News 4 New York Reporter Brian Thompson will serve as the emcee for the Northern New Jersey Food Allergy Heroes Walk on Sept. 23 at Livingston High School.

Thompson, whose daughter has a tree nut allergy, knows first-hand about the challenges parents and individuals living with food allergies face.

This is the second year Livingston will host the event for Food Allergy Research Education. The walk was started last year by eight local families affected by food allergies. Over 350 people attended the 2017 event, which raised close to $60,000. This year’s organizers are hoping to surpass that number.

Lauren Feldman, a Livingston mom, works year-round to make this walk a reality. “I started working on this event as a way to support my daughters, who both live with food allergies,’’ she said. “Somewhere along the way, it became not only a support system for them, but for me and other family members as well. It’s amazing to see our food allergy community come together.”

FARE is a lifeline for the 15 million Americans with food allergies.  One in 13 children in this country has a food allergy – many of those are life-threatening.  FARE educates and is the largest source of funding for food allergy research.

The event will take place at the Livingston High School Oval at 10 a.m.  Check-in/activities begin at 9 a.m. DJ Zap will be at the walk, as will vendors distributing allergy-friendly food and products.

Those who would like to join or donate can go online to:http://fare.foodallergy.org/northernnj.