Cake4Kids Willamette Valley chapter delivers 1,000th cake to youth in need

By Casey Chaffin, The West Side Newspaper

In April, the Willamette Valley chapter of Cake4Kids delivered their 1,000th cake to a kid in need of some birthday cheer. 

Cake4Kids, a national organization with 27 chapters in 20 states, recruits volunteers to bake birthday cakes for youth served by local government agencies and nonprofits. This includes foster youth, immigrant and refugee youth, youth experiencing homelessness, and other kids in need. 

“We partner with anyone who helps kids,” Stephanie, the co-ambassador for the Willamette Valley chapter said. (she asked only her first name be used, as she is currently a foster parent.) 

Stephanie started the Willamette Valley chapter after moving to Oregon from California, where she volunteered as a Cake4Kids baker. When she found out there weren’t any chapters in Oregon, she decided to start one in 2021. Over the next five years, with support from the community and a local co-ambassador, the chapter has grown to work with 160 volunteers, delivering around five cakes per week.  

When Stephanie first encountered the nonprofit in California, she was a foster parent who was baking for the youth in her care. She saw first-hand how meaningful something like a birthday celebration can be for a youth in foster care. 

“It’s hard to be a foster kid. Your life is different from everyone else’s. This is something that can make them feel like someone cares,” Stephanie said. 

The 1,000th cake milestone snuck up on her. “I felt like it flew by,” she said. When she saw that her chapter was going to hit the 1,000 cakes, she organized to meet the volunteer baker at the agency to snap a celebratory photo 

The cake (flavor: chocolate, theme: Hello Kitty) was delivered by Michele, a dedicated volunteer. 

“She’s baked 115 cakes for our chapter,” Stephanie said. When she met Michele at the delivery, she told her, “A huge part of this 1,000 cakes is you.”  

The 1,000 cakes baked for youth in the counties her chapter serves Marion, Polk, and Yamhill, and runs the gamut of common kid interests: from sports and Pokemon to princesses and Barbie. But sometimes the themes kids request require a little more pop culture knowledge. 

“There’s some we’ve had to google,” Stephanie said. This was the case when a request for a KPop Demon Hunters-themed cake came through. The cake request turned Stephanie and her volunteers on to the recent popularity of that Netflix animated film. 

Cake4Kids has partnered with the county branches of the Department of Human Services, Court Appointed Special Advocates (CASAs) for foster youth, and local nonprofits. The Willamette Valley chapter is looking for more partner organizations – Stephanie said she has more volunteer bakers at the ready than cake orders. Potential partners who serve youth ages 1-24 can apply to work with their local chapter at cake4kids.org/partner.