Baking for the Homeless During COVID-19
The story behind Bake4Sake, an organization dedicated to crafting sweet treats for the Bay Area’s homeless population
“But Mom I don’t want to eat Indian Food again. I just want to got to Sweet Tomatoes,” my 10 year old self told my mom. I can confidently say that I was the pickiest 10 year old there was: always complaining about the food my mom served me. I was just like most teenagers living in the Bay Area: living in a nice house without any worry about where my next meal would come from. In all honesty, I was the child who would always complain about the Indian food my mom would make.
One visit to San Francisco changed my entire perception. I was about 13 years old when we went on a family trip to San Francisco. The Golden Gate Bridge and Fisherman’s Wharf caught my eye but there was one thing that caught my eye that bothered me immensely: the amount of homeless people. It felt as if the number of homeless people increased at every corner I turned. When I came back home, for some reason, I couldn’t erase the idea of having to live on the streets every single day. One visit brought everything into focus. I started to see what life was like for the homeless community: having a home, a meal, a jacket were luxuries that not everyone was lucky enough to have. A few days passed and that image still wouldn’t leave my head so I decided that I wanted to do something about it. I knew that I couldn’t provide them with a home, but I realized maybe I could do the next best thing: help them feel loved and cared for during this difficult time. I loved baking, so I decided to combine my passion for baking and helping my community. And that was how Bake4Sake was born.
I contacted a few homeless shelters asking them if I could bake for their homeless residents. Of the 10 shelters I contacted, many said no, saying I was too young or didn’t even respond. However, I was never one to take no for an answer, even if it was watching TV until 2 am in the morning. I then organized a neighborhood bake sale, which I raised over $500.
After a promising start, I directly emailed the CEOs of these shelters, shared my background, and asked them if I could bake for the homeless residents. Impressed with my persistence, they directed me to the kitchen coordinators and volunteer coordinators who had originally said no. So my team and I started to bake for the shelters.
I started off by baking for Abode Homeless Shelter with 3 of my peers; however, I soon started to see that so many more students were interested because as a volunteer not only did they get to the thing they loved to do the most, bake, but they also got service hours. I then partnered up with other homeless shelters and started to work on expanding my team of volunteers. Today, the Bake4Sake team has partnered with 4 homeless shelters and baked desserts for 5000 residents and counting. The biggest reward of all was by far the smiles and appreciation from the homeless residents we were fortunate enough to serve.
The organization’s members include Keshna Sheth, Hanya Hussain, Anika Garikipati, Danielle Marie Barrido, Amisha Prasad, Aniket Panda, Caitlin Starmer, Smrithi Jha, Hita Gangadharan, Shreya Singh, Reshita Patel, Jheel Gandhi, Smrithi Jha, and Srihitha Pallapothula; all of whom are high schoolers eager to inspire change. These passionate bakers are the lifeblood of Bake4Sake; their tireless efforts have brought the organization to where it is today.
Every time I spoke to the members of Bake4Sake, I noticed this infectious energy surrounding them showing me just how much this cause meant to these volunteers.
