It’s Valentine’s Day and today on this day of love, I’m sharing a bit about my favorite nonprofit organization: Hot Bread Kitchen (HBK) and baking the best banana bread recipe for 150 people. It’s a love letter of sorts.

In my professional life I spend a lot of time thinking about nonprofit organizations: oversight, governance, tax reporting and explaining the “public support test” to unsuspecting people. My day to day is fascinating, to me at least! For a very long time, though, I struggled with a “mission” or theme for my own philanthropy. Now before you think that I am some high roller, philanthropy is not just donating money, it’s also donating your time and your talent. In fact, most Americans are philanthropists, they just don’t realize it. {steps down from pulpit}

Back to Hot Bread Kitchen. I came across this organization by accident. I was in NYC for a work retreat and before a tour of a museum we were killing time in the gift shop/bookstore and I saw the HBK cookbook. In true millennial fashion, I flipped through it quickly and then snapped a picture on my phone to buy it later.

Initially, my interest was purely the recipes, but after spending time reading the stories in the cookbook, I realized that HBK is at the cross-section of things that I care deeply about nonprofit and baking! HBK creates economic opportunity through its training program and new business incubator. The Culinary Training Program is a 14 week paid intensive on the job training program, that prepares women for entering professions in the kitchen. Once the participant graduates, HBK pairs them with businesses in their network of partners to ensure they are placed in a fair wage job.

You know how people dream about opening a cupcake shop in the downtown area of Smalltown, USA? {Please tell me other people dream of that!} Well, Hot Bread Kitchen is giving people the tools and training to make that dream a reality. The work of this organization resonates with me not just because of the baking, but because at the core of the mission is to provide sustainable paths for marginalized women to change their economic future. It’s about baking and empowerment.

The Challenge:

Back to my story, last summer, I baked a lot. A LOT. I auditioned to be on one of those reality baking shows (not sure how long that NDA lasts, but it was a fun story I’ll tell one day) but I also tried to use my baking for good. Every year, my job allows the employees to choose four deserving nonprofit organizations to receive grant funds.

The competition is relentless. Everyone submits their organization and why they support it, but the interesting part is the Outlook lobbying. I lost track of how many emails were sent about a variety of topics– everything from saving the turtles to an organization that provides foster kids with backpacks so that they have luggage when they move.

I decided the way to win this thing was to share the actual breads of HBK with my colleagues, so I sent out a company-wide calendar invite, asking people to join me to break bread. My inbox has not yet recovered from that insanity. Around the time that I received 150 acceptances, I realized that maybe sending an invite to all staff was probably not my smartest move. When I reached 200, I started to panic. My kitchen has one oven! I have a full time job and a family! I didn’t think that many people would say yes, but they did and I had to win this thing.

The Plan:

Make enough bread for 200 people, easy peasy.
Choose a balanced mix of sweet and savory recipes
Choose breakfast/brunch like bread for a 9:30 “meeting”
Follow the recipes in the cookbook PRECISELY. No modifications.

All told, I made 5 different breads from the cookbook. A large focaccia, a couple rustic loaves, a few dozen coconut buns, a few Dominican Tortas, but the unanimous star of the show was the banana bread.

With the other 4 breads, I was content to just follow the recipe, but when I got to the banana bread, at every single turn, I wanted to modify. Why? Because I have a banana bread recipe that I spent a couple of years tweaking. Admittedly, it was very hard to set aside everything that I thought I knew about banana bread and follow the recipe to the letter.

The Struggle

Following the rules was easier said than done. Specifically, I regretted my rule in three areas:

The use of the food processor. Yes, I have a food processor. No, I never use it to make Banana Bread. It just felt wrong when I have a perfectly good KitchenAid Mixer. Nevertheless, I persisted.
The lack of seasoning. Y’all. There is not a single spice in this recipe, unless you count salt. (to be very clear, salt does not count) I was astounded. No cinnamon. No nutmeg. Not even a splash of vanilla. NADA. It was a challenge to not take some creative license here. I honestly didn’t know if I was going to make it, the temptation was so great and the cinnamon so readily available.
The long bake time. Again, I read the instruction that said the banana bread baked for two WHOLE hours. Two hours. One Hundred and Twenty Minutes. Did I side eye the recipe? Yes. Did I check the banana bread every half hour at the hour mark? You better believe it.

Despite several misgivings along the way, my co-workers gobbled up 6 loaves of this bread in an astonishing amount of time. I know people hate the word “moist” in food writing, but it’s the word that fits the results. This is a banana bread that melts in your mouth, doesn’t need extras. You don’t need anything but a cup of coffee. My coworkers loved all of the bread, a few of them ordered the HBK cookbook and they voted for us to win.

The results:

We didn’t win. Whomp Whomp. The winning organizations are all incredible and the stories attached are inspiring, but if I’m honest, I was pretty disappointed. For a small organization like HBK, that grant would have been a game changer.

After some time, I realized that my philanthropy right now can’t be about money (thanks for that Navient!). My approach has to be about my time and my talents. I am grateful that I had a chance to share this organization via my baking with my colleagues, and now, my readers. Most importantly I shared this story with the staff at HBK. Resulting in the beginning of a relationship with HBK as a donor/supporter. When I’m in New York this Spring, I look forward to touring their shop. And maybe/likely convincing someone to let me bake for a day 🙂

I encourage y’all, in this season of “love”, to find a cause that makes your heart pitter patter and think about how your time, talent or money can make a difference.