Free Cakes for Kids is a network of voluntary
community groups which consists of about
60 groups across the country who bake
birthday cakes for families who find it
difficult to provide one for their child due to,
for example, health or financial reasons or
other circumstances beyond their control.
We are not a charity, so each group operates
independently according to their own area. I
decided a while ago that I would extend our
offering to include anyone in the Tonbridge,
Sevenoaks and Tunbridge Wells areas who
would otherwise not receive a birthday cake.
I have now changed our name slightly
to reflect this, we are now called Free Cakes
for Kids+ Tonbridge.
Tell me more about your company...
Who can use your services?
We bake for those (who are eligible) who
have been referred to us by organisations
such as social services, schools, churches,
women’s refuges, youth hostels, food
banks, Young Carers, Dial 2 Drive, Day Care
Centres and residential homes for the
elderly.
The cakes that we provide are home baked
and individually personalised by our
volunteers, with the name, age and the
favourite theme (TV character, sport, hobby
etc) of the person whose birthday it is.
We consider that the confidentiality and
welfare of the people we bake for is very
important so, while we post a photo of every
cake that we make on social media, we will
always delete the name of the recipient from
any photo if the referrer requests that we do
so.
How long have you been up and
running?Wow, that's a lot of cakes! You must
have a big team?I set up Free Cakes for Kids Tonbridge in 2015
and we did our first cake in May 2015. Almost
4 years to the day we have just delivered ourWe have a team of over 60 bakers. The
beauty of volunteering for us is that the
baker can select to bake and deliver a cake
when it fits in with them and their lifestyle.
Therefore, some may bake twice or more a
month, some once every 3 months
and others less than that. Those in our team
include both professional and hobby bakers,
young and older mums, students and
teenagers who bake for their Duke of
Edinburgh award.Some of the Free Cakes for Kids Tonbridge+ Bakers800th Caketo a local 18 year old.Do you get to see the reactions?
We often hear from the hostels who house
16-24 year olds, or from the refuges, that the
recipients are thrilled with their personalised
cake, that they are amazed that a member of
the public who doesn’t know them has spent
so much time and effort into making a
personalised cake especially for them. Some
of these recipients have never had a birthday
cake before. Likewise, the elderly recipients
are always thrilled with their cakes which
usually come as a great surprise to them. Are you a star baker?Volunteers are needed to keep this
brilliant service going!
Contact
[email protected]http://www.onthedoorstep.orgPage 57