Sweet Relief Bake Sale for Hurricane Sandy Recovery

update: over $1,500 was raised in coordination with the Nashville Food Bloggers bake sale and Parnassus Books‘ donation as well. Thank you so much, Nashville! Amanda recapped the event beautifully for the Nashville Scene. Y’all should give it a read, here.

I’ve been sitting on this post for a few days now. I’ll come back and do a more detailed entry, but for now, get this on your calendar. Saturday November 10th, 1-4 pm at The Well [2035 Richard Jones Road] there will be a bake sale to raise funds for The Community Food Bank of New Jersey.

sunset . Ocean City 2012

This fundraising effort is quite personal for me as I spent many a summer on the Jersey Shore. Though the answer to “Where’s home?” is rather complicated, for 5 years in the 80’s it was West Windsor, NJ and since 2000 my family has been based in Plainsboro, NJ.

Ocean City Boardwalk at night . 2012

I drove from Nashville to Plainsboro last week after my mom [who cares for my elderly grandmother and my sister with special needs] spent a few days without power and was just a few minutes away from losing all phone contact [thanks to all wireless phones in the house + 1 cell phone]. Even in inland central New Jersey the destruction Sandy left in her wake was rampant. Downed power lines, tree + home shrapnel scattered in the streets and gas lines for hours. People to this day, over a week after Hurrice Sandy’s landfall, are still without power. I can’t even imagine waking up and having to remind oneself that you no longer have a home.

So please, consider baking up some goodies – your favorite cookies, or even slice + bakes from the tube. Any donation will be warmly welcomed. Details below :

While we’re calling this a food blogger bake sale, it doesn’t mean you can’t participate if you don’t have a blog. Food bloggers, non-food bloggers, and food blog fans are more than welcome to participate! We’re looking for helpers and bakers regardless of blogging status. Be creative! Some ideas for what you could bring include cookies, sandwich cookies, cupcakes, brownies, rice krispie treats, cake pops, whoopie pies, homemade candy, cinnamon rolls, quick breads, muffins, pretzels, etc. If you do plan to bake, here are a few requests:

All baked goods should be dropped of between 12:15 and 12:45 on Saturday.

If you cannot drop your baked goods off at the specified time, please get in touch. We have folks in East Nashville, West Nashville, and Germantown who are willing to collect baked goods ahead of time.

Everything will be priced at $2, please bake accordingly. You may decide to, for example, package 2-3 small cookies together in a bag or cut your brownies to a specific size you feel warrants a $2 price tag.

Please package your baked goods to make it easy for folks to purchase and take it with them. The packaging doesn’t have to be fancy, but loose cookies or messy cake slices floating around can be problematic. Treat bags, cello wrap, or gift boxes are great options. It doesn’t need to be fancy, just functional.

Feel free to label your baked goods so people know what they are, we’ll also have little signs the day of so that everything is clearly labeled.

Feel free also to bring your blog business cards or package them with your treats. Even better if you feel like sharing the recipe on your blog!