A high school senior from Montville NJ, seventeen-year-old Anushka Agarwal is already an accomplished author, illustrator, and food allergy evangelist.
Her children’s book entitled Jelly Sandwiches is meant to evoke the question: “What happened to the peanut butter?”
Anushka is allergic to peanuts as well as eggs, tree nuts, coconut, sesame, and poppy seeds.
“It was a play on when I was growing up my mom would pack me a jelly sandwich because I could never eat the peanut butter,” Anushka said.
Jelly Sandwiches is the story of a young girl enjoying her first day of kindergarten until she finds herself seated alone at the allergy table at lunchtime. She meets a friend who also has food allergies and their friendship helps them feel less alone.
“I have six food allergies myself,” Anushka said. “I wanted to create a resource for kids growing up, where they have something where they feel represented.”
The Montville Township Public Library hosted Anushka for a reading of her book to children and parents on July 13. Following her reading, the kids were encouraged to pull a numbered block from a Jenga tower Anushka had constructed, with each number corresponding to an allergy-related question that she answered. The questions are ones she considers on a daily basis, such as how to determine whether a food is safe for someone with food allergies.
“When I was growing up I felt a lot of people were talking about food allergies for one or two days, and then they would forget about it,” Anushka said. “When you’re living with it, you can never forget about it.”
Anushka asserts her book is not only for kids with food allergies but others as well.
Said Anushka: “Once it becomes more normalized for kids without allergies to know what they are, it can help them in their own classrooms and own communities to be more accepting, inclusive, and more aware of their friends with allergies.”
Anushka donated a copy of Jelly Sandwiches to the Montville Library. We encourage you to purchase a personal copy for your family and copies for your local library and elementary school on Amazon. [Use the link above, and we’ll donate all affiliate proceeds to the Food Allergy Fund.]
Our appreciation goes out to Anushka for her advocacy on behalf of the food allergy community. She has already done more good for her community in high school than many have in a lifetime.
