A Bakery Is Donating More Than 1,000 Cakes To Seniors Who Are Missing Out On Graduation
Schools around the country have had to hold online graduation ceremonies due to the ongoing coronavirus pandemic, and while celebrations for seniors may look very different this year, one Minnesota bakery is doing everything in its power to make sure graduates feel as special at home as they would crossing a stage in their caps and gowns. According to Better Homes & Gardens, Red Wing, MN's, Hanisch Bakery and Coffee Shop has made and shipped more than 1,000 graduation cakes for seniors across the state.
"I just figured I needed to do something cool for these kids, and the thing that I relate to graduation is a cake,” Hanisch told the magazine. “So we started baking."
At first, he'd only intended to bake a cake for each of Red Wing High School's 200 graduating seniors—he figured the kids at his alma mater would appreciate their own treats. But once the word got out that he'd undertaken the project, he got non-stop requests to widen the net.
"It’s been awesome. It’s been so fun to tell the story about how it started, from just making cakes for my own town to how it’s grown," Hanisch told PEOPLE of the influx. "Now I’ve seen other bakeries doing it, too. It’s been really cool."
So far, the bakery has made more than 1,000 personalized cakes, all of which have been delivered to students within a 45-minute radius of the bakery. The bakery is not making any profit off the project; Hanisch noted all of the money they've collected from the cakes has gone toward keeping all 21 of the bakery's employees fully paid during the pandemic.
"It didn’t really hit me until we delivered our first cake and a faculty member started crying," he said of the cakes' impacts: "It’s definitely brightening up a pretty cool time in their life."
The bakery continues to take local orders. You can check out more of what they're doing here.
You Might Also Like
