Bake Sales and Political Resistance
Do you remember this?
During the anti-war movement (Viet Nam) this iconic poster pointed out the inherent absurdities of our government spending — choosing to fund massive amounts of weaponry while schools received “bubkas”. Although meant to be ironic, the bake sale can actually be a tool for political resistance.
I’ve participated in many bake sales in the recent past and recognize the efficacy of bake sales to counter the lack of access to political power. I found great joy and purpose in baking batches of bagels and challah, for the “Sweets for Shuumi” bake sale and sorry to see it end this month. I decided to read up on the history of bake sales and perhaps formulate different machinations of raising funds through baking. I started to read food bloggers, many of whom participated in social justice bake sales and developed a greater understanding of the importance of local campaigns** in El Cerrito. Examples of campaigns include:
Bake for Bonds (2017-18) Partnering with Freedom for Immigrants (later CIVIC) bake sales raised close to $10,000 for immigrants incarcerated at West County Jail and needing bail.
Cookies Not Cages (2019) Partnering with East Bay Sanctuary Covenant, bake sales for immigrant children at the U.S. border raised close to $10,000
Sweets for Sanctuary (2019-2020) Partnering with East Bay Sanctuary Covenant, bake sales (and a Go Fund Me campaign) raised $10,395.52.
*Sweets for Shuumi (2022) Partnering with the Sogorea Te’Land Trust, the 7 bake sales raised $4,400.
*2022 bake sales were numbered by half due to post-covid considerations.
**A shout out to Together We Will - Albany-Berkeley who organized bake sales to defend democracy.
Bake Sales and the Fight for Racial Justice
During the Civil Rights movement bake sales became pivotal for fundraising for bail to support jailed protesters and financial support for their families. In the blog post The Power of the Bakes Sale, Dayna Evans writes,
“It’s not surprising that women of color, continually banned from accessing formal political power, would have turned to this kind of activism as a means to fight racism. In the civil rights era, when many Black women in the South worked as domestic laborers and cooks, the bake sale was prime territory for political resistance.” She continues, “One of the most well known of these bakers was Georgia Gilmore, a Black cook from Alabama who used her domestic skills to raise money during the Montgomery Bus Boycott. Gilmore’s Club From Nowhere was an initiative in Montgomery that she started after she’d been fired from her job for playing a vocal role in the civil rights movement, testifying on behalf of Martin Luther King Jr. at his Montgomery County indictment.
She recruited women to sell plates of pork chops and rice, sweet potato pies, and pound cakes from their homes and at protest meetings, using the cash to pay for gas and cars to transport Black workers to their jobs while the boycott continued for nearly 13 months. …it was common protocol to pay in cash to avoid the donations being traced. This way, Black supporters wouldn’t get in trouble with their employers and potentially lose their jobs, while white donors held on to their political and social standing.”
A more recent example of bake sales and political resistance grows out of the tragic death of George Floyd at the hands of the police. Pastry chef Willa Pelini reached out to fellow pastry chef Paola Velez and Bakers Against Racism was born. Together Velez, Pelini, and chef Rob Rubba reached out to bakers from all over the country and a global bake sale emerged. According to their website, the team had over 2,400 confirmed participants from 38 states and 15 different countries including Australia, Denmark, and Turkey “baking everything from thick slices of pound cake dripping with a bright and sticky strawberry glaze in New York City to earthy and chewy black sesame seed cookies in Paris.” They report raising over 2.5 million dollars.
A plethora of social justice organizations have adopted bake sales as a viable grass root strategy for mobilizing support for issues including reproductive rights and immigrant rights. I found one particular site incredibly invaluable: The Bake Sale Project. The Bake Sale Project is an online resource that documents the radical potential of the bake sale. Their goal is to create free, equitable, inclusive and collaborative resources to empower local organizations and confront systemic racism and pursue changes in local spaces.
Sweets for Shuumi
In March of 2022, community members baked for the Sogorea Te’ Land Trust, to support the vision of rematriation of the Lisjan Ohlone people to their land. Over 30 volunteers and a supportive community raised $4,400 for the seven month campaign.
I look forward to working with community home bakers and professional bakers to continue the resistance strategy of bake sales as we seek social change and a more equitable community.
Referenced readings:
The Bake Sale Returns to Its Political Roots
Bake Sales: Domestic Labor and Julian Turshen’s Feeding the Resistance
