Mission
Taste of Hope is a program where ACAN youth volunteers bake cookies to be donated to the homeless at Camp Esperanza, the orphans at Central Texas Table of Grace, and the underprivileged kids at Children of the King Center. The goal of this project is to lift up everyone’s spirits and to spread cheer! We want them to feel hopeful and warm during this pandemic, and what better way to do that than through homemade treats?
Beginning
With a passion for baking, Maggie Lu and Jessica Li founded Taste of Hope in August 2022 to bake treats for the underprivileged. Since then, Taste of Hope has baked treats for the Children of the King, the Central Texas Table of Grace, and for events including ACAN’s Winter Gala. The program has grown to over 15 volunteers and bakes a variety of treats including cookies, cheesecakes, and egg tarts. Volunteers have donated over a hundred treats per month.
Process
Both Maggie and Jessica search online for pastry recipes, test and modify them for the program to make it easier for the volunteers and the recipients. For cookies, they make sure that the recipes are tasty and make cookies that are chewy for the homeless since they might not have the proper hygienic tools to keep their teeth strong and healthy. After determining the amount of ingredients needed for each batch, they compile the recipes and post them onto a discord server. The server is also where they post announcements about new sign-ups. After deciding the volunteers, one would distribute pastry ingredients to each household and the other will pick the finished pastries. There is usually a week-long window for the volunteers to bake before pick-up and packaging. Volunteers will sign up on the Givepulse event to log their hours after receiving the event password.
Summer – plan on continuing recruiting new people and delivering desserts to CTTOG. Additionally, we plan on expanding Taste of Hope in a new direction, which we will further discuss with Mrs. Angela about.
Register at https://www.givepulse.com/event/336867-Taste-of-Hope
Youth Leader
Maggie Lu is currently a junior in high school based in Austin, TX. In her spare time, you can find her playing the piano, rewatching Studio Ghibli films, and inventing scrumptious desserts. As an avid baker, she hopes to bring a Taste of Hope to those who need it the most. She graduates from Westwood in 2024.
If you’re interested in joining Taste of Hope and are pretty good at baking, then message me on Discord (my username is: melrose#1781) and I’ll add you to Taste of Hope’s server! The server is where the cookie recipes are located and where I send out announcements related to sign-ups. You can also sign up at linktr.ee/tasteofhope.