Child Safety First, The Taste Second
The Taste of Chicago is a large food festival, held annually in Grant Park . The event brings a variety of food, games, vendors. For many attending, child safety could be an underlying concern among the minds of parents.
We talked to a mother named Sandy, who brought her children to the Kids area. We asked Sandy about her safety concerns when bringing her children to the taste. Sandy explained, “Him running off, wish I had one of those backpack leashes. Also, him finding a bathroom,
especially cause he’s like half potty trained. So I was worried.”
During such large events, being aware of your children’s surroundings is a good habit to make sure they’re safe. We also talked to a worker for Playground Games named Mike. Playground Games is an event hosting company which ran the kids area at the Taste this year. As we interviewed Mike, we asked him what are the procedures taken when a child is injured. Mike states, “The procedures are we remove them from the inflatables. We make sure you know, they’re okay. We inform parents and if it’s serious injury, we would contact emergency services.”
We also asked if parents are able to leave their kids in the area. Mike states, “We prefer them not to, you know we like to have them stick around to watch their kids but if they do, we have staff watching each
inflatable making sure everything is up to code and stuff.”
At the Taste, your child will be safe and under supervision. The Taste has security, and workers who watch the children and inflatables in a fenced off area. We went to the lost child area to ask questions. Being directed to and from different people, including police and firefighters, we ended up meeting a OEMC representative who wasn’t at liberty to speak to us about the questions we had, but they did give us the number to the OEMC PR representative. We called the OEMC PR Representative with no reply.