20 | DECEMBER 23 • 2021
I
say this with the utmost respect,
admiration and, perhaps most
importantly, the permission of bakers
Mindy Salzberg-Siegel, Denise Kalt and
Barbara Wallace, when I suggest that
they are three “kneady” women. They’ve
earned that distinction
having just spent the last
10 months in their own
kitchens kneading dough,
baking, packaging and
donating healthy breads to
Detroit-area food pantries
through their nonprofit
Kneaded with Love.
The women though,
along with more than 70 area volunteer
bakers of homemade breads, are
fulfilling a much-needed need of
needing more kneaders. OK, enough of
this half-baked word play. I’ll tell you
how you can be of help (see sidebar), but
first, some back story.
Mindy, Denise and Barbara — of
Birmingham, Franklin and Huntington
Woods respectively — have always
enjoyed baking and cooking. Like for
so many, the pandemic and resulting
shutdowns in early 2020 found them
preparing more meals at home. The
three further honed their culinary
skills by participating in Zingerman’s
Bakehouse online baking and cooking
classes.
Also, Salzberg-Siegel, Kalt and Wallace
are members of Congregation Shaarey
Zedek (CSZ) and took advantage of
Zoom challah baking classes offered
by Rebecca Starr, CSZ’s rebbetzin and
director of regional programs of the
Shalom Hartman Institute, a leading
center of Jewish thought and education
serving Israel and North America. Starr
has donated her baking skills, as well, to
the Kneaded with Love cause.
After months of feeding family and
friends, with plenty extra loaves to
spare, the three women were struck by
the desperation they were witnessing
on pandemic news reports and began
thinking about how their skill sets could
contribute to the greater good of the
community.
“Every day on the news, we’re seeing
people out of work and car lines backed
up at food pantries,” Mindy said. Then,
in January 2021, she caught a segment
on NBC’s Today Show about food
insecurity in our country that changed
everything.
The network morning show featured
a Seattle-based nonprofit called
Community Loaves, “a grassroots
bread brigade, baking and delivering
homemade honey oat sandwich loaves
in support of our overstretched food
pantries.” The inspiration for Kneaded
with Love was born.
GETTING IT OFF THE GROUND
In a matter of days, a letter of
introduction about their charitable
efforts and an appeal for volunteer
bakers was sent to their personal
contacts. Thanks to a robust response,
Kneaded with Love was able to begin
delivering fresh baked breads by the
end of March and, twice a month there
after, to two area food pantries — Open
OUR COMMUNITY
Local nonprofit looks for volunteer bread bakers.
Volunteers
‘Kneaded’
Alan
Muskovitz
Contributing
Writer
Denise Kalt,
Barbara Wallace
and Mindy
Salzberg-Siegel,
founders of
Kneaded with
Love.
LAURIE TENNENT