Amid Rising Food Insecurity, Cake4Kids Sees Surge in Requests
As families grapple with food insecurity and soaring grocery prices, demand for Cake4Kids’ services has surged. Many are finding themselves unable to justify spending on birthday cakes, often prioritizing basic meals over celebratory treats. Additionally, constraints such as time, electricity, or lack of baking equipment further contribute to this growing need.
“We know that a lot more people are struggling,” explained Newmaster. “At the national level, we hit 100,000 requests all-time earlier this year, and every ambassador meeting that we have, they’re updating us on numbers, and every month our volumes are increasing nationwide.”
Last year, the Eastern Nebraska chapter of Cake4Kids delivered approximately 600 cakes, a number Newmaster anticipates matching this year. However, other regions across the country might be experiencing even greater increases in demand.
On Monday, Newmaster, along with two bakers, participated in a cake dropoff at CASA for Douglas County, a partner organization. Claudia Deeb, a baker from Omaha, has been creating cakes for Cake4Kids since 2022, having baked around 265 cakes to date.
“I’m retired, and I do four or five different volunteer things,” Deeb shared. “I used to do birthday cakes for my son when he was little, but I never did the layer stuff, and I thought, well, that might be fun. I got a little carried away early on.”
With her background in art, Deeb enjoys fulfilling creative cake requests from kids, who get to choose the flavor, color, and theme of their cakes. An example of her creativity is a “6-7” cake, inspired by a TikTok trend that captivated elementary and middle school students last year, where they would gesture “six-seven” with a juggling motion. This phrase gained such popularity that Dictionary.com named “67” its word of the year.
