A Sweet Solution

If someone told you they were promoting social justice through baking, it might be hard to believe—but coming from Elin Ross (MA anthropology ’95), it sounds like a creative and carefully considered proposition. Ross is founder of Cakes for Cause, a Frederick, Maryland-based non-profit organization that will help youth who have received social services learn essential work and life skills through baking.

“We’re trying to teach [a sense of] discipline, awareness, and self-evaluation for kids who have aged out of foster care or are in public housing, who may not have a family support network to help them be successful,” Ross says. “Pastry making is something that kind of lends itself to a program like this—there’s technique to it, there’s detail to it, and there’s structure to it.”

The program will hire as many as a dozen young people aged 16–21 to operate the Cakes for Cause bakery, located on North Market Street. For six months, they will each work 30 hours a week. Participants will begin in the kitchen, where they will learn how to bake various high-end desserts; they will later be promoted to positions at the front of the house.

In addition to providing work experience, Cakes for Cause will help its participants develop skills necessary for them to be self-sufficient once the program has ended. Ross explains, “A big part of our curriculum is addressing questions like, ‘What do you wear to an interview?’ and ‘How do you put together a resume and cover letter?’ Our goal is to figure out ways that we can help these kids be successful as adults.”

The program will accept its first applicants in the fall. In the meantime, Ross can be found selling Cakes for Cause baked goods every Saturday at the Frederick Farmer’s Market. “We’re trying to create a buzz around our product,” she explains. So far, it’s working—Cakes for Cause has sold out of all its items in its first weeks at the market.

Ross is uniquely qualified to lead this venture. In addition to having a degree from L’Academie de Cuisine—a culinary arts school in Gaithersburg, Maryland—she has worked with at-risk populations for over 15 years. Most recently, she has been devoting time to the International Youth Advocate Foundation, an organization that recruits foster parents and provides social support for foster families.

Ross attests that her experiences as a master’s student at American University have also helped prepare her for starting Cakes for Cause. “People will say, ‘You have a master’s degree in anthropology. What exactly are you doing? How does it fit in?’ But I really think it does,” she says. “I am using my AU education almost every day in terms of how I relate to people, and how I identify with the needs of the communities and individuals I work with.”