DECEMBER 23 • 2021 | 21

Here’s the recipe to volunteer 
your time:
1. Go to https://
kneadedwithlove.com.
2. Click on the “Baking 
Dates” dropdown tab to 
commit to one or both of the 
Fridays offered per month. 
You can bake two or four 
loaves per date.
3. A designated Kneaded 
by Love home in the area will 

be provided for bread drop-
offs.
4. To ensure freshness, 
breads are delivered to 
pantries the next day 
(Saturday). 
5. Email questions to: 
kneadedwithlove1@gmail.
com. Follow Kneaded with 
Love on Facebook and 
Instagram.

How to Volunteer

Hands Food Pantry in Royal Oak and 
Second New Hope Missionary Baptist 
Church in Royal Oak Township. 
The goal is to greatly expand the 
number of food pantries benefiting from 
the bread deliveries, but first things first. 
While the list of volunteers has grown 
to more than 70, the consistency of 
participation can wane, leaving holes in 
the schedules for committed bakers. 
“We have one core group of people,” 
Barbara said, “and it really hasn’t grown. 
Everybody wants to donate money, but 
we’re not set up for charitable giving at 
this time.” 
In other words, this grassroots effort 
can’t except “dough,” but they sure could 
use help kneading it.
Licensing issues, certification and 
lack of commercial kitchen accessibility 
because of COVID has truly made this a 
homemade effort. “All it really only takes 
is about a four-hour commitment, once or 
twice a month, from the comfort of one’s 
own kitchen,” Denise said.
Through research and tweaking of 
existing recipes found on the internet, 
Kneaded with Love has created two breads 
that are uniquely theirs. Volunteer bakers 
are provided a specific list of ingredients 
to purchase while the three founders 
of Kneaded with Love cover the cost of 
bags, labels and decorative ribbon for 
packaging. 
And they’ve gone to great lengths to 
make the whole process, from start to 
finish, as easy and simple as possible. 
Written recipes on their website are 
accompanied by video presentations, 
providing step-by-step instructions, from 
preparation to packaging, for the hearty, 
whole grain/whole wheat, no sugar added, 
high-protein bread choices. 

Said Barbara of the final product, 
“Open Hands Food Pantry once told 
me that people are so appreciative of 
how wonderful our breads are that 
they choose our loaves over the store- 
bought manufactured brands also 
made available to them.” 

They say life is easier when you 
don’t have “too many cooks in the 
kitchen,” but too many bakers? 
“Kneadless” to say, that’s a problem 
Kneaded with Love will gladly 
welcome, especially at this giving time 
of year. 

Lots of loaves 
made with 
lots of love 

Kneaded with 
Love volunteer 
baker Jennifer 
LoPatin

ALAN MUSKOVITZ

KNEADED WITH LOVE 

