When picking up food from Bouffe Pontiac, clients don’t often see cake mixes or icing. Laura Ray, president of Les Amis du Pontiac, is hoping to change that, one birthday bag at a time.
“What we’re going to do is we will be providing 100 of those bags to Bouffe Pontiac over the course of 2025,” Ray said.
The birthday bags contain a cake mix, icing, a cake pan, candles, balloons, a small gift, and a can of soda, which Ray said is an innovative way to keep the cost of the bags down.
“It wasn’t something that we knew, that you could replace the oil and eggs in the cake recipe with a can of soda,” Ray said. “And it actually works very well for cake mixes.”
Kim Laroche, director of Bouffe Pontiac, explained that it also means that the shelf life for the bags is much longer than a kit that would include eggs or milk.
She said that partnering with local organizations makes it possible for them to do more with what little resources they have.
“We’re a very small team at Bouffe Pontiac,” Laroche said. “We try to take care of everything but partnerships like this help us make it possible.”
Laroche said that they often know when a client’s birthday is coming up and they plan to give them a special birthday bag when they pick up their other grocery items.
Ray said that people can get a birthday bag from Bouffe Pontiac, but also by reaching out to Les Amis du Pontiac.
“People can have rough months so they can also contact us directly and we will provide it that way as well,” Ray said.
The new initiative was made possible in part by a $1,000 donation from the Shawville Rotary Club. Les Amis du Pontiac is looking for additional donors to help with the initiative.
