Delivering birthday cakes to underserved youth with Cake4Kids

DC News Now showcases Cake4Kids Northern Virginia and shares the impact of our service for underserved youth.

Icing on the Cake: Local group helps make children’s birthdays special

By Jaya Patil/For InsideNoVa

April 6, 2023

Christopher was very impressed with his birthday cake.

Many organizations deliver flowers, fruit, packages and personal messages, but one in Northern Virginia delivers love – along with cakes.

Libby Gruender founded Cake4Kids in California 13 years ago to provide homemade cakes to local children on their birthdays. Volunteers expanded the nonprofit across the state, baking and delivering cakes to children who otherwise might not have one.

Cake4Kids partners with schools, agencies and individuals to serve children who are in foster care, low-income homes or experiencing homelessness or other difficulties.

Fair Oaks resident Mary Campbell read about the organization while looking for more to do close to home. “For a lot of these children, it may be the first cake they ever received,” she said.

For Campbell’s kids, volunteering was essential when her husband was an active Navy captain and they were moving frequently. “It's a great way to help them have roots, which is hard when you're a military child.”

She asked Cake4Kids leadership if she could start a chapter in Virginia. After more than a year of logistics and paperwork, Campbell founded Cake4Kids Northern Virginia in April 2019, the first chapter outside of California.

One of the cakes made by volunteer baker Phyllis Maggio, one of the 30 Cake4Kids volunteers in Prince William County.

The chapter now has more than 600 volunteers and has partnered with over 100 local agencies. Cake4Kids Northern Virginia has baked some 3,600 cakes since 2019, with over 200 cakes in January alone. Each of those cakes has affected at least one child.

“[Families] don't have to choose between paying a bill and celebrating their child's birthday. We make that possible for them,” Campbell said.

Volunteers involve their families, too. Campbell’s husband, Bill, and their adult sons, Tyler and Nolan, complete deliveries sometimes.

Volunteer Farah Syed joined Cake4Kids at the start of 2020 after moving from New York to Ashburn. She was looking for ways to get involved in her new community when she saw Cake4Kids on Facebook.

She dove into baking when she left her teaching career. “Once I had my daughter, I had to put a lot of things aside, but baking was always there,” she said. “That helped me when I was not teaching.”

When her son was born, she was too busy to bake, but Cake4Kids brought it back to her.

For some volunteers, baking is their forte. Bristow resident Phyllis Maggio bakes for local school shows and events and crochets for charities when she’s not volunteering for Cake4Kids. For others, it’s one way to help.

But volunteers do not need to be expert bakers or commit to a certain number of hours, although Cake4Kids will reimburse bakers up to $100 a year for classes.

“We put a lot of pressure on ourselves because we want to deliver the most amazing thing … but [the kids are] happy … if their name is on it, it’s all theirs, and they picked it,” Campbell said.

“It seems like a very simple thing,” she added: a cake for a kid. But Cake4Kids’ impact extends from volunteers to their families, from kids to their case workers, and more.

“It’s not only me, it’s the whole community getting together and making this one child’s day,” Syed said.

Maggio noted that at a minimum just a box of mix and some icing will remind a child that they matter. “It costs you nothing to be kind, but it might be worth everything to the person you help.”

Syed said that by providing the cakes, the organization builds children’s self-confidence and sense of belonging in a community.

“The main goal is to make sure that all children are feeling loved and special,” she said. ““No matter what you’re going through, someone is caring about you.”

7News Helping Hands, Easterns Automotive Group surprise Cake4Kids with $2,200!

By WJLA

March 27, 2023

Thousands of children around the DMV experience their birthdays without a birthday cake. In fact, some say they have never received one. That's why one Fairfax county nonprofit called Cake4Kids is working to change that.

It's something you might not think of, but unfortunately it happens all the time.

"It never occurred to me that children go without a birthday cake and that broke my heart," said Mary Campbell, owner of nonprofit Cake4Kids. "It's homeless children, it's children in domestic violence shelters, it's foster children, it's children in immigration services, and it's children with free and reduced lunch. We do a lot of Title I schools."

That's why Campbell is making a difference in her Fairfax County kitchen through her nonprofit.

"I thought, 'How would I feel if it was my child's birthday and I wasn't able to provide something?' So I wanted to be able to bring something here," Campbell said.

She does that with the help of 650 local volunteer bakers – many who say they aren't really bakers at all.

Patt Rossini, a volunteer said she had the chance to bake for a kid who has never had a cake before.

"It was a last-minute request for a Fort Nite cake, and later I got a 'thank you' picture with the child and that killed me," Rossini said.

7News and Easterns Automotive Group were inspired by Cake4Kids' mission and decided to surprise the nonprofit with a 7News Helping Hand.

"Cake4Kids is an amazing organization. You guys do something that many people take for granted by supporting those kids who might not have a cake for their birthday," said Joel Bassam from Easterns Automotive Group. "Using that secret ingredient of baking extra love into it and then delivering it to their home is an amazing way to support the community. We want to help you guys continue to do that by donating $2,200 so you can continue baking all of those cakes across the DMV."

Campbell was extremely grateful for the surprise donation. She says everything (and everyone) helps their goal of giving kids cakes on their birthdays a success.

"I say it all of the time, I am a small part of it," Campbell said. "It's all of us and everybody cares and that's the beauty of it."

