I love to bake and I have been trying to waste food less but in order to get better I need to practice. But I do not have a commerical kitchen and I live in a small condo with a dog. Because of Penny I cannot sell legally to the public.But I do clean my kitchen and with the exceptions of Penny I could pass the health inspection. Whenever I bake an item I always do a floor to ceiling clean up and I always wear a bakers hat so no hairs fall in. For now I have to only be a home baker with high aspirations. But what do with all of that baked goods without becoming 500 lbs?
The Great American Bake Sale is a charity you can do at any time, with any amount people and at your pace. It seems even childish and what a child would propose but that is part of the fun. This "childish" idea is going to help children be daydreamers and to help them do well in school. It works and it is not too hard to do and Share our Strength is organizing it so $1.00 means 10 meals for a child! What can you get for $1.00 besides items at a fundraising bake sale! I am going to try to work out a long bake sale with my friends so that we can help hard working people get food on the table.
I am still in the stages of figuring out how to actually do the Great American Bake Sale. Like how do I include people? My great home baking friends unfortunately do not live close! Does one person do a cookie and send it out to the local bake sale? Does one person get one item and they ship it out to online requests so there is no waste?
What I do know is that I want to do some online sales, do some work bake sales, maybe some school bake sales and some other local bake sales. Also it costs a lot to do the bake sales so I am thinking maybe get some local people together and pool our money to get items for the bake sale. Then we deduct the costs for the items and then give the profits to the Great American Bake Sale. There are going to be a lot of trials and I see many errors because how do we collect the online sales plus shipping fees? I want to try to prevent food waste as well so online bake sales really makes sense. But online sales are not enough and I do not really want my friends to be the only clients. So we need to also pound the pavement and sell some baked goods for charity! I am sure if someone is hungry and they see our great baked goods we will not just have to rely on friend donations. I know I cannot resist a good bake sale!
Maybe at work I could organize it and have a baking contest and bake sale. The Baking contest entry fee could go, minus the prize, go to the Charity or maybe even my work could donate a prize. I have to see if people would be interested in it. I do not think I will be able to do the bake sale soon but I hope to at the latest have one for the fall. Also the website suggests getting local organizations to donate items so you can have a bake sale/raffle which gets people in and they also might not ask for change.
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| An example of "Mr. Ugly Tomatoes" from blogger The Garden Apartment please click here for a recipe for Ugly Tomato Soup. |
No child should ever go hungry in a country that farms corn just to feed live stock. It is a shame that children go hungry because we throw away/waste so much food. We throw away the food because it might look "ugly" but actually is still fresh produce. Sometimes when produce looks ugly it can be because the produce is rotten or expired in some sort of sense but we are not talking about that kind of produce.
An example is "Mr.Ugly tomatoes" and produce that might not be uniform so it goes in the trash or it does not get eaten because supermarkets will not buy them.The Garden Apartment talks about how that brand is called "Mr. Ugly Tomato because that farmer could not sell his tomatoes to the supermarkets because they were too ugly! If supermarkets will not buy these items for some random flaw like they are too big, too small or are ugly then the items cannot be sold. If they cannot be sold then they cannot be eaten so they might be composted or they are just thrown away/left rotting in the fields. Pretty cruel when people are starving to not even have a place to sell these items and to see the piles of food rotting. I learned about this from another Food Network documentary "The Big Waste." But there are also communities (like the one that was featured in another Food Network documentary "Hunger Hits Home") that grow produce and market their items to those that might not have access to these fresh items due to monetary reasons. So there is hope!
Now some supermarkets are helping to waste less and have items like the Ugly Tomatoes that actual sell less than other uniform tomatoes. If you are making a soup who cares if it is good looking because it is going to be pureed! (Try The Garden Apartment's Ugly Tomato Soup some time!)
We as a nation need to be less picky sometimes about our produce appearance because as long as it is not rotten or spoiled we should eat it! In Italy if you buy an apple and it has worms in it they tell you to cut around it. We need to be somewhere in the middle between high glossy apples with chemicals on it to make it shiny and Italian worm holed apples. Of course pay less for less desirable produce which can help those families that might not be starving or qualifying for assistance but are very much on a budget. Sometimes you need some glossy apples for a centerpiece and sometimes you are not going for looks because it is going to be applesauce anyway. If life gives you an ugly tomato make soup or sauces. Save the pretty tomatoes for those upscale nights of pretty tomato and mozzarella salads drizzled with basil and olive oil.
We need to be mind full of our waste and its impact on our community. We waste food by ordering when we are not hungry and ordering huge portions then not reusing the items. First of all that is a lot of waste that needs to go somewhere and it is probably also associated with some sort of packaging that is not able to be composted. Second we need to think again not of the children starving in Africa or Russia but perhaps some girl or boy who lives maybe a couple miles away or maybe even next door. We need to eat our leftovers and if we do not want to eat leftovers do not buy the food you cannot finish. I do not understand those that never eat leftovers when they have leftovers. Maybe it is the cheap Scott/Irish girl who came from a family of six that makes me always utilize leftovers/try to limit waste.
