Anna Kennedy OBE guest this week on her regular ‘All Things Autism’ at Women’s Radio Station is Alessandra Bester, founder of #teamnono.
Anna met Aless many years ago, then their paths crossed again at Anna Kennedy Online Charity Autism Expo at Brunel University.
Alessandra shared the progress made with her son Ethan and how her company is progressing supporting adults on the autism spectrum in the workplace.
The chocolate-making opened more opportunities for us. Alessandra shared : ‘Once there was a boy. He had autism, epilepsy, allergies, coeliac and he would say ‘Nono’ to every food I offered. He was very unwell most of his life and eating was always a struggle. Once day I got him a beautiful friend, Cocoa, who is a chocolate labradoodle. She was his autism assistance dog and it was a life-changing.
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‘He loves Cocoa and learned to trust everything that was brown like Cocoa, so I have developed chocolates with additional nutrition, vitamins and minerals to keep him well. We call the chocolates “Nono Coco”.
‘The chocolate-making opened more opportunities for us and I set up Functional Food Co, to help people like us to have better choices in the free-from market.
‘Since my son was so involved in every step of the process, I could see the potential for him to have a future employment, taking on range of simple tasks that he could achieve despite severe autism. It was a natural progression to offer work opportunity to young people to make the way.
‘Now we are working with Leighton College at Elfrida Rathbone Camden providing range of different work experience opportunities.
‘Every day we are learning how to better accommodate someone on the spectrum at work to help them thrive. We are a #teamnono . We create our own future.
‘We say No. No to gluten. No to nuts. No to dairy. No to egg. No to yeast and no again to sulphides, artificial colouring, GMO and preservatives. No refined sugar. No cholesterol. And finally, no to compromise on quality and taste.
Every day we are learning how to better accommodate someone on the spectrum. ‘We also say Nono to everything that we believe in: Nono to exclusion, discrimination, bullying, sexism and we like to lead by example and inspire others to be more inclusive.
‘You can support us and help us to continue our work, by simply trying our chocolates, go online and send someone a gift, sharing our story with your friends, follow us online, subscribe to our newsletter to be update on our progress and inspired.
‘Every item sold helps us grow. You can be part of the journey. There is no better time to share our gifts than Valentines and Mother’s Day or birthday. Subscribe to our newsletter at our website to get the latest updates. As a thank you, use discount this code ‘NEW19’ to get 19% off when try our products.’
