In the News

Hard-working Interns Pitch In to Fight Childhood Hunger

As proud sponsors since 2008 of Share Our Strength's Great American Bake Sale, we’ve frequently encouraged you to join us in reaching our goal: to end childhood hunger by the year 2015. We’ve loved hearing about your bake sales (see last year's sidebar story), so we’re turning the tables and telling you about the bake sales we held this summer in Crockett, California, and in Baltimore, Maryland. Thanks to two enterprising and enthusiastic interns, our events were a huge success!

California Cookin'

Rachel Wilhelm, a sophomore at Creighton University in Omaha, Nebraska, spent her summer internship working in the quality assurance lab in C&H Sugar's Crockett refinery. Yet she still found the time and energy to rally her fellow interns and organize our two-day bake sale, held in August in the refinery's lobby.
First, Rachel made sure her supervisors approved of and supported her efforts. Then she registered the event online with Share Our Strength and emailed our almost 500 refinery employees, telling them the bake-sale dates and recipe guidelines. She added an incentive: the opportunity to win a television by purchasing raffle tickets. And she let employees know that all of the money raised would be donated to SOS and would stay in the local community.
The response was gratifying: Dozens of employees showed up with pound cakes, brownies, truffles, and cookies. Rachel herself baked two dozen cupcakes and decorated them with pink and blue frosting. Sale hours were 7 a.m. to 4 p.m. each day, and the goodies kept coming. "I thought folks wouldn't come through for us the second day," says Connie Hunter, C&H's consumer relations specialist, "but amazingly, we received more than on the previous day—and everything sold out!" The sale netted more on the second day than on the first.

Baking in Baltimore

Megan Pierce knew from her first day as an intern at Domino Sugar's Baltimore refinery that her big project would be not just one but two bake sales. A Boston College sophomore majoring in marketing and finance, Megan jumped in feet first, requesting donations, securing permits, and contacting members of the press. She also recruited more than 30 Domino employees to help on the day of the event.
A two-day bake sale was held at the Domino refinery to allow all employees to participate (and they did—with gusto!). The site of the second sale was Baltimore's Inner Harbor, not far away. For that event, Megan decided three tents were needed: one for the sale, one devoted to kids' cupcake decorating, and one for live music, courtesy of Oasis Island Sounds. In exchange for sugar donated by Domino Sugar, the Baltimore International College's Culinary Arts program readily agreed to whip up hundreds of pies and cookies. Megan made a similar arrangement with three local bakeries, which contributed dozens of top-notch baked goods.
The indefatigable Megan also organized a raffle, with restaurant gift certificates and a baseball signed by Baltimore Orioles infielder Miguel Tejada as prizes.
Employees who worked five- to six-hour shifts the day of the event were easily identified by their special T-shirts, another idea of Megan's. (One employee didn't need the T-shirt: he dressed up as a chocolate-chip cookie!) "All kinds of people attended," says Megan with evident pleasure. "My mom even came from New Jersey!"

The Bottom Line

Together, our East and West Coast bake sales raised more than $8,000 for Share Our Strength. Best of all, says C&H's Connie Hunter, "All the money we raised will stay in the communities where the sales were held." As our president, Brian O'Malley summed up in his thanks to our hard-working teams: "Because of you, a few less children will be hungry."
Excellent reasons to organize your own Great American Bake Sale next year at your workplace, school, or church!