WITH the city put under extended community quarantine, most of the bakeshops and pastry places had to close down except for delivery and take-out services. But this challenge in the business did not dampen the mood of the bakers in Davao City. As a matter of fact, they saw this as an opportunity to give back to the community after years and years of patronizing their individual business.
The Mindanao Cake Decorating Society (MCDS) is a Facebook group with more than 3,000 members from different parts of Mindanao to date. Recently, volunteer members from Davao City decided to come together to bake and to donate their baked goods to frontliners starting April 22, 2020.
"For the succeeding days, we have tapped volunteer bakers to bake in their houses. We will provide some of the ingredients which are donated by our baking ingredient suppliers. We will collect their baked goods through pick up/delivery services. This will then be given to the frontliners in SPMC," MCDS said in an interview with SunStar Davao.
For their initial distribution schedule, they were able to bake cupcakes, pastry bars, and cookies. They target to be able to provide for 4,000 SPMC staff and 5,000 frontliners from different sectors such as security personnel at checkpoints, Central 911 personnel, and even Foodpanda delivery riders. They were also able to give food and bottled water for homeless people they meet along the way.
"As for the baked goods donated by the other members, it was really from their own pockets. But since we have suppliers willing to donate ingredients, we used that for making more baked goods. For other incurring expenses like logistics, water, gasul, and the other ingredients, it was really shouldered by the volunteer members. That served as their donation and service for those in need," they added.
As long as donations of supplies and ingredients are coming, they said they will continue baking for the frontliners. "We wanted to help and let our frontliners feel that we are thankful for the sacrifices they have rendered to keep us all safe."