Good Bitches Baking delivers homemade treats to local charities.
A local charity is on a mission to make Aotearoa the kindest place on earth.
The Good Bitches Baking (GBB) initiative has been running for two years in Rotorua, spreading kindness through home baking.
Stacey Rimene is the proud Head Bitch of the Rotoura chapter: “We’re a group of volunteers that love to bake. We want to share kindness to people struggling, having a tough time.”
The organisation has chapters throughout the country, from Kaitāia to Gore. In Rotorua, there are 26 volunteers, with each expected to bake at least once a month.
Rimene says the time volunteers spend baking is only a couple of hours a month: “Some of us, like myself, [who are] single with no family — I can’t eat all the baking by myself, but I love baking. So for me, it’s perfect.”
Many volunteers combine their commitments to the organisation with fulltime jobs.
“I work 60, 70 hours a week,” says Rimene. “I don’t have the spare time to go and volunteer outside of home. So for me, it’s perfect. Mucking around in my kitchen is my happy place.”
Rimene says the response she gets makes the juggle more than worthwhile.
“It’s hard to describe. It definitely makes me happy. It’s just this little, simple gesture on my part. But it makes such a big difference to their world.”
The volunteers come from all walks of life and have different motivations for taking part.
Stacey Rimene. Photo / Mead Norton
Tina Berryman-Kamp says being involved allows her to “contribute some act of kindness or make a difference for someone through something I enjoy”.
The volunteers can bake whatever they want. For some, it’s a chance to show off family recipes handed down through the generations.
Berryman-Kamp, a psychologist, bakes using her mother’s old recipes.
“I think when we look at the aspects of wellbeing, giving and connecting to others is a fundamental thing that lifts us. But I think also it’s really important, [considering] how the world is at the moment, to have people being kind and thinking of others.”
GBB estimates it has about 3000 volunteers helping throughout the country.
“That gives me a little special feeling that I’m part of something bigger. The reality is most of the time, the work we’re doing, we’re doing it by ourselves in our own kitchens. But every so often we’re able to come together, and that’s nice.”
The organisation delivers to several Rotorua charities, all grateful for the goodies they receive.
For some of their clients, it’s a real highlight of their week.
