Musician Kyle Dine Spreads Food Allergy Awareness Through Music

Canadian musician Kyle Dine is allergic to peanuts, tree nuts, eggs, fish, shellfish, and mustard, and when he sings to children about food allergies, his performances include important messages about inclusion, compassion and safety that he’s learned firsthand. 

Kyle has had many allergic reactions in his life and understands from his own experiences the emotions and challenges that often accompany food allergies. After a severe anaphylactic reaction in 2005, he picked up his guitar and started writing lyrics to express his thoughts about his food allergies.

“At first, the songs were a novelty, and fun to play for my friends and the kids at the summer camp where I worked. After writing a few fun songs and performing at this camp – singing to kids with food allergies – I started thinking that these educational songs could have a far greater reach,” Kyle explained. “I worked with my mom, an elementary school principal, on the messaging of my songs, as well as the content for my educational school assemblies. She had great advice and helped launch my career as a food allergy educator and musician.”

Kyle’s first performance was at his mother’s school, and then her colleagues from other schools started inviting him to perform. Since then he has:

• Performed at more than 300 schools

• Reached more than 125,000 students live

• Released two CDs: “You Must Be Nuts!” and “Food Allergies Rock!”

• Travelled across North America performing for numerous schools and support groups

“Being able to meet so many kids with food allergies is one of the neatest parts of my job. I find a lot of kids feel isolated with their food allergies, and need to know that it’s completely okay and normal to have this condition. I love trying to make food allergies cool with my guitar and fun shows, letting kids know the importance of not only staying safe, but staying positive,” Kyle explained. “My goal is to educate as many children as possible about food allergies and how they can help their friends stay safe.”

The AllergyEats team is thrilled to sponsor Kyle’s current “Let’s Go Nuts” Tour, which will reach more than 100 schools in 2014. We support Kyle’s messages and appreciate the fun, enthusiastic and sincere way that he’s educating children across the US and Canada about food allergies.

Kyle Creates AllergyEats Jingle

Likewise, Kyle is tremendously supportive of AllergyEats – especially the app, which he uses frequently in his travels. In fact, he just created an amazing AllergyEats jingle to spotlight this valuable resource.

“AllergyEats is such a handy app for someone like myself who does a lot of travelling. Being from Canada, I’m not always familiar with American restaurants. The AllergyEats app is my compass, guiding me to places that others in the food allergy community feel comfortable with,” the singer explained. “I’m typically dining out at well-known restaurants that have standard ingredients and well-established allergy procedures. I think it’s important for all food-allergic diners to rate restaurants on AllergyEats based on their personal experiences. This feedback helps all of us in the food allergy community find restaurants that can meet our needs and avoid the ones that can’t.”

Within the next year, Kyle hopes to release a video of his shows that schools can play in their classrooms. This would allow him to reach even more schools and spread additional awareness about food allergies. More details about the video project and his Kickstarter fundraising campaign can be found at www.foodallergyvideo.com. For more information about his tours, or to book an assembly at your school, please visit www.kyledine.com.

We have FIVE autographed copies of Kyle’s CDs to give away to AllergyEats members! To win a copy for your family, simply enter “KYLE” as the Reference Code when you rate a restaurant on AllergyEats over the next 7 days. If you haven’t dined out recently and don’t have any restaurants to rate, you can also email [email protected] with the Subject Header “KYLE” to enter the contest. We will randomly select five winners and contact the recipients during the week of November 3rd.