Nextdoor app can keep trick-or-treaters safe

SOUTH BEND, Ind. --- A feature on the popular Nextdoor app is providing a safe way for parents across Michiana to prepare for trick-or-treating.

The Treat Map feature allows parents to plan a route based on who in the neighborhood plans to hand out candy this Halloween.

Treat Map uses three icons—a candy corn, haunted house and teal pumpkin to represent the neighbors participating.

A candy corn symbolizes that a home will hand out candy, while the haunted house shows parents and children which neighbors decorated for Halloween.

The teal pumpkin icon represents the Teal Pumpkin Project, symbolizing that those homes are safe for kids with food allergies.

Those homes provide non-food treats such as candy, stickers and crayons.

Bhavisha Patel, Physician with Asthma Allergy Centers, told ABC 57 that those non-food treats are the safest way to go because a lot of allergic reactions are accidental.

“Many children can feel excluded,” said Patel. “A lot of holidays do include food and even if there aren’t obvious allergens in a food, such as peanuts, tree nuts, there can be cross-contamination…there can be hidden ingredients which accounts for a lot of the reactions that happen. They’re accidents,” explained Patel.

Planning a safe route based on the best streets on the Treat Map can be a useful tool to parents.

Ashley Warren, a South Bend resident, told ABC 57 that the app is a great idea to keep kids safe.

“It just stops a lot of confrontation and it stops kids from getting their feelings hurt,” said Warren.

Patel shared that all are welcome to grab non-food treats at Asthma Allergy Center on Halloween between 9-5 as a part of the Teal Pumpkin Project. You do not have to be a patient to attend.

To find your neighborhood treat map, click here.