Jules Shepard / Earth Fare Event Summary

I'd like to thank everyone that came or helped put on the first Gluten Free Raleigh Blog Special Event last Saturday (Feb 28th)! If you don't know, we hosted Celiac author and Gluten Free cooking expert - Jules Shepard - at the Earth Fare at Brier Creek. Jules also did a book signing and Earth Fare had a special guided tour of the store and it's 1000+ GF items. Trevor from Bella Monica Flatbread Company was also on site for a tasting of their brand new GF pizzas. I originally thought that maybe about 20 people would register for the event but we actually ended up with a completely sold out event and even had some walk-ups the day of the event. We had a standing room only crowd of about 40 people when it was all said and done.

The Gluten Free Raleigh Blog will be making 2 donations to Celiac organizations as a result of the proceeds from the event. The first will be a $300 donation to the National Foundation for Celiac Awareness (NFCA). I have written about them frequently on this blog and I really can identify with their primary focus of raising awareness. Another $100 donation will be made to the University of Maryland Center for Celiac Research on behalf of the event and Jules Shepard. This research center is lead by one of the prominent leaders of the Celiac community - Dr. Alessio Fasano. More to come about this organization in the future.

Thanks again for every one's attendance and hard work. Again - a very special thank you to Jules Shepard for making the trip from Baltimore and for doing such a wonderful job. Also - to Kristi from Earth Fare for doing a wonderful job making sure everything went smoothly.

See below for some pictures from the event...