Volunteers ‘Kneaded’

LAURIE TENNENT

Isay this with the utmost respect, admiration and, perhaps most importantly, the permission of bakers Mindy Salzberg-Siegel, Denise Kalt and Barbara Wallace, when I suggest that they are three “kneady” women. They’ve earned that distinction having just spent the last 10 months in their own kitchens kneading dough, baking, packaging and donating healthy breads to Detroit-area food pantries through their nonprofit Kneaded with Love. The women though, along with more than 70 area volunteer bakers of homemade breads, are fulfilling a much-needed need of needing more kneaders. OK, enough of this half-baked word play. I’ll tell you how you can be of help (see sidebar), but first, some back story.

Mindy, Denise and Barbara — of Birmingham, Franklin and Huntington Woods respectively — have always enjoyed baking and cooking. Like for so many, the pandemic and resulting shutdowns in early 2020 found them preparing more meals at home. The three further honed their culinary skills by participating in Zingerman’s Bakehouse online baking and cooking classes.

Also, Salzberg-Siegel, Kalt and Wallace are members of Congregation Shaarey Zedek (CSZ) and took advantage of Zoom challah baking classes offered by Rebecca Starr, CSZ’s rebbetzin and director of regional programs of the Shalom Hartman Institute, a leading center of Jewish thought and education serving Israel and North America. Starr has donated her baking skills, as well, to the Kneaded with Love cause.

After months of feeding family and friends, with plenty extra loaves to spare, the three women were struck by the desperation they were witnessing on pandemic news reports and began thinking about how their skill sets could contribute to the greater good of the community.

“Every day on the news, we’re seeing people out of work and car lines backed up at food pantries,” Mindy said. Then, in January 2021, she caught a segment on NBC’s Today Show about food insecurity in our country that changed everything.

The network morning show featured a Seattle-based nonprofit called Community Loaves, “a grassroots bread brigade, baking and delivering homemade honey oat sandwich loaves in support of our overstretched food pantries.” The inspiration for Kneaded with Love was born.

Contributing Writer

In a matter of days, a letter of introduction about their charitable efforts and an appeal for volunteer bakers was sent to their personal contacts. Thanks to a robust response, Kneaded with Love was able to begin delivering fresh baked breads by the end of March and, twice a month there after, to two area food pantries — Open

Hands Food Pantry in Royal Oak and Second New Hope Missionary Baptist Church in Royal Oak Township.

The goal is to greatly expand the number of food pantries benefiting from the bread deliveries, but first things first. While the list of volunteers has grown to more than 70, the consistency of participation can wane, leaving holes in the schedules for committed bakers.

“We have one core group of people,” Barbara said, “and it really hasn’t grown. Everybody wants to donate money, but we’re not set up for charitable giving at this time.”

In other words, this grassroots effort can’t except “dough,” but they sure could use help kneading it.

Licensing issues, certification and lack of commercial kitchen accessibility because of COVID has truly made this a homemade effort. “All it really only takes is about a four-hour commitment, once or twice a month, from the comfort of one’s own kitchen,” Denise said.

Through research and tweaking of existing recipes found on the internet, Kneaded with Love has created two breads that are uniquely theirs. Volunteer bakers are provided a specific list of ingredients to purchase while the three founders of Kneaded with Love cover the cost of bags, labels and decorative ribbon for packaging.

And they’ve gone to great lengths to make the whole process, from start to finish, as easy and simple as possible. Written recipes on their website are accompanied by video presentations, providing step-by-step instructions, from preparation to packaging, for the hearty, whole grain/whole wheat, no sugar added, high-protein bread choices.

Said Barbara of the final product, “Open Hands Food Pantry once told me that people are so appreciative of how wonderful our breads are that they choose our loaves over the store- bought manufactured brands also made available to them.”

They say life is easier when you don’t have “too many cooks in the kitchen,” but too many bakers?

“Kneadless” to say, that’s a problem Kneaded with Love will gladly welcome, especially at this giving time of year.

KNEADED WITH LOVE

Here’s the recipe to volunteer your time: 1. Go to https:// kneadedwithlove.com. 2. Click on the “Baking Dates” dropdown tab to commit to one or both of the Fridays offered per month. You can bake two or four loaves per date. 3. A designated Kneaded by Love home in the area will be provided for bread dropoffs. 4. To ensure freshness, breads are delivered to pantries the next day (Saturday). 5. Email questions to: kneadedwithlove1@gmail. com. Follow Kneaded with Love on Facebook and Instagram.

ALAN MUSKOVITZ