Wanted: a few good bakers. Must possess a kind, compassionate heart and enjoy making birthdays special for children you’ve never met.
The job: volunteering for Cake4Kids, an organization that provides free, custom cakes and other treats for children who are in foster care, experiencing homelessness, low-income or the victims of violence or trafficking.
“The majority of our bakers are at-home bakers with a variety of different levels—from basic to advanced,” says Mary Campbell, senior operations manager of Cake4Kids nationally and ambassador of the nonprofit’s Northern Virginia chapter.
Here’s how it works: The organization partners with more than 100 social service agencies in the area, including foster care agencies, homeless shelters, food pantries and public schools to provide cakes for any sort of celebration. Children or their parents can place cake requests through those agencies, with notes about their preferred flavors and favorite themes. They can choose a cake, cupcakes or cookies.
Cake4Kids then posts the request in an online portal where more than 700 volunteer bakers can see what’s needed.
“So sometimes you’ll get a cake that looks like a mom made it. Sometimes you could get a cake that looks like it belongs on the cover of a magazine,” says Campbell, who does some of the baking herself, too. “They don’t need a next-level Food Network cake. They’re just happy to have a cake. I am not a professional baker by any stretch of the imagination. I am a mom who made homemade cakes for my children at home, and that’s what I’m doing for these children.”
For privacy reasons, volunteer bakers don’t meet the the recipients of their efforts. They deliver the cakes back to the requesting agency.
“Just imagine not getting a cake for your birthday. How would that make you feel, let alone a child? When I found out about the kids in our community who usually don’t get a cake for their birthdays, it broke my heart,” says Farah Syed, a volunteer and Cake4Kids community coordinator. “I’m so thankful to Cake4Kids that I can use my talents not only to create birthday cakes, but also to create memories for these children and their families.”
The NoVA chapter of Cake4Kids will put another candle on its own birthday cake this summer when it turns five. The Virginia effort began in 2017 when Campbell reached out to the California-based nonprofit about expanding its mission outside of the state, launching a Virginia branch on a trial basis. Two years later, the Virginia chapter became official, and the mission was so popular it expanded along the East Coast. Campbell quickly went from volunteer to paid staff.
This year she expects the NoVA chapter—which covers Arlington, Fairfax, Loudoun and Prince William counties, as well as the cities of Alexandria and Falls Church—to deliver more than 2,000 cakes to children in need. She’s hoping to bring in new volunteers, create partnerships with more agencies and businesses and raise awareness about what the organization does.
Campbell says the baked goods also support parents who may be feeling stressed or upset that they can’t provide for their child. She’s seen the simple gift of a cake make a huge impact.
In one case, a 16-year-old boy who received a surprise birthday cake at school broke down in tears in the school office. “What it told him was that the staff cares about him, and that they’re there to support him,” Campbell says. “They’re not ‘out to get him,’ as a lot of kids think. It means so much more than a cake… It helps to build the trust between a child and their caseworker—or a family and the caseworker—and a youth and the staff at school. So, this really helps to strengthen the bond.”