Programs

Bake Me Home Tote Bag Program

Our Tote Bag Program began with a simple idea from Amy and Emma. They, with their mom Alison, founded Bake Me Home based upon their own love of baking and spending time together. They started the Tote Bag Program to help families leaving shelters celebrate the beginning of a new life in a new home.  Amy and Emma delivered tote bags to the first shelter in October 2008, and today this program currently serves over 350 families per year from 15 agencies in 4 Ohio counties. A complete list is on our home page.

While their original idea began with a simple jar of homemade oatmeal chocolate chip cookie mix, they quickly decided to add the mixing bowl, spoon, cookie sheet, pot holder, and spatula, toothbrushes and toothpaste. This growing pile of goodies necessitated delivering them in a sturdy tote bag, hence the name for our program. A $20 gift card to Kroger was also added for the essential butter and eggs needed to complete the recipe (and a few other groceries). Finally, a recipe booklet filled with low-cost, kid-friendly, nutritious recipes donated by Nutrition Council of Greater Cincinnati and printed by Mt. Washington Presbyterian Church, was added.  While prices can change slightly, the total cost for each of our Bake Me Home Tote Bags averages about $38.

Mt. Washington Presbyterian Church donates space  in their Health Department approved kitchen to fill all cookie mix jars, and  SNOWIE  donates all the sugar!  Cookie Mix Assembly  sessions are scheduled and announced via email and facebook.  Volunteers as young as four years old are welcomed at all sessions (with an adult accompanying them) at all sessions.  Private Sessions are also available for service groups.  Anyone interested in volunteering can register their email address here, on the right hand side panel of our website, or contact us at cookiegirls@bakemehome.com.

Bake Me Home Pantry Totes

A division of our Tote Bag Program, we began distribution of our Pantry Totes  in March 2010.  This modified version of our original Tote Bag provides bags with jars of our homemade oatmeal chocolate chip cookie mix, potholders, cookbooks, colored pencils, toothbrushes, toothpaste, and $20 Kroger gift cards to families utilizing five local food pantries, SEM, CAIN, MEAC, Inter Parish Ministry and the YWCA Batavia Food Pantry.

These totes are primarily supplemental to our Tote Bag Program, and therefore the number of distributions varies depending on our financial situation.

Bake Me Home Family Portrait Program

Our Family Portrait Program is without a doubt the one that tugs on our heart strings most often.  For less than $1.00 worth of ink and paper we have seen mothers cry as the only picture they may have of their kids comes to life. Photographer Annette Bryant, who expressed a desire to “do something for people who can’t afford pictures of their kids,” inspired this program.   We own our own photography equipment and photo printer, and work with a team of volunteers and professional photographers to provide free, on-the-spot, 5×7 framed portraits to shelter families. We visit the YWCA Battered Women’s Shelter on a regular basis, among others, as well as work with other YWCA and Inter Parish Ministry programs.  The recent success and expansion of this program is due to receiving a Magnified Giving Grant from the students of Seton High School.  Over 400 families have received portraits with this program!

Volunteers interested in helping with photo shoots should contact our Family Portrait Program Director, Lois Kratohvil, at portraits@bakemehome.com.  In addition, we continually accept donations of new and gently used 5×7 picture frames for our families.

Bake It Forward was created after Amy and Emma won a $5000 grant for Bake Me Home from the Sodexo Foundation.  They were so moved by the experience that they wanted to share it with other kids. This was the beginning of our Bake Me Home Summer Service Grants.  Kids in entering grades 2-9 apply for summer grants of $100 each for a charity of their choice serving children in Ohio.  Each applicant must perform a summer service project for a charity that benefits children.  Amy and Emma then choose three winners and present an award at a ceremony at The Duke Energy Children’s Museum.  Our winners also each receive a “Bake It Forward” t-shirt and a jar of “Bake Me Home” Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Cookie Mix. This program is designed to  encourage kids to be creative and get involved with other organizations in the community, furthering our mission of “promoting volunteerism.”

More details can be found on our application HERE. All applications are due by September 4, 2013.  The three winners will be announced on September 16th.

Anyone with questions can contact us at cookiegirls@bakemehome.com.

Our past winners:

2012
Alex and Hannah Laman, Adopt A Book (read about this here)
Kayla Nunn, Madisonville Mission Ministries
Josephine Smith, The Joe Nuxhall Miracle League Fields

2011
Julia Feldmann, Community Kids (part of the West Chester Community Foundation)
Samantha Ladrigan, StarShine Hospice
Kellen Roddy, Catholics United for the Poor

 

bakemebackhome

Back Me BACK Home gives our supporters the opportunity to help two missions with one donation.  For a $30 donation we send two-dozen of our homemade cookies to a military member of their choice, or one from our list of nominees.  Approximately half of the money from this donation supports our Tote Bag and Family Portrait Programs.  All packages of cookies can include a personal message from the donor and are securely insulated with bags of edible popcorn. We utilize a team of volunteer bakers from Anderson and Turpin High Schools, known as our “Cookie Crew,” to bake the cookies.  Our goal is that the taste of our homemade oatmeal chocolate chip cookies will help our military men and women feel like they are “back home,” even if it’s just for a moment.  Over 6,000 cookies have been to sent to troops serving in Iraq and Afghanistan.
For questions, or to submit nominations, please contact our Bake Me BACK Home Shipping Coordinator, Erin Hunt, at bakemebackhome@bakemehome.com.

Please visit the Bake Me BACK Home page for details and donation form, and download our Bake Me BACK Home Flyer right here.