Turning personal experience into purposeful action.
By Lauryn Johns
For most of us, grabbing a snack or sitting down for dinner is something we rarely think twice about. For Devin Sailer, an Oneonta native who has lived with 31 life-threatening anaphylactic allergies since infancy, every ingredient has to be checked, every meal carefully planned, and every restaurant visit begins with questions most of us never have to ask.
“For a lot of people, the task seems insurmountable,” Sailer says. “But for me, it’s just normal life.”
Growing up, that “normal” looked different than it did for many of his classmates. After his family fought for
his right to attend elementary school because of the severity of his allergies, lunchtime often meant sitting at a
separate allergy-free table or pulling a desk away from everyone else.
“It was an isolating and eye-opening experience,” he says. “It was one of the defining
moments of my childhood.”
Those experiences made Sailer more aware of the challenges facing others. He remembers classmates going home with backpacks full of food for the weekend and, through his mother’s work in women’s health, learning about families staying in domestic violence shelters. It raised a question that stayed with him: What happened to children with severe food allergies when they suddenly found themselves in a shelter? That question became SafeToEat, the nonprofit Sailer founded while still in high school. Today, the organization partners with businesses and food manufacturers to provide allergen-safe food and educational resources to domestic violence shelters. Donations are sorted into care packages and delivered directly to shelters.
Partnerships with companies including Vermont Nut Free Chocolates and LesserEvil Snacks have helped expand
the organization’s reach, while support closer to home has allowed Sailer to continue serving shelters throughout the
region. Because of the confidential nature of those shelters, he’ll never know exactly how many people SafeToEat has helped.
“If I simply say SafeToEat has helped a certain number of people, it’s easy to get lost in the statistic,” he says. “You forget these are people who are in critical situations.”
This year, Sailer was recognized nationally as one of JCI USA’s 2026 Ten Outstanding Young Americans. For him,
the recognition doesn’t change the mission. “Our goals remain the same,” he says. “Give as much food to as many shelters as possible.” At just 18, Sailer has turned a challenge he has faced his entire life into a way to help others.
When asked what he hopes people take away from his story, his answer is simple. “I hope people realize I’m not special,” he says. “I’m just a person who decided to act.”
Sometimes, making a difference begins with a problem we know firsthand. Other times, it begins with noticing what someone else is facing and deciding to do something about it.
