Cake4Kids Baker Melissa Brown was recently featured in Fairfax, VA’s June 2021 issue of the "Cityscene” newsletter as a “City Samaritan” — recognizing residents who lift up their community — for her volunteer work with Cake4Kids!
Check out the feature on pages 3-5 of the newsletter here or download the PDF here!
KSL.com
By Megan Christensen
Wednesday, May 18, 2021 8:09 pm
OGDEN — Volunteers in northern Utah are helping underserved children and youth celebrate their birthdays by baking them their very own, custom-made desserts for their special day.
Cake4Kids, a nonprofit organization, opened a Northern Utah chapter on April 8. According to its ambassador, Becky Carroll, the children who qualify for these cakes are in foster care, domestic violence shelters, homeless shelters and low-income after-school programs.
Carroll contacts agencies that work with these children, and the caseworkers from the agencies will then reach out to the kids to find out what birthday treat they would like. One little boy requested granola bars. Another little girl wanted strawberry flamingo cupcakes.
"I think that, as adults, we often don't enjoy celebrating our birthday as much. We forget that it's a really important thing for kids, and especially kids who are in difficult situations," Carroll said…
The Daily Camera
By April Morganroth
Monday, May 17, 2021 8:25 pm (Updated May 18, 2021 11:27 am)
Amy Klein, Cakes4Kids ambassador for Northern Colorado, sits for a portrait in her kitchen at her home in Niwot on Monday. The organization makes and donates birthday cakes to foster kids. (Matthew Jonas/Staff Photographer)
Boulder-based Cake4Kids is expanding and looking for bakers to help create birthday and graduation cakes for youth in domestic violence and homeless shelters as well as foster kids.
Ambassador of Northern Colorado Cake4Kids Amy Klein said the Boulder chapter of Cake4Kids is expanding and in need of help in addition to donations.
“Some of our bakers bake once a month and some have already baked 25 or more cakes, but we just really need more volunteers willing to bake for these kids,” Klein said.
She added, “It could just be that special spark in any kiddo’s life, whose life probably hasn’t been overly fair to them up to this point — we can provide some magic for one day.”
Klein was introduced last summer by a friend to the national nonprofit and by the fall she had the first Colorado chapter up and running.
“We made our first delivery in November and since then have delivered over 250 cakes and treats to underserved kids in the greater Boulder area,” Klein said.
Cake4Kids started more than 10 years ago in California by Libby Gruender who in 2010 had read a news story about a recently placed foster girl who had never received a birthday cake until her foster mother made her one. Since that day, Gruender partnered with volunteers and agencies across the U.S. to bake cakes for underserved children.
Now, spanning across 11 states, the nonprofit has delivered more than 25,000 free birthday and graduation cakes.
Klein, a mother of three, said she volunteered to open the first Colorado chapter because “birthday cakes are magical for children and it motivated me as a mom to bring that same smile I see on my children’s faces to the faces of other kids who otherwise may not have gotten a birthday cake.”
“We believe the simple gesture of a birthday cake has the ability to make the child feel valued and raises self-esteem,” she said.
Some of the agencies Northern Colorado Cake4Kids serve include: A Precious Child; Access Opportunity; Sister Carmen Community Center; TGHTR (formerly Attention Homes); as well as several domestic violence shelters and homeless shelters.
“Right now we are working on expanding our chapter into Fort Collins and beyond and also looking for bakers who want to help us serve our community,” Klein said. “The cakes are completely customized to the child and it’s so fun to see what they come up with.”
She said the top cake design requests include unicorns and Denver sports teams.
Despite kick starting during the coronavirus pandemic, Klein said the support from the community has been “truly amazing and we’re thrilled because people have stepped up in incredible ways.”
Auguste Escoffier School Of Culinary Arts in Boulder scheduled webinars “for our bakers to teach them how to bake better and provided decoration tips — like for example the frosted lettering on the cakes.”
In December, Niwot-based DRF Team real estate partnered up with Klein to host a gingerbread house contest and donated the proceeds to the nonprofit so it could provide treats during the holidays to foster youth.
