The Rotary Club of Brantford Sunrise has been working alongside the Brantford Food Bank to ensure that children facing food insecurity can still enjoy a birthday celebration.
The partnership began earlier this year when the Rotary Club launched a new community initiative called “Birthday in a Box.”
“The concept is really to help local families celebrate birthdays,” said Julie Powell, a member of the local Rotary club. “It’s a little kit that we put together, and it has everything that’s needed for a family to make a birthday cake and have a celebration. They’re available through the Food Bank, so when families come in, staff know the birthday of the children, and the parents can come and ask for the kit and take it home with them.”
Available for children 17 and under, each kit includes a foil cake pan, cake mix, frosting, sprinkles, simple baking instructions, birthday candles, a “Happy Birthday” banner, balloons, plates and napkins, and a birthday card.
“Now, cake mixes generally require milk, oil and eggs, but you can actually substitute those out with a can of pop,” said Powell. “If a family doesn’t have oil and eggs, we’ve actually included a can of pop in the kit. They just mix in with the cake, bake it in the pan that’s provided, and they’ve got everything they need. It’s really neat because you can mix different flavours of pop with the cake mix too. For example, if you mix a can of Orange Crush with the cake mix, you get a creamsicle flavour.”
Powell said the idea was the brainchild of fellow Rotarian Stacey Bester, owner of SWEET Bakery.
“Stacey’s a very creative individual. She saw a need, developed the concept and put it all together. When she brought it to the Rotary Club, we thought it was a wonderful idea and decided to move forward with it,” she said. “Our Rotarians have been having a great time putting them together, delivering them to the food bank and just knowing the impact they will have. It might seem like such a small thing to do, but it isn’t. Every child should have the opportunity to celebrate their birthday, so we’re just really excited to be a part of this.”
The Rotary Club is providing 50 birthday boxes per month to the food bank and has already delivered 320 kits since April, 150 of which were dropped off on Friday, July 31.
“The Food Bank was very receptive to the idea, and when we dropped off the kits last week, the volunteers were telling us how wonderful an initiative it is and how well it’s been received by families,” said Powell. “We’ve received great feedback from the staff and volunteers there, and it’s something we hope to continue going forward.”
With each kit costing about $20 to produce, the Rotary Club is inviting any individuals or business in the community who would like to assist with donations, either financially or with products, to reach out to the club at brantfordrotarysunrise@gmail.com
“We’re already doing 50 kits a month, but if we had some additional support, we would love to be able to do even more and continue to fund it into next year,” said Powell. “So if anyone’s interested in donating, they can certainly reach out via email and we’d be happy to have a conversation with them.”
Kimberly De Jong’s reporting is funded by the Canadian government through its Local Journalism Initiative.The funding allows her to report rural and agricultural stories from Blandford-Blenheim and Brant County. Reach her at kimberly.dejong@brantbeacon.ca.
