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Spirits sure to rise when bakers add their special ingredient – kindness

Good Bitches Baking has been making New Zealand a sweeter place for eight years, writes

Virginia Fallon.

Of all the acts of kindness Jenny received after she escaped her violent partner, the white box of baking was the smallest. In the weeks before it arrived she’d been given sanctuary in a women’s refuge; clothes and toys for her children, then furniture; whiteware and groceries for her new house.

It was an avalanche of kindness; big things needed in a time of big change, and after it came the box.

‘‘Inside were these beautifully decorated cupcakes; a recipe and a note from the baker. I just cried and cried because someone had done that for me.’’

That box was one of 17,167 delivered around New Zealand by Good Bitches Baking in the past financial year. This year there’ll be 23,139.

Formed in 2014 as a way to help spread a bit of love to people having a hard time, the charity is now marking its eighth birthday with a Head Bitch hui and the launch of a fundraiser to help keep those boxes coming.

Nicole Murray says that when she and co-founder Marie Fitzpatrick came up with the idea of Good Bitches they could never have foreseen how it would explode.

‘‘We were drunk, which is when the best things happen, and were talking about how everything at the time seemed really grim.’’

The Wellington women had been struck by the visible rise of homelessness in the city, as well as news about refuges being full.

‘‘We were feeling a bit hopeless and depressed about the state of the world ... so we decided to bake for people who were going through a difficult time just to let them know someone cares.

‘‘Because we were drunk and we’re idiots we gave ourselves a name – Good Bitches –

Nicole Murray

and made a logo, put it on Facebook asking for volunteers, and it went mad from there.’’

And it really did. These days there are 2600 volunteers throughout the country; 316 recipient organisations and 30 chapters from Kaitaia to Invercargill. A total of 2316 boxes of baking were delivered last month.

Coromandel has the smallest chapter with five Good Bitches and three recipient organisations, while Wellington is the largest, counting 463 and 46 respectively.

By the way, men can be good bitches too; they make up about 10% of volunteers.

After driving the charity for years, and nearly breaking themselves in its early stages, Murray and Fitzpatrick stepped down from the board last year.

Murray says everyone expected that would be a sad moment for her but it was actually the opposite.

‘‘Seeing it able to live without us is so gratifying . . . people put their heart and soul into their baking and it does make a little difference.

‘‘It’s just like in the olden days when mums or nanas would leave a casserole on the doorstep if someone died – it’s a modern interpretation like that.’’

Yesterday the leaders, or head bitches, of the charity’s chapters were gathered in Wellington for a weekend of professional development, connection with each other and a cooking competition.

Michelle Morgan travelled from Kaitaia for the hui and knows how a bit of kindness can make all the difference when things are tough.

When she received baking from the charity a few years ago it changed her life.

‘‘It made my day, and it was my turning point. That simple thing in a box with a handwritten recipe and a note from the heart actually turned my life around.’’

A keen baker herself, Morgan is now launching the country’s newest chapter, saying there is nothing better than spreading kindness.

‘‘What I get out of it is seeing a smile on someone’s face. It’s just beautiful; it makes your heart sing.’’

‘‘Because we were drunk and we’re idiots we gave ourselves a name – Good Bitches – and made a logo, put it on Facebook asking for volunteers, and it went mad from there.’’

NEWS

en-nz

2022-09-25T07:00:00.0000000Z

2022-09-25T07:00:00.0000000Z

https://fairfaxmedia.pressreader.com/article/285980406009616

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