Wednesday, May 5, 2010

Great American Bake Sale: Coming Soon to Longmont

If you live in the Longmont area, please stop buy during the Neighborhood Bake Sale on May 8 at Cayenne Kitchen and pick up some tasty treats. There will be plenty of small items priced at just a dollar or two, so you won't feel like you have to walk out with a whole cake or pie. But if you need to feed a crowd, you can do that too. 

If you don't live nearby, you can get involved with a bake sale in your area, or by donate directly on the Share Our Strength website.

Every cent collected at the bake sale at Cayenne goes directly to Share Our Strength, so your $1 purchase means a lot. All of the bakers are donating their time and ingredients, and we're all hoping that our baked goods sell out before the end of the day. And yes, I will be baking my famous Danish Braids for the auction. I haven't decided on filling flavors yet, but they're all good.

As an added incentive to stop by, there will be yummy fortune cookies (I know they're yummy, because I'll be hand-making each and every one) for sale that are stuffed with secret numbers that correspond to a multitude of donated prizes including cookbooks, gadgets, massages, gift certificates from local businesses, and more.

Besides the time and talent of local home cooks, the business community is supporting this event with baked goods and other prizes for the fortune cookies. As of this moment, the following local businesses are on the list of donors of baked goods and/or other great gifts: Abbondanza Pizzeria, Dairy Queen, Dicken's Tavern, Loaf n' Ladle, Lucille's, Niwot Tavern, Robin Chocolates, Slice-The Designer Cake Studio, Sun Rose Cafe, Winchell's, Madifine Mercantile, Debbie Adams Photography, Murphy Wellness Center, Find Your Balance, Mary Kay Consultant Leah Kennedy and Cayenne Kitchen.

The following first appeared in the May, 2010 edition of the Left Hand Valley Courier as part of my "Vicinity and Beyond" series.

Neighborhood Bake Sale

You’ve probably seen ads in national publications and on TV for the Great American Bake sale, but until recently there was no local way to participate. The bake sale is part of Share Our Strength’s campaign to wipe out childhood hunger in America.

On its website, Share Our Strength describes itself this way: “We weave together a net of community groups, activists and food programs to catch children at risk of hunger, and ensure they have nutritious food where they live, learn and play.”

The Great American Bake Sale has been a national program since 2003 where people host bake sales in their own communities. Proceeds go to Share Our Strength, and since its inception, more than 1.3 million people have participated, raising $6 million. Cayenne Kitchen in Longmont. Local amateur bakers have signed up to bake everything from cookies to cupcakes to pastries and more.

This year, there is a local bake sale being held on May 8 (the Saturday before Mother’s Day) from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. at Cayenne Kitchen in Longmont.

Along with the amateur bakers, many professionals have also signed on, including many names you know. As of press time, there were about a dozen businesses who had already promised baked goods, with more coming on board each day.

Non-baking volunteers are also helping the cause. Terry Nichols from Cayenne Kitchen said that Lisa Trank from One Purpose PR and Communications volunteered her time to help promote the event.

Many of the smaller items will be sold individually or in small packages for just a dollar or two. Larger items, like whole cakes or pies, will be auctioned off at a live auction from 1-2 p.m by auctioneer Shawn Miller from Pacific Auction.

“It’s a great cause, and it’s something I thought people would enjoy getting involved with – and they have,” Nichols said. “I’d do anything to help fight childhood hunger. I would like it to become an annual event.”

If you like to bake, it’s not too late to sign up to bake a donation. And if you don’t bake, this is a great opportunity to buy some fabulous baked goods for yourself, for your Mother’s Day dessert, or as a little gift to mom.

Cayenne Kitchen is located at 372 Main St. in Longmont. For information, call 720-652-7246. For information on Share Our Strength, see www.strength.org.
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