Your child may be lucky enough not to have any allergies to the ingredients in some of the most popular Halloween candies, but chances are they have a classmate who may be allergic to milk, chocolate, peanuts or other allergens hidden on the wrapper. 

For those kiddos, trick-or-treating can be a bit of a bummer. They may feel left out because they know they can’t accept those treats. That’s where the “Teal Pumpkin Project” comes in! FARE encourages homeowners to select a more inclusive non-food trick-or-treat item to pass out. Homeowners choosing to do that can mark their home as a safe place for kids with food allergies by placing a teal-colored pumpkin or jack-o-lantern on their doorstep. 

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FARE even has a tool on its website that’s similar to Nextdoor’s well-known “Treat Map.” Houses participating in the Teal Pumpkin Project can add their address to the map, along with a brief description of what non-food or allergy-safe treats they’re passing out. You type in your address and it will put a teal pumpkin pin over the houses in your area that said they were on board. 

It’s very cool to see what some of these homeowners dreamed up! There’s a house on Van Dyke Avenue in Kuna that will be handing our pirate gear instead of candy. A home on 6th Street in Boise is handing out toys and balloons. Another house on Sunnybrook Drive in Boise is doing glow sticks, slap bracelets, rubber ducks and foam airplanes. If you want to check out the map, you can see it HERE!

By the way, if a child is carrying a teal pumpkin bucket this MAY be their parents’ way of telling you they have food allergies. Or the kid just thinks it looks cool because well…kids

What Does a Blue Pumpkin Mean?

While teal pumpkins are a universal symbol of food allergies, blue pumpkins haven’t reached that level yet. They’re sometimes considered an indicator that a child may be on the autism spectrum or non-verbal. A mom’s post about using a blue pumpkin pail to let people know that her three-year-old was unable to say “trick-or-treat” went viral a few years ago and other families jumped on the trend. You can read more about that HERE.