Hope-Filled Organizations (Part 5)

We Bake the World a Better Place

Community Loaves™ is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit grassroots bread and cookie home-based volunteer brigade, baking and delivering Honey Oat Sandwich Loaves and Energy Cookies in support of our overstretched food pantries. As a community, we are passionate about wholegrain baking and united in the pursuit of providing delicious, nutritious baked goods to our local food pantries. We are fully entrenched in the greater Seattle area, and have outposts in Oregon, Idaho and California too.

Mission Statement: To nurture strong communities through the connection, training, and empowerment of home-based bakers to reduce hunger and promote wellness.

This project began humbly, in April 2020, with an aspirational and understated donation of 19 loaves created by a handful of pioneer bakers. With each successive donation, our numbers have climbed. To date, our organization has donated a total of 211,464 loaves and 231,833 energy cookies. Our dedicated volunteer community is composed of bakers, four re-packers, drivers, and tech support gurus, all organized into 66 neighborhood hubs and supporting 50 food banks between California, Idaho, Oregon, and Washington. Across the country, millions of people are newly experiencing food insecurity, and our food pantries cannot meet the demand. Amongst other things, wholesome, nutritious bread and healthy Grab ‘n Go snacks are needed. Community Loaves™ and our “Breader Together” network is answering the call, one volunteer at a time. Our impact is limited only by the size of the baking brigade; more bakers mean more donations.

Katherine Kehrli, founder of Community Loaves, slices bread donated by her organization at the Edmonds Food Bank in Edmonds, Wash., Monday, Sept. 8, 2025. (AP Photo/Annika Hammerschlag)

And it isn’t just about giving away baked goods, heck that can be accomplished through purchases at the grocery store. As the world continues to face a wide array of struggles, all the things, this project provides purpose and fosters a heart-warming connection with your local community. We delight in supporting bakers of all levels, from novice to professional, bread or cookie enthusiasts, or both. Our signature formulas, featuring locally sourced wholegrain ingredients, provide the blueprint, while our volunteers generously contribute their time and baking skills.

And beyond baking, we have a wide range of volunteer opportunities to assist with our work. I warmly invite you to add your time, talents and treasure to our volunteer network.

Attend an information session to learn how you can help Bake The World A Better Place. One of the things I enjoyed about this group and their website was their play on words, for example, “We’re Breader Together” instead of “We’re Better Together.