Birthday cake delivery nonprofit hits major milestone

By John Franchi

March 6, 2023

SALT LAKE CITY — A local nonprofit organization is celebrating a milestone.

Cake4Kids of Northern Utah recently delivered its 1,000th cake to a child in need.

Becky Carroll began the northern Utah chapter in 2021 as a way to honor the memory of her grandparents who dedicated their lives to helping foster children. They passed away during the COVID-19 pandemic.

“I just wanted a way to honor their service,” Carroll said.

Cake4Kids delivers homemade birthday cakes to children who likely would not receive a cake on their special day without these donations.

The creations are intricate and no request from a child is impossible.

Cakes with different themes like bowling, Disney, and Lego are just a few examples of the delicious treats that helped children smile on their special day.

The effort requires a small army of volunteer bakers.

What began with about a dozen volunteers two years ago has grown to 250.

“We have a lot of moms like Alyssa and I that can't do a lot of things outside of the house, but I can bake a cake and deliver it to someone and still fit in time for my family,” Carroll said.

She was referring to Allysa Johanson who baked a candy-filled cake for a teenager.

Johanson has baked and donated about a dozen cakes since joining Cake4Kids.

“It warms your heart,” Johanson said. “There is nothing quite like knowing that somebody else is going to hopefully have that wow moment when they get their own cake.”

The cake baked by Johanson was delivered to the Children’s Service Society, a Utah organization with several missions including providing services to children in need of permanent families and assisting families caring for a relative’s child.

“I think about the girl that cake is going to and it almost brings me to tears because I know what it will mean to her,” said Alyssa Craven, the grand families director at Children’s Service Society.

Cake4Kids partners with several organizations like CSS to identify children in need of a birthday cake.

“We thought it would be perfect to get cakes into homes where children are usually experiencing trauma and working on healing,” Craven said. “The caregivers – the last thing on their mind is putting together a dessert.”

While volunteer bakers never get to meet the children who receive their delicious works of art, they know the time they spend in the kitchen is making a difference and that’s why they are ready to bake their next 1,000 cakes and beyond.

“I can't go in and stop bad things from happening, but you can spread joy,” Carroll said. “It’s really important to do little things that make people happy and that just brightens the world.”

Cake4Kids serves children in Cache, Box Elder, Weber, Davis, Tooele and Salt Lake counties.

Utah volunteers bake custom birthday desserts for underserved children

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.

"Their birthdays can be forgotten or just totally ignored, and so to honor them with something that they specifically chose — and we always put their name on the cake — I think it just helps to help them have a special day and a happy memory around birthdays, rather than just being in a shelter and having it be forgotten."

Carroll pointed out that some of these kids are taken out of their homes and don't take their possessions with them, so to have a birthday cake made especially for them helps them have a good day.

Elise Dearing decorates birthday cupcakes for an underserved child as part of a new nonprofit organization, Cake4Kids. (Photo: Elise Dearing)

For privacy reasons, the volunteers are only told the first name and the age of the child they are baking for. They then drop the treat off at the agencies, Carroll said.

The volunteers do not need to be professional bakers, though they should have acceptable decorating abilities.

Volunteer Myranda Hackley found a love for cake decorating a few years ago while working at the Walmart bakery. She quit that job to go to school but participates in Cake4Kids to keep up her creativity and to help these children have a great birthday and get a deserved treat.

Hackley said when she dropped off her first two cakes, the caseworkers were giddy with excitement.

"I'm excited to keep baking, and I'm really happy to take on more of these cakes for the future," Hackley said.

These cupcakes were baked by a Cake4Kids volunteer for an underserved child on their birthday. The new-to-Utah nonprofit organization provides custom-made desserts for underserved children on their birthdays. (Photo: Jill Scharrenberg)

Katy Bonds, executive director of the Box Elder Family Support Center, said the mother of the girl who requested pink flamingo cupcakes was thrilled to receive that service and that the cupcakes were a hit.

"The parents are so grateful," Bonds said. "And it's such a surprise, a pleasant surprise, to get a free birthday cake. Because cakes are expensive, and a lot of our families that we are talking to don't have a lot of money for a cake, so this is like a huge burden to take off their shoulders. So it's a blessing to them."

Those who are interested in volunteering for Cake4Kids can visit cakes4kids.org and go through an hourlong online orientation. Donations are also accepted by visiting the website.

Agencies that would like to work with Cake4Kids to get cakes to children in their community can email Carroll at becky@cake4kids.org. The Northern Utah chapter covers from Ogden to Logan.

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Find out how these volunteers make a difference by baking cakes

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.

Find Cake4Kids on FB, and IG. 

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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Birthday cakes for all: Utah non-profit strives to serve underprivileged children

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.”

The non-profit is made up of volunteers who are mostly home-bakers. According to the team, there is no minimum commitment, and those who participate can choose how often they bake and which cakes they want to create on top of that.

After volunteers finish their piece, they then deliver it to one of the Cake4Kids partner agencies that support the youth.

“Our volunteers never meet the children we support, but every cake is custom-made for each child and an enormous amount of love is baked into each one,” shares Cake4Kids.

Since 2010, the organization has baked and delivered over 24,000 cakes nationwide.

If you are interested on volunteering, starting another Utah Chapter, or would like more information, click here.

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Northern Utah non-profit provides birthday treats for underserved kids

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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