Woodlawn Baking Kitchen Update

Greetings from your sibling on the other side of Green Lake -- Emmaus Table/7400 Woodlawn, a Center for Community, Spirituality and the Arts! We are grateful to Phinney Ridge Lutheran Church for your generous support in the past for our kitchen remodel project. The project expands our partnerships, especially with Community Loaves. (Community Loaves is an organization which supports local food banks with delicious nutritious sandwich loaves, baked by home bakers. Check them out at www.communityloaves.org.)

How your past donations are being used:

The freezer you donated has migrated to one of the Community Loaves baker’s garage and makes it possible for folks to bake and donate more bread than what they could store in their home freezers. (We received a commercial freezer for the Baking Kitchen at 7400 Woodlawn, so passed the smaller freezer along.) The $2500 we received from the Endowment Fund has gone toward the initial payment for ventilation (more on this project following).

Next Steps

We are entering the next phase in the kitchen project. 7400 Woodlawn currently offers a freezer bank as well as a baking supply pick-up site supporting over 100 local bakers. We will be expanding our partnership with Community Loaves in 2022 by offering space for baking parties so that folks who don’t have access to a kitchen and/or want to bake with others can come and bake loaves for the food bank together. This also greatly increases the number of loaves donated to local food banks.

As you can imagine, transforming a 1950’s era kitchen with “great bones” into a 2021-compliant baking kitchen requires funding. We have already upgraded our electrical service; the next infrastructure necessity is ventilation. We are holding a “Raising the Dough” fundraiser and invite you to contribute as you are able. We have a $10,000 match on the table and we want to make sure we maximize our dollars! You can find more details about the project and the fundraiser on our website at www.7400woodlawn.org/baking-kitchen. We are holding an in-person (masks required) Open House on December 4, from 2 to 4pm and would be thrilled to have you join us. You’ll be able to sample the Community Loaves’ bread, meet bakers and staff, and take a tour of the kitchen. If you’re unable to attend in person, we will host an Online Open House on Monday, December 6th from 4 to 5pm. Join the Zoom Meeting Here. (Meeting ID: 880 8186 3565)

Thanks again for your past support. Thanks also for considering supporting our current project. On days when the world feels broken and unfixable, I bake bread. I envision a lunchbox with a yummy CL loaf sandwich, lovingly prepared by a parent, sustaining a child in their important work of learning and growing. All of us together -- the baker, the donor, the parent, the child -- make the world a breader place.

Cindy Shultz

Associate Member, Phinney

Project Manager, 7400 Woodlawn Kitchen

253-468-5537