She said, “We are still fairly new and looking into a number of different ways to expand and fundraise but will be partnering with DRF Reality again this Christmas season.”
Klein said she wants residents who are thinking about about volunteering “to know that you don’t have to be a pastry chef or professional baker to be one of our volunteers — you just have to have basic baking skills and have the heart to serve these kids.”
“The hardest part is not seeing the joy in these kids faces because we don’t get to delivery the cakes to them personally due to privacy laws but knowing that a child is smiling because of a cake we made is by far rewarding in itself,” Klein said.
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Meghann Shaffer, a Chef Instructor with the Escoffier School of Culinary Arts, and owner of Blackbird Baking Company in Fort Collins, CO, recently shared great baking tips for piping borders and flowers and creating beautiful lettering with the Cake4Kids bakers in Northern Colorado.
Her recent blog post covers some great tips and mentions Cake4Kids!
Check it out on her page here: https://tinkerandbake.com/2021/05/16/bags-tips-and-couplers-oh-my/
ABC4 Salt Lake City
By Michelle Nguyen, Nicea DeGering
Wednesday, May 12, 2021 10:44 am
Becky Carroll, Northern Utah Ambassador for Cake4Kids came by to talk about their amazing program.
Volunteer Bakers bake and deliver cakes to underserved children and youth. These children and youth are often in homeless shelters, domestic violence shelters, foster care, low-income families, and other difficult situations. Cake4Kids started in 2010 in California when a woman named Libby Gruender read an article about a foster girl becoming emotional upon receiving her first birthday cake. Cake4Kids has spread to 11 States now, with the Northern Utah Chapter being the first in Utah
Becky’s Grandparents did Foster Care for over 30 years, and their service left an impression on her. She wanted a way to use her set of skills and interests to help out as well. Becky discovered Cake4Kids in December of 2020, just a few days before her birthday. She reached out to the organization asking if opening a Utah Chapter was something we could do. Four months later they opened, and their chapter is now partnered with 8 agencies and they are delivering smiles to children and youth one birthday cake at a time.
Cake4Kids also recognizes that other special times in a child’s life sometimes go uncelebrated. So, their volunteers also bake treats for graduations, adoptions, and seasonal celebrations
They are always looking to partner with more agencies that serve children and youth. Teens 16-17 can volunteer with an adult, 18 and older can volunteer on their own.
Visit www.cake4kids.org to sign up as a volunteer, or to learn how to open up a chapter in your area.
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ABC4 Salt Lake City
By Reem Ikram
Friday, April 30, 2021 2:33 pm (Updated April 30, 2021 02:46 PM)
LOGAN, Utah (ABC4) – Growing up in an internet-savvy world with many seemingly pitted against each other on social media can already be hard enough on America’s youth. But for underprivileged children today, those challenges are even more amplified.
A local non-profit located in Northern Utah, Cake4Kids, is determined to change that.
Cake4Kids is an organization that bakes and delivers birthday cakes for underserved children. According to the team, this demographic includes children who may be in group homes, at a domestic violence or human trafficking shelter, in low-income housing, with or without a parent, or even homeless.
“A personalized cake is something that, as adults, we forget how much it means to a child,” shares Becky Carroll, Cake4Kids Northern Utah ambassador. “Many people want to help children in need. Cake4Kids allows people to use their skills and resources to make children feel special and create a positive birthday memory…”
Fox13 Salt Lake City
By Sydney Glenn
Thursday, April 29, 2021 10:06 pm
LOGAN, Utah — The non-profit Cake4Kids is trying to make sure underserved children in Utah feel special on their birthday and are able to have something just for them: any birthday treat they want.
Each year thousands of kids spend time in Utah’s foster care system. Others spend time in domestic violence shelters or homeless shelters.
Last year, Becky Carroll was scrolling through Instagram and came across the Cake4Kids page.
“When I saw these cakes were going to foster children I just knew I had to be part of it,” she said.