It is an epidemic in our country. I am trying to lose weight, eat better and trying to waste food less but I am still a contributor to that mess. A big example is that last year we were unable to help Cindy collect all of her produce and a lot of it went to waste. This year I hope to be able to help more now that I hopefully will have more than two Sundays a month off and I am mostly on evening shifts. The Friday midnight shifts on my weekend off and having to return every Monday at 3 pm ruined me. I never enjoyed the weekend and was a zombie! But this is a new year and we hope to can this year, freeze some items and to work our menus around what is popping up in Cindy's and her Father's gardens.
The reason I want to do The Great American Bake Sale at some points is because it something that seems so simple and easy but can really create an impact.Everyday we see pictures of third world countries where children are starving but how often do we see and acknowledge the starving kids that might actually live here and that might actually live next door? It is something small that I can do that can impact a lot of people because Share Our Strength does all the leg work I just get to do the fun stuff. I doubt I could raise all that money and have access to be able to turn $1.00 into ten meals for a child!
A child that does not eat, cannot feed it's brain and cannot do well in school. That child will be sickly and cost more in the long run. It is actually cheaper to funds good breakfasts at school, good healthy lunches. Many children only eat when they are at school and do not have dinner. But when school is out those children that were lucky enough to be in school program unfortunately go hungry all day.We need funding so that these children can excel and can eat also when school is not in session because kids need to eat healthy year round to grow to be good and functioning adults. It is not a hand out, it is an investment! Please see this Food Network "Hunger Hits Home" video.
One of the prerequisites in order to get into the Honors program for French Culinary is that you have to video tape yourself separating three eggs and beat them into stiff peaks. That is going to take a lot of practice to do it correctly. If you do not separate the egg whites perfectly or if you get oils from your fingers in the bowl it will not form peaks. So what am I going to do with those bombs? I am going to probably bake something else that is less finicky. It will be like the using ugly tomatoes for sauces and soups idea I talked about earlier. And when I have made the stiff peaks I will add sugar and I am going to probably make bake meringues or something with them. Otherwise that is a waste of money and resources something this baker feels uneasy about.
Another thing that you have to do is say on video where you see yourself in 5 years. Okay so this dream might take at least 5 years on the back burner in order to even get into the door of the French Culinary Institute. This means I will have some time to think about what I really want to do. But in the mean while I plan to bake a lot so that when I do get into the French Culinary Institute I can go already have the basics techniques down. I want to bake outside of my comfort zone and also try chocolate techniques. I plan that while I am in school I want to be available to internships, possible Food network prepping or assisting, or other great opportunities offered. With the basic techniques down learn while I am in class with some basic knowledge I can then focus more on how to be better and how manage my time better.
I am trekking into New York when I could drive to Norwalk, CT Community college in 20-30 minutes because of the reputation and the business connections. I want to learn from the best, intern with the best and have a great leg up because I do not want to be a failing cupcake shoppe. I want to be a Pastry Chef who has her own business and who is profitable!
So since I do not want to be 500 lbs (or even my current weight) I was thinking about where I could give the food and if maybe I could help others with it. I am thinking maybe donating it to local church bake sales in churches that raise money for the poor or who have a pantry for those who are poor. Also a lot of churches have weekly meals for the poor and perhaps they might take my baked goods. I was also thinking about selling it to people for a little above cost then giving most of the profits to this organization "Share our Strength."
I was day dreaming about going to French Culinary Institute and after a long day of school meeting up with friends who live in NYC and perhaps selling the items I made for the day (if there are items to be coming home with) and giving the profits to "Share Our Strength" and perhaps having other in the class do the same. Also I would be getting out on Mondays, Wednesdays and Friday around 11:30 which is like 8 pm for New Yorkers. I have friends who have drooled over my past blogs and the pictures that I have put up on facebook. I know my New York friends especially on Friday nights would love to have inexpensive baked goods in the expensive world of NYC plus the whole charity angle will not hurt!
But 5 years is a long time. I am thinking about doing the Great American Bake sale with a couple of friends. I am not sure how I am going to do it, if it is going to be online, in many different cities/countries/states and how it is going to match up. But I am going to do it. I currently love to bake and I need an audience to practice with and why not practice while helping others!
The program benefits Share our Strength which is an organization that is trying to make sure no kid goes hungry and they hope to do so by 2015. Please visit their website for more information on how they raise money/ provide food to kids in need and consider donating http://www.strength.org/childhood_hunger/.
What to help but do not know where to start here are some helpful hints from Food Network
Here are four ways to take action against childhood hunger today:
1. Donate to local food pantries
2. Support your school meal programs
3. Call your local member of Congress and make it clear to them how important it is that they support programs to end hunger
4. Be a Part of Share Our Strength’s Food Blogger Bake Sale on April 28
2. Support your school meal programs
3. Call your local member of Congress and make it clear to them how important it is that they support programs to end hunger
4. Be a Part of Share Our Strength’s Food Blogger Bake Sale on April 28
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