Cake4Kids is looking for volunteer bakers and agencies with underserved kids.

By Denise Keniston
tw:@denisekeniston

Cake4Kids is a nonprofit that provides custom birthday and celebration cakes to underserved children. They have delivered thousands of cakes to kids all over the country and Boston is ready to get in on the sweetness!

Professional pastry chef Tali Pinnolis is the ambassador for the new Boston area chapter. She says a lot of families struggle to celebrate birthdays. “Imagine growing up never having a birthday cake. For the majority of us, the thought is difficult, if not inconceivable, to imagine,” says Pinnolis. “With the COVID pandemic, especially, many families are so strapped for time, money and energy that celebrating a child’s birthday is out of reach.”

Cake4Kids was founded in 2010 by the late Libby Gruender in Sunnyvale, California and now has eight chapters, including Boston. The organization connects with its recipients through social workers or agency caseworkers, who learn the preferred flavors and themes for a child’s desired birthday cake. Then it finds a volunteer to bake, decorate and deliver that cake.

Professional pastry chef Tali Pinnolis, Ambassador Cake4Kids Boston Chapter.

Somerville’s Winter Hill Community Innovation School is one of the first to get on board. Marah Paley, a clinical social worker at the school, says Cake4Kids is a great idea. “We’re very excited to have to program roll out this Spring and start providing some of our kids with birthday cakes.” She continues, “A lot of kids here will be so happy to have a cake made especially for them – it’s really a wonderful thing.”

Pinnolis’ Boston Chapter is currently recruiting bakers who will be carefully vetted for security and safety protocols. She says, “You do not need to be a professional baker to volunteer. There is also no minimum cake baking requirement for volunteers, which means you can decide to bake 1 cake or 50 cakes, whatever works for your schedule.” She adds, “It’s most important that our bakers put their best skills to use and have the cake delivered to the office on time.”

Pinnolis has been preparing for her role as Boston Chapter ambassador for months. She talks to other chapters weekly who share their experiences. “They hear over and over again from the youth, ‘I can’t believe someone took the time out of their day to make something just for me. I feel so incredibly special, and I don’t often feel that way,’” says Pinnolis.

Volunteer bakers must be at least 18-years-old (or 16, if with a parent volunteer), be a good baker (not necessarily pro-level, but decent with proficient decorating skills) and be able to deliver the decorated cake to a Cake4Kids agency during a specified time window.

Spots are filling up fast for the first virtual volunteer baker orientation on May 4. Sign up at https://www.cake4kids.org/volunteer-form.