Cooking Up Relief for Katrina Victims

Posted: 17 April 2006

Knowing that every effort helps, volunteers at a bake sale raised money to help victims of Hurricane Katrina.

The kids at Massachusetts-based Mental Health Services Program for Youth (MHSPY) know a thing or two about how it feels to be down on your luck. When Hurricane Katrina struck last fall, this knowledge turned into compassion for those who’d been hit by the storm—and a desire to do something to help.

Short on resources and long on passion, these courageous teens needed a project that didn’t require much money, ultimately deciding on a bake sale for Oxfam. “I wasn’t sure how many of these kids had ever cooked anything,” said MHSPY Medical Director Katherine Grimes.

The bake sale that ensued was no half-baked plan. Eleven teens secured donated kitchen space and ingredients, made and packaged cookies and brownies, and sold them outside a grocery store in Somerville, MA. Everyone from moms and toddlers to hungry firefighters flocked to the table, devouring the baked goods in just a couple of hours.

All told, the teens at MHSPY cooked up $150 in support for hurricane victims.

But perhaps they did something more important that day. For, as they understood the respect their customers had for Oxfam, as they watched a woman pay more than was required for her baked goods, they understood they were “part of something that was bigger,” said Grimes.

Indeed, these big-hearted kids had joined Oxfam’s global movement of compassion. We extend them a warmest welcome.