Spreading Joy Through Baking
The Kentucky Standard
By Kacie Goode
February 11, 2020 1:28 pm / Updated: February 11 4:10 pm)
Candice Humphrey believes every child deserves to feel special at least one day a year, regardless of financial or home circumstances. This is part of the reason she launched a local chapter — Kentucky’s first — of Cake4Kids, a program bringing together volunteer bakers to provide birthday cakes for at-risk children.
“I was actually looking for a charity for my attorneys to volunteer with when they were in California for a conference,” said Humphrey, a marketing and communications coordinator for McCoy, Hiestand & Smith, PLC. That is when she came across Cake4Kids and was immediately inspired by the opportunity. “I thought, ‘Wow, this is such an easy way for people to do great things for others.’”
The Cake4Kids project started in California in 2010 and has since formed chapters in California, Virginia and now Kentucky, with Humphrey adopting the role of Kentucky Cake4Kids Ambassador. Its mission is to bake and deliver personalized cakes to underserved kids in communities.
“There are a lot of kids in Kentucky and around the world that don’t get a day to make them feel special,” Humphrey said. “Birthdays were always big for me, so I just wanted that for everybody else.”
With no chapters available in the area, Humphrey decided to introduce one, and led the first local Cake4Kids orientation Jan. 25. There were 13 interested volunteers in attendance that day, an impressive number considering the orientations in California, where the program originates, averages about 15 participants, Humphrey said. The program has received enough local attention already that she has a second orientation planned for the end of the month.
To participate in Cake4Kids, a volunteer baker must first go through orientation to learn more about the process. Then, the baker can sign up to fulfill cake orders. The bakers can choose how often they want to bake and which orders they want to fulfill, so the program works well with a variety of schedules and abilities.
While the cakes are expected to meet certain criteria and standards, Humphrey said, the majority of those who work with the program are home bakers, not professionals.
“Anybody can help,” Humphrey said, adding it requires little money and time to create something that will have a big impact on a local child.
Mary Beth Newton, a Nelson County teacher, was among those who attended the first orientation and was honored to fulfill the very first cake order for the chapter last week.
“It wasn’t hard at all, and I have a decently busy schedule, but there are ways you can plan around it,” Newton said of volunteering for the program. “It really wasn’t hard and it makes you feel good.”
She made a playful feminine cake for a teenage girl who has been battling serious health issues since birth. Newton said she spent hours practicing her icing rosettes to make the “girly, pink and purple” cake request perfect.
The teen’s family posted on social media after the delivery how thrilled they were with the outcome and how the program helped mark a cherished celebration.
For Newton, the opportunity was a rewarding one, and she was inspired to get involved in the program because she has witnessed firsthand the struggles some families and children deal with.
“I feel like the kids that are going to be impacted by this program are similar to the kids I work with at school,” Newton said. “I see a lot of things taken for granted that some people just don’t have — something as simple as a birthday cake.”
Typically, the program partners with agencies that serve at-risk children, such as group homes, domestic violence and homeless shelters, and low-income housing areas. Currently, the local Cake4Kids chapter is collaborating with the Family Resource Center serving the Nelson County Early Learning Center and Boston School to identify children who could benefit from the program. Humphrey has reached out to other centers across both local school districts and will look at involving more agencies as the program evolves.
For Katrina Haydon, the FRYSC coordinator for Boston and the ELC, the project is a heartwarming idea.
“Some of the families that we work with, they don’t have that opportunity to give that extra little bit of special to the kids,” Haydon said, and by participating in Cake4Kids, her center can help make a child’s birthday or other celebration a little more special while taking the burden off of struggling families.
The next orientation for Cake4Kids will be 6 p.m. Wednesday, Feb. 26, at the main branch of the Nelson County Public Library. Those interested in being a volunteer baker for Cake4Kids can sign up at cake4kids.org under the Volunteer Page.
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