How do you get food to people?

I bake treats and prepare snacks for The People’s Store PDX—a group of volunteers who distribute supplies and food to unhoused people twice a month.

I can feel my capacity growing, so I’m currently exploring other groups to supply goods to on a regular basis, with the idea that sometime in the next amount of time (several months? a year?), I’ll be baking food for donation every week.

I’ve been doing this work on and off since 2020, and at some point I realized I could be the most consistent and reliable if I focused on making food to get to the folks who would do the work of getting it to the people who need it—in this way I take on only a part of the full effort it takes to help. It’s the part I know (from having lived with myself for four decades) that I will easily find energy for, even on a hard week.

And I think keeping my responsibilities narrow in this way is also what’s giving me space to think about how to grow in this specific direction.

What’s a domestic kitchen? And how do you do that with pets?

Each state has its own relationship and regulations for domestic kitchens—you can read about Oregon’s guidelines.

I lived in Tennessee and had a domestic kitchen fifteen years ago (The Plum Baker’s first life!), and now I’ve established a domestic kitchen in my home in Portland. I’ve found the designation to be a careful and thoughtful balance: the home baker is permitted to prepare certain types of goods (those that present low food safety risks), and they agree to follow standard health and safety procedures to further minimize those risks.

Some of the ways I maintain my kitchen:

• I only prepare Plum Baker goods between “domestic” kitchen tasks (like making my breakfast or cleaning my personal dishes).

• I have a cat! Her name is Fig! This is permitted under Oregon regulations as long as I keep Fig out of the kitchen while I’m doing Plum Baker things (which I do; she gets annoyed).

• I follow specific guidelines for cleaning and sanitizing my tools after each use.

• I have a separate fridge, freezer, and pantry space for my Plum Baker ingredients.