We at Custom Choice Cereal had a pretty turbulent week. Lots of new things have been going on in-house that will be revealed in due time. At the same time we had to deal with severe weather warnings for several days after last week’s devastating tornadoes in North Carolina. On top of all that, the gluten-free community has been busy creating a buzz around the 2011 Gluten-Free Labeling Summit in Washington, DC. We wrote about this great effort to push for a national gluten-free labeling standard in the US before. Just five days short of the event on May 4th, we’re super excited to bring you an interview with our good friend Jules Shepard, gluten-free supertstar, baker of delicious gluten-free goods and co-initiator of this “Big Deal”.

Question: What does 1in133.org stand for? How can people get involved?
Answer: 1in133 stands for the number of people we know to have celiac disease. We suspect that this number is actually now higher, but that statistic is the one everyone recognizes as representing the number of people with celiac disease. We are also representing the 18 million people in the US with gluten sensitivity, and anyone else eating gluten-free for health reasons.

Anyone can get involved by going to the website and signing the petition. The more people who sign, the louder our collective voice, so tell everyone you know to sign too! There is also an opportunity to contribute financially to the cause at that same link. We have also set up a Facebook Causes page, which allows you to give some time, and the American Celiac Disease Alliance (our chosen 501-c) receives donations from your time.

Question: Who are the faces behind 1in133.org? How did this “alliance” form?
Answer: We are but two people: Jules Shepard and John Forberger. We both have celiac disease and have suffered from gluten-contaminated, mislabeled foods. We wanted to do something to get the FDA’s and Congress’ attention and force them to act to protect us all with uniform federal gluten-free labeling regulations.

Question: What prompted you to launch 1in133.org? Was there a specific incident?
Answer: John was sickened by gluten again in the Fall of 2010, and was hospitalized for 14 days. We were talking over the incident and were moved to stop waiting for FDA to “get around” to completing the labeling regulations Congress ordered it to have done by 2008.

Question: What exactly is it that you want to achieve with 1in133.org and specifically the event on May 4th?
Answer: We want to draw attention to our cause, our need, and our numbers. The World’s Tallest Gluten-Free Cake is certainly an attention-getter, and it’s raised enough eyebrows already that we’ve gotten nearly 6,000 on-line petition signatures in only a few short weeks! We want to force the FDA to establish a federal gluten-free labeling standard, and we’d like to push Congress for more protections as well.

Question: Where exactly will the “show-down” on May 4th take place?
Answer: At the Embassy Suites Convention Center in Washington, DC.

Question: Who will be invited to the event? Can you already mention specific names?
Answer: All listed Advocates, Cake Builders and Sponsors, as well as many members of Congress and the FDA. In addition, gluten-free community and manufacturing industry leaders will be in attendance, but the event is open to the public as well.

Question: How did you come up with the idea to create the world’s largest gluten-free cake?
Answer: John challenged me to build the World’s Largest GF Cookie, but I said that was too silly, because it would only be as large as the largest oven we could find. So I suggested cake!

Question: How big will the cake actually be? How much ingredients will you use for it?
Answer: The cake itself will be around 13 feet tall, and then set on 24 inch risers, so approximately 15 feet tall! It will weigh around 1900 pounds! Something on the order of 180 pounds of gluten-free flour were used and we’ll be using 700 pounds of frosting!

Question: What are the logistics of the actual baking like? Will the cake be actually baked on site or will you assemble the pieces?
Answer: The cakes (as you now know first-hand!) were baked at the Whole Foods Gluten-Free Bakehouse in NC by my good friend Lee Tobin and his awesome GF team there. They have been frozen and shipped by Whole Foods to their warehouse in Maryland and will be delivered to the site prior to the event for us to start building!

Question: Is there anything else you’d like us our readers to know?
Answer: Please tell everyone you know to sign our petition. It only takes a moment, but it will and is making a difference! Speaking with one collective, very loud voice, we will be heard and we will have federal gluten-free food labeling regulations! The more attention we can draw to this cause, the more the FDA and Congress will have to listen and to answer.

Thank you so much for all the info, Jules. We look forward to seeing you tomorrow at the Charlotte Gluten-Free Expo and on Wednesday in DC!