Her plan was to volunteer. She loves to bake and since her grandparents were foster parents she has a special place in her heart foster children.
“I went to sign up as a volunteer, but they did not have any chapters in Utah,” she said.
In Dec. Carroll started the Northern Utah chapter of the non-profit. After months of working to partner with agencies, the chapter has been able to help two Utah children celebrate birthdays. One child requested a blue cake, the other brownies.
“In foster care sometimes, these kids are taken out of a home with a garbage bag that has their stuff in it, so to get something that was made just for them means a lot to them,” she said.
In college student Cooper Parry’s apartment, he has spent several days and hours perfecting the perfect birthday treat.
“I am doing my very best, but yes, I am not a professional what so ever,” he said.
He credits his family and him time working at a boys home for his passion to help others. With some help from his girlfriend and Pinterest, Parry decided to make brownies that look like ice cream cones for a child in need.
“I know nothing about them, just that it is some kid that needs a little something for their birthday and that’s all that I know,” he said and he finished decorating the birthday treats.
For more information on how to volunteer, or start another Utah chapter, click here.
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The Somerville Times
By Denise Keniston
Wednesday, April 28, 2021
Cake4Kids is a nonprofit that provides custom birthday and celebration cakes to underserved children. They have delivered thousands of cakes to kids all over the country and Boston is ready to get in on the sweetness!
Professional pastry chef Tali Pinnolis is the ambassador for the new Boston area chapter. She says a lot of families struggle to celebrate birthdays. “Imagine growing up…
Loudoun Now
By Jan Mercker
Thursday, April 1, 2021
When times are tough, sometimes it’s the little things that mean the most.A home-cooked meal or a custom birthday cake can bring joy. Two recently launched Loudoun organizations are filling bellies and creating community—one meal and one cake at a time.
Cake Love from Cake4Kids
Baking enthusiast Dottie Swanson launched the Loudoun chapter of Cake4Kids last August. Cake4Kids also is a national nonprofit launched in 2010 to provide special occasion cakes and treats for children in need, including kids in shelters and foster care. The concept is to connect volunteer bakers with children to bring sweetness and joy to special occasions in the face of big problems like homelessness and job loss…
Peninsula Daily News
By Diane Urbani de la Paz
Sunday, March 28, 2021 1:30am
PORT TOWNSEND — Last Sunday, Joan Coyne created a birthday cake — a tall, multicolored, exquisitely frosted layer cake — for a child she’s never met.
She kept this youngster’s age, gender, location and requested theme confidential. And Coyne, a teacher, would use her lunch hour one day last week to deliver the cake to the honoree.
“This gave me a chance to bake, which I love to do,” but wouldn’t do just for her small household, she said before wielding her piping bag…
Monterey County Weekly - Daily Newsletter
By Celia Jiménez
Monday, February 22, 2021
Birthday cakes can create indelible memories.
Good afternoon.
Celia Jiménez here, remembering the look on my niece Vivian’s overjoyed face when she blew out the candles on her birthday cake at her 2nd birthday party. She loved it so much, the first song she sang was Happy Birthday (when her vocabulary wasn’t more than a few words). She also had the cutest ending: a ffffff (the sound of blowing out candles). Vivian’s parents could afford to buy her a birthday cake, but there are many other parents who can’t.
Cake4Kids Monterey is here to change that—making sure kids in the county have a cake to celebrate their birthday. Professional and home bakers volunteer to prepare personalized cakes, cupcakes and other treats for families who can’t afford them…
Monterey County Weekly
By Celia Jiménez Feb 13, 2021
Saturday, February 13, 2021
One of the main stars at a child’s birthday party – besides the birthday kid, of course – is the cake. Seeing a child smile and the spark of joy in their eyes while they are thinking about a wish and blowing out the candles is a memory-making event.
Now a local nonprofit organization is working to make sure every kid in Monterey County has a cake on their special day, regardless of the family’s ability to pay.
