This is a story about a little decision going a long way.
One of western Washington’s most popular bakeries, Macrina Bakery, partnered with bakers around the world in a fundraising effort called “Bake for Ukraine.”
They’re raising money for a prominent bakery in Kyiv - “Bakehouse” - which was running out of flour because it was giving away so much free bread to refugees who were literally starving.
As first reported in the Kent Reporter, Macrina joined in the worldwide effort by bakeries last week, decorating their Brown Sugar Shortbread cookies with blue and yellow, the colors of the Ukrainian flag.
And they flew off the shelves.
“We sold out of the Ukrainian flag cookies almost every day - at almost all of the cafes,” President/CEO Scott France told KING. “We had other businesses saying, ‘Hey, can we participate?’ And we had to turn them down because we were maxed out at almost 2,000 cookies.”
That’s about seven times the number of cookies they usually make in a week.
France said the motivation was simple; he just imagined what would happen if Washington state was invaded.
"We would be using the flour that we have on hand to bake bread, to sell or to give away to help take care of our community,” he said. “So it's just a tragic situation that they're going through, and it's so impressive that (Bakehouse) is able to continue operating and give out bread to their local community.”
“I wish there was something else we could do to stop the situation,” he continued, “but we can't. So we're honored to be able to participate in this small way.”
Actually – it wasn’t small at all. Their one-week push, selling cookies at only four cafes, raised $11,000.
Macrina’s specialty is pastries, not cookies, so they’re not bringing the Ukraine cookies back, but their donation helped pushed the worldwide total of funds raised past $100,000.
If you'd like to donate, go to the “Bake for Ukraine” GoFundMe page.