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Listen: Mary Barnes
Cake4Kids celebrates one year in Sacramento
delivering smiles to local children
More than 135 birthday cakes have been delivered to at-risk youth since August 2018
For many children, a birthday is a special day filled with fun, family — and birthday cake. But for foster children, refugees and other at-risk youth, their special day is not always so.
Cake4Kids has been partnering with Sacramento-area social service agencies since August 2018 to deliver birthday cakes, cupcakes or other treats to local at-risk youth. For many, it is the first birthday cake they have ever received. The cakes are baked by a dedicated group of volunteer bakers from the Sacramento area, who use their talents to put smiles on childrens’ faces.
Since August 2018, Cake4Kids has:
- Made more than 135 deliveries to Sacramento area youth
- Partnered with 24 local agencies to help ensure these youth have a birthday to remember
- Grown our dedicated corps of volunteer bakers to more than 90
“A birthday cake is a very simple, but very powerful way to let a child know that they are loved and are important,” said Mary Barnes, Sacramento Cake4Kids ambassador. “There is such a need in this area, and I am so grateful for our many, many volunteers who have stepped up over the past year and shown the power that individuals can have on the lives of young people.”
Local agencies submit cake requests through an online portal, providing the age and gender of the child, their flavor preferences as well as their interests (such as superheroes, princesses, soccer or Moana). Bakers sign up to bake high-quality cakes and deliver them directly to the agency.
"I'm so grateful to be a volunteer baker with Cake4Kids," said Katrina Butcher, a Sacramento Cake4Kids volunteer baker. "It's so unique to work with an organization that makes it possible for me to volunteer my time in a creative way and feels good to know that I'm helping someone feel special."
To celebrate the one-year anniversary, Cake4Kids Sacramento is hosting two events: an anniversary party for volunteers on Aug. 3 at Mango’s restaurant in Sacramento, and an open-to-the-public meet-up at Urban Roots Brewery on Sept. 17. Volunteer orientations are held monthly, and cake deliveries are made weekly.
For more information, visitCake4Kids.org.
At Cake4Kids, we bake and deliver birthday cakes for underserved children. They 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. We aim to raise their self-esteem and confidence with a seemingly simple gift on their special day. It may just be a cake, but the children we bake for know that a stranger took the time and effort to do something special just for them.
Cake4Kids is powered by an amazing and compassionate group of volunteers who are mostly home-bakers. We have no minimum commitment to volunteer — bakers choose how often and which cakes they want to bake. They bake the cake at home and deliver it to one our partner agencies who 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.
Cake4Kids currently operates in 10 counties in California and in Fairfax County, Virginia, but we are always evaluating new areas to expand into.
Since 2010, we have baked and delivered over 15,000 cakes! Here are just a few of the many special thank you notes we have received: