Baking a Difference

Translating a love of baking to supporting veterans and their families

Background Information

Cooking has been a part of Miles’ life since he was four years old. Since then, he has influenced his community in various different ways including publishing a cookbook, assembling small neighborhood barbecues, and even going as far to start a community bakery out of his home kitchen. When he was nine, he and his grandmother decided to publish a cookbook as a Christmas present for their family. They decided that they were going to give the proceeds to the local dog shelter, where Miles’ family adopted their amazing dog. With over 350 copies sold, he has donated over $10,000 to the local dog shelter, which is something that he values dearly. During the COVID-19 pandemic, he started a bakery out of his own lake house, and named the business “Loaves on the Lake”. His overarching mission was to give back to the local lake community by providing fresh loaves of bread at a reasonable price. He has decided to dedicate his CLP to cooking, because of the love and passion it builds within himself and his community. Hence, his project was named “Baking a Difference.”

Implementation of Project

Miles got going on his project immediately and kept on a great trajetory throughout his whole CLP.  Funding for the project was crucial and necessary in order to bake over 55 fresh apple pies. He reached out to his local grocery stores, but unfortunately got denied a donation due to not being a 501(c)(3) organization. With this in mind, Miles’ father, Adam had a close connection with an organization that he thought could help provide a letter of recommendation with an acceptable Tax ID. Miles ended up getting in touch with Yellow Ribbon Fund, a veteran service organization, and reached out to the local grocery stores in his area. He ended up receiving $200 from Wegmans, which ultimately gave him enough money to buy all of the pie crust tops, eggs, and spices. He knew that more funding would be needed so he got working on a virtual fundraising campaign. Miles’ mom posted the campaign to her Facebook and thanks to over 7 private donors, grew to over $475 of funds overnight, $175 over his intended goal. With sufficient funding, Miles got in touch with his action team to talk about dates and times. They ended up deciding on two dates in September of 2022 that worked with the local church to provide the kitchen space needed to complete the baking. The final step before baking the pies was to find an organization that accepted them. Operation Renewed Hope Foundation, a non-profit organization that helps find housing, was glad to accept the pies.

Results of Project

Throughout Miles’ project, a total of 58 fresh apple pies were baked.  Thirty eight of the pies were sent to the Department of Veterans Affairs, 12 to the Carpenter’s Shelter in Old Town Alexandria, and 8 to local veterans and their families. Miles and his action team did a fabulous job preparing, inspecting, spicing all of the 200+ apples by hand. This took over 10 hours of enduring labor that laid the foundation for the large number of people that were able to be helped. All of our corporate and private sponsors were extremely impressed with the work that we had done and how the funds of the project were spent. Miles was extremely thankful for all of the support he got delivering the pies. It took multiple cars, drop-offs, and deliveries to get all of the pies to the beneficiaries, but overall it turned out to be a major success.

What’s Next

After Miles’ amazing experience at the Alzar School, he has sought out more unique educational opportunities.  He looks to take advantage of what he knows from his previous experiences at Alzar and will improve upon his past opportunities. Miles is very active with his school’s leadership class and constantly works to build the most positive community that he can. He has taken leadership positions and stays active in many of his schools clubs that he feels greatly benefits the community. Miles loves the outdoors and wants to pursue a college experience that can cater to his recreational activities. With that in mind, he is looking at numerous universities in Colorado, as well as some in the Northeastern United States. Miles is working with his business and leadership teachers to discuss greater opportunities regarding his CLP in the future.