A group of Alabama volunteers is making sure no kid goes without cake on their birthday

A group of volunteers, led by a preschool teacher with a love of baking and a dedication to serving her community, is making sure no kid in the greater Huntsville area goes without cake on their birthday.

Danielle Stradling, a California native who moved to Alabama three years ago, first began baking cakes for children in need while living in Arizona. The mother of four said she was eager to recreate the community she had experienced elsewhere once she moved to Huntsville. So when she learned about a national nonprofit that provides free, custom birthday cakes to children who might otherwise go without, she decided to help by spreading Cake 4 Kids’ initiative to our state.

“When I lived in Arizona, we were foster parents and we loved how involved the community was,” said Stradling. “There were a lot of wonderful resources and lots of help for foster families, so I was inspired by that and started volunteering for a very similar organization [to Cake 4 Kids]. When we moved out here, I looked to see if that organization was out here, and it was not, but their website referenced Cake 4 Kids as having a similar mission. That’s when I approached them about opening a chapter here.”

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Cake 4 Kids is a nonprofit organization that partners with private and public agencies to provide free, homemade birthday cakes for children who are at-risk or underserved, including those in foster care, group homes, homeless shelters, transitional and low-income housing, domestic violence or human trafficking shelters, substance abuse programs and refugees.

It began in the San Francisco Bay Area in 2010, after its late founder, Libby Gruender, read an article about a young girl who received her first birthday cake while in foster care. Since then, the organization has provided more than 65,000 cakes to at-risk youth, recruited thousands of volunteers and opened chapters across the nation.

“Helping the community is something that’s always been really important to me,” Stradling said of what motivated her to create the first and only Cake 4 Kids chapter in Alabama. “I’ve been a community volunteer for my whole life, and it’s just always been a part of who I am. This is just my favorite way right now to give back to the community.”

For Stradling, who is a preschool teacher at the Ford’s Chapel Learning Center in Harvest, a love of baking started early with her mom baking her birthday cakes each year. It’s a tradition she continued with her children, and now, she hopes to extend it to other children in need.

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“My mom loved to bake, and so we grew up having homemade birthday cakes every year,” said Stradling. “They were just, you know, the boxed cake mix and canned frosting, but it was still our family tradition, and that’s just something I took to as I raised my little kids. We would watch those cake decorating shows, and [my kids] would design a cake on a paper and give it to me, and I’d do my best. They never looked as good as the TV show, but I really enjoy decorating and I’ve always enjoyed baking.”

May 18, 2024, marked the official launch of the Greater Huntsville chapter of Cake 4 Kids, and the first cake was delivered on June 13th. Currently, Stradling said the organization, which is always looking for more community partners, has around 60 volunteers and has baked nearly 100 custom cakes in its first year.

To order a cake, Cake 4 Kids’ partner organizations and programs simply reach out to Cake 4 Kids with the details, from flavors to a specific design, that the child would like, and from there a volunteer takes the assignment on. While Stradling said the cakes often range in difficulty — as does the volunteers’ skill sets — she thinks it’s important that each individual child gets a unique cake they love, rather than a generic catch-all, so they understand that they, as an individual, matter to their community.

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“I think that the way that we do it, it’s not just a birthday cake or, you know, just a random birthday cake,” said Stradling. “They get to pick the flavor and the design and everything about it. It lets them know that they’re important and what they want matters and that they’re seen.”

While volunteers often don’t hear more, other than the occasional photo or video, about the child once the cake has been left to be delivered by a caseworker, Stradling said it’s their hope that the birthday girl or boy gets more than just a sweet treat out of the experience.

“I hope they see that they are loved,” said Stradling. “I hope they know that someone in the community cares about them.”

To volunteer or partner with the Huntsville chapter of Cake 4 Kids, you can visit their website.