Sheryl's Good Deeds - Cake4Kids

Mix96 in Sacramento recently featured Cake4Kids in their Sheryl’s Good Deeds program. Sheryl interviewed Leigh Ann Higa, our Cake4Kids Sacramento Ambassador. Watch the video below!

We’ve teamed up with JustServe.org to motivate service in the Sacramento community! This week, we learn more about Cake4Kids, an amazing and compassionate group of volunteers who donate all the ingredients and supplies needed to bake birthday cakes for underserved kids who might not otherwise get one.

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Cake4Kids

On this Big Day of Giving, Jordan Segundo is with a local baker where they're helping kids on their birthday by baking birthday cakes! See how Cake4Kids are baking cakes for the kids in need.

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Cake4Kids Bakes Birthday Cakes for At-Risk Kids (Radio Interview)

If the audio above doesn’t work, you can listen to the segment here.

The Afternoon News with Kitty O'Neal
By Kitty O'Neal
July 30, 2019

Cake4Kids celebrates one year in Sacramento delivering smiles to local children

More than 135 birthday cakes have been delivered to at-risk youth since August 2018

For many children, a birthday is a special day filled with fun, family — and birthday cake. But for foster children, refugees and other at-risk youth, their special day is not always so.

Cake4Kids has been partnering with Sacramento-area social service agencies since August 2018 to deliver birthday cakes, cupcakes or other treats to local at-risk youth. For many, it is the first birthday cake they have ever received. The cakes are baked by a dedicated group of volunteer bakers from the Sacramento area, who use their talents to put smiles on childrens’ faces.

Since August 2018, Cake4Kids has:

• Made more than 135 deliveries to Sacramento area youth

• Partnered with 24 local agencies to help ensure these youth have a birthday to remember

• Grown our dedicated corps of volunteer bakers to more than 90

“A birthday cake is a very simple, but very powerful way to let a child know that they are loved and are important,” said Mary Barnes, Sacramento Cake4Kids ambassador. “There is such a need in this area, and I am so grateful for our many, many volunteers who have stepped up over the past year and shown the power that individuals can have on the lives of young people.”

Local agencies submit cake requests through an online portal, providing the age and gender of the child, their flavor preferences as well as their interests (such as superheroes, princesses, soccer or Moana). Bakers sign up to bake high-quality cakes and deliver them directly to the agency.

"I'm so grateful to be a volunteer baker with Cake4Kids," said Katrina Butcher, a Sacramento Cake4Kids volunteer baker. "It's so unique to work with an organization that makes it possible for me to volunteer my time in a creative way and feels good to know that I'm helping someone feel special."

To celebrate the one-year anniversary, Cake4Kids Sacramento is hosting two events: an anniversary party for volunteers on Aug. 3 at Mango’s restaurant in Sacramento, and an open-to-the-public meet-up at Urban Roots Brewery on Sept. 17. Volunteer orientations are held monthly, and cake deliveries are made weekly.

For more information, visit Cake4Kids.org.

Mary Barnes, Volunteer Cake Baker

Barnes helps bring local kids cakes on their birthdays through Cake4Kids, a nonprofit.

Newsreview.com
By Steph Rodriguez
October 4, 2018

For many kids, birthdays are one day out of the year to feel special. Unfortunately, that’s not the reality for all. Today, 58 percent of the nation’s unsheltered homeless youth reside right here in the Golden State, according to a 2017 study by the Department of Housing and Urban Development. But there’s one program that aims to make birthdays memorable for everyone: Cake4Kids. This nonprofit currently operates in 10 California cities, working with 140 different agencies that service foster youth, immigrants, refugees and victims of sex-trafficking with one goal: gifting kids cakes on their birthdays. Sacramento ambassador, Mary Barnes, helped bring Cake4Kids to the area in July and delivered its first cake to a child in August. With 32-and-counting volunteer bakers, the program has delivered nearly two dozen cakes so far. Barnes says a simple cake is just one way to ensure a child’s birthday isn’t just another ordinary day, but one to always remember. SN&R spoke with Barnes about the memories Cake4Kids creates for children, and she even shares some nifty decorating tips for interested volunteers.

How were birthdays growing up for you?

I’m one of seven children, and we lived in North Sac. My mom still lives there, and like any working-class family, things were tight; especially with so many mouths to feed and so many birthdays. Our birthday was really the one day that we got to ourselves, where we didn’t have to do any chores, and we got to pick what we had for dinner. … It was one day out of the year that was just for us, where we got the attention from our family, and it was really special.

How has Cake4Kids made an impact on children’s lives here?

The children that we service come from very difficult backgrounds. When they tackle so much adversity, and they’ve had to go through so much … at least we’re providing a happy moment for them. Personally, it’s important to help those children feel important and included, and baking birthday cakes is the way we do that. We’ve had thank-yous, and stories received from guardians and parents of these children, and how not every year they get a birthday cake.

Where does the baking take place?

The volunteer bakers bake from home and use their supplies, and they deliver the cake within a two-hour window to the [partnering] agency. So you bake from home on your own schedule and pick the deliveries that work for you. The agencies we work with will send happy birthday cake requests to Cake4Kids online, and then our bakers sign up. We do expect some level of being able to decorate a cake. But volunteers volunteer their time, their supplies and skills, all from home.

What’s the most popular cake flavor or theme?

They vary because [of] the children we make them for: all types of boys, girls and all kinds of ages. We actually bake cakes for up to a 20-year-old because you can be in the foster system that long. The most popular theme this past year was superheroes, which beat out Frozen, our most popular theme for the past three years.

Do you have any nifty cake decorating tips?

Every Tuesday, I post a tip for our bakers [on our Facebook page]. Right now, all of our cakes have actually been vegan—all of them requested. So that’s been a challenge right from the beginning for our bakers. I recently posted a tip on how to use flax as a substitute for egg. Another helpful tip for the Sacramento heat: You can substitute butter (up to a half) with shortening to try and keep the buttercream from melting in the summer.

What’s the most amazing cake you’ve seen baked for a child so far?

Oh my gosh, some of them are just outstanding! Fabulous. I mean, you could purchase them. But all skill levels are welcome. Some of them are just amazing. One I just saw recently, the baker had an M&M’s bag floating in the air with M&M’s trailing down onto the cake. Amazing. Our bakers here in Sacramento are doing a fabulous job baking cakes.

What’s one memorable experience you’ve had with Cake4Kids so far?

Yesterday, I met with one of our partnering agencies, Opening Doors. They service immigrants, refugees and victims of human-trafficking. Unfortunately, because of the child’s privacy, we do not deliver to the child. We only deliver to the agency. So I don’t get to see the smiles on the children’s faces. … But I met with two case workers, and they deliver the cakes, and they just expressed over and over again how happy the children are to receive their happy birthday cake and just how special it is. … It’s why we’re doing this. Even though we don’t see the child’s smiles, they do. We give knowing that it will be appreciated. We don’t necessarily need the thanks or the smiles. We know at least we’re doing something to help that child feel special and loved.

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