Taste of Hope

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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. As of 2025, Taste of Hope has been brought back under the leadership of Doris Peng. 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 is now ready to grow and bake a variety of treats including cookies, cheesecakes, and egg tarts to be donated each month.

Register: at https://www.givepulse.com/group/1430260-Taste-of-Hope 

Process: To start, Doris searches online for recipes and communicates with the other volunteers to choose options that are both simple and tasty. Once she determines the batch size needed and the amount of volunteers available, she calculates the total amount of ingredients required and shares the list in the group chat. One volunteer is then assigned to purchase all the ingredients and drop them off at the respective houses. The volunteers then have one week to complete their baking before someone comes to collect all the baked goods. Packaging takes place the following day. Finally, volunteers can log their impact on GivePulse to receive volunteering hours.

Youth Leader

Doris Peng is currently a freshmen based in Austin Texas, and is set to graduate in 2028. She’s a dancer who also loves to read, hangout with friends, and bake in her free time. Through Taste of Hope, she seeks to not only create more tasty desserts, but supply little tokens of delicious joy to inspire hope in those who need it the most. She is dedicated and excited to collaborate, meet, and positively impact the lives of others.

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 https://www.givepulse.com/group/1430260-Taste-of-Hope.