Sweet Memories

Posh Seven
By Betsy Trainor
Tuesday, November 17, 2020

In this busy modern world of social media and constant snap moments, we sometimes forget how profound small gestures such as a birthday cake can make in a child’s life. When I was young, my best friend lived in an old home with a single mom. They struggled every day to make ends meet. On her 10th birthday, her mom had a Big Bird cake made at a local bakery. All these years later, I can still see the bright yellow frosting feathers and his candy stick legs with a shiny orange beak. I’m sure it was a huge sacrifice for her mom to buy that cake. A volunteer organization called Cake4Kids.org recognized the importance of making milestones like this important for all children. They bake and deliver birthday cakes for underserved kids. The children 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. The organization’s goal is to raise a child’s self-esteem and confidence with a cake on their special day. A local woman named Mary Campbell took it upon herself to bring Cake4Kids.org to Northern Virginia.

BT: Mary, how did you first hear about Cake4Kids.org?

MC: One night I read articles online about constructive things to do with your time once your children have left the nest. I have two wonderful sons, one in college and one in high school, so I knew I wanted to begin planning how I could dedicate some of my time doing something that would make a difference in a child’s life. I saw an online post about a woman making birthday cakes for foster kids, and she mentioned Cake4Kids.org. After some research, I decided that I wanted to get involved. Unfortunately, I discovered that the organization was only active in California. So, I reached out to them and pitched the idea of coming to Northern Virginia soon after I became an Ambassador for Cake4Kids.org!

What makes this simple gift so very special?

MC: I can still vividly recall some of the cakes that my mom lovingly made for me when I was a child. I remember my wonder and excitement when I saw every one of them. When my sons were young, I did the same thing for them, and their faces would light up when I would present them with the cakes. It’s a small moment in life, but it can be almost magical for children. When I learned that so many kids don’t receive cakes on their birthdays, I was really upset and wanted to do something for those children. I felt that they should have the same special feeling on their birthdays that I had on mine, and my sons had on theirs.

How many active volunteer bakers do you have supporting you now?

MC: We currently have about 100 volunteer bakers. The volunteers bake and decorate the cakes, and then the cake is transferred to the sponsoring organization supporting or assisting the child. That organization then makes sure the cake reaches the child for a special event or occasion. It softens some of life’s challenging moments by bringing a thoughtful, personalized gift to a deserving child.

What communities do you serve in the Northern Virginia area?

In this busy modern world of social media and constant snap moments, we sometimes forget how profound small gestures such as a birthday cake can make in a child’s life. When I was young, my best friend lived in an old home with a single mom. They struggled every day to make ends meet. On her 10th birthday, her mom had a Big Bird cake made at a local bakery. All these years later, I can still see the bright yellow frosting feathers and his candy stick legs with a shiny orange beak. I’m sure it was a huge sacrifice for her mom to buy that cake. A volunteer organization called Cake4Kids.org recognized the importance of making milestones like this important for all children. They bake and deliver birthday cakes for underserved kids. The children 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. The organization’s goal is to raise a child’s self-esteem and confidence with a cake on their special day. A local woman named Mary Campbell took it upon herself to bring Cake4Kids.org to Northern Virginia.

Can you share a special cake delivery moment that stands out?

MC: An agency informed us that a mom desperately wanted a Fortnite themed cake for her son. Her choices were to either pay her phone bill or get him a special birthday cake. The agency counselor contacted me, and we got to work on it right away. Usually, we need a two-week window to find a volunteer and guarantee cake delivery, but we have emergency bakers who step in with last-minute requests. One of our emergency bakers took this order on and delivered a beautiful cake. It may sound small, but the memory was significant. It was lasting. I am confident of that.

Featuring:
Mary Campbell, Ambassador of the Northern Virginia Chapter of Cake4Kids.org

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Food, Fun, Information at WFCM Client Fair

The Connection Newspapers
By Bonnie Hobbs
October 17, 2019

As part of Hunger Action Month, Western Fairfax Christian Ministries (WFCM) held a Client Fair on Saturday, Sept. 28. More than 30 of the families it serves attended and were greeted with a variety of food and information.

Partners participating in the fair included: Girls on the Run NOVA, Cake4Kids, Department of Family Services, La Cocina VA and United HealthCare.

The event included garden talks showing attendees how to make a healthy bean salad and how to make pickles. Afterward, the attendees enjoyed samples.

Gifts for clients included: Breakfast bags for children from NOVEC HELPS; energy-efficiency kits from Dominion Energy; gift cards from Chick-fil-A in Sully Plaza; pumpkin bread from La Cocina VA; cupcakes from CAKE4KIDS; personal-care kits for men, women, children and babies from a local church; and shirts from Girls on the Run NOVA.

Emma Chernisky, a Girl Scout who’s creating a recipe book for WFCM clients as part of her Gold Award project, was on hand providing food samples. “I really enjoyed participating in this event,” she said. “It was especially great to see people coming back for seconds and taking recipe cards to make the dishes at home.”

“CAKE4KIDS Is very excited to be in Fairfax County bringing cakes to deserving children,” said Mary Campbell, Cake4Kids Fairfax County ambassador. “Our chapter opened May 22, and we’ve delivered more than 50 cakes. We’re looking forward to baking many more.”

Also pleased to participate was La Cocina VA. According to its programs coordinator, Paloma Martinez, “We’re a nonprofit that uses the power of food to create socioeconomic development in marginalized communities.”

WFCM Executive Director Harmonie Taddeo was happy, as well, with the success of this event.

“It was wonderful to offer this Client Fair in partnership with several local businesses and nonprofits as part of Hunger Action Month,” she said. “Food Pantry Director Pamela Montesinos carried out her vision for this event with cooking demonstrations, great cost-saving information about energy, medical and food programs, and special treats for the families that attended. We look forward to building on this event in the future to continue to provide services to our clients that will help their families with finances and food security.”

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