Cake4Kids Monterey has been active in the county for less than six months, but the organization has been active across the country since 2010. They make custom cakes and treats for kids whose families can’t afford them. The children are from low-income families and may not have parents in their home. The family may be homeless or the child might be in foster care…
KMPH Fox 26
By Stephen Hawkins
Wednesday, February 10, 2021
FRESNO, Calif. (FOX26) — In honor of Random Acts of Kindness Week, February 15-19, donations to Cake4Kids Fresno through February 12 will be paid forward with baked treats for those working on the front lines.
Cake4Kids will be delivering cookies to Clovis Community Medical Center, Community Regional Medical Center, Clovis PD, Fresno PD, local fire stations, and others.
$20 donation for 1 dozen cookies
$30 donation for 2 dozen cookies
Cake4Kids also has Cookie Care Package sponsorships available for businesses.
Click here to learn more about Cake4Kids.
Watch the video here.
WTNH News 8
By Alyssa Taglia
Wednesday, January 20, 2021 06:47 am Eastern (Updated: January 20, 11:30 am Eastern)
Think back to your birthday as a kid. You’re surrounded by family, friends, presents, and of course, birthday cake.
Now, imagine not being able to blow out your candles and make that special birthday wish. Unfortunately, that’s the reality for many children.
That’s why one Wethersfield woman has made it her mission to make sure kids in need get an extra special birthday cake.
NBC Connecticut
By Angela Fortuna
Thursday, January 14, 2021 / Updated January 14
What started as a gesture to provide birthday cakes to some foster children and at-risk youth has turned into something the creator could never have imagined.
It all started in Sunnyvale, California when Libby Gruender read an article about a young girl in foster care who received her first-ever birthday cake. After hearing about this, Libby made it her goal to make sure the children in her community had cakes to celebrate their birthdays.
What Libby started in 2010 as an effort with very few volunteers baking 13 cakes for a few agencies turned into a huge operation that now has hundreds of volunteers…
Hartford Courant
By Susan Dunne
Monday, January 11, 2021 7:57 am
When Jaclyn Dougan, a family advocate with Middlesex Health in Middletown, met with one of her regular families last year, the kids were excited that a birthday was coming up. But the mom was stressed, because she couldn’t afford a birthday cake.
“In a program I work in, we can’t bake or give anything like that. So I started to look at other resources available for this, which is something a lot of our families face,” Dougan said.
Dougan discovered Cake4Kids, a California-based nonprofit whose volunteers bake and decorate birthday cakes for kids in foster care, group homes, homeless shelters, domestic violence shelters and other refuges from unstable living situations…
NAFI CT
Monday, December 21, 2020
The young women in NAFI Connecticut’s residential programs at the Touchstone Campus in Litchfield are writing a recipe for finding new sweetness in life by brightening the lives of other youth facing challenges.
As part of NAFI CT’s partnership with the new Connecticut chapter of the national nonprofit Cake4Kids, the young women at Touchstone hope to transition from being recipients of Cake4Kids sweet deliveries to joining the corps of volunteer bakers who make cakes, cupcakes, and more for youth in foster care, group homes and other settings.
Touchstone, where services address the unique needs of adolescent females…
TheatreWorks Silicon Valley
Friday, December 18, 2020
LEARN MORE → theatreworks.org/simplegifts 🕯 Throughout the run of SIMPLE GIFTS, join us as we highlight organizations in our community that provide simple gifts all year long with their incredible work. In this episode, TheatreWorks' Director of Community Partnerships Jeffrey Lo speaks to Cake 4 Kids Executive Director Julie Eades!
If the video above doesn’t work, you can watch the segment here.
NBC Connecticut
Sunday, December 13, 2020, 6:37 pm
Watch Cake4Kids Connecticut Ambassador, Jaclyn Dougan, talk to NBC Connecticut about the newest Cake4Kids chapter in Connecticut!
If the video above doesn’t work, you can watch the segment here.
P.O. Box 2863, Sunnyvale, CA 94087 | (408) 752-2538 | info@cake4kids.org | Tax ID 45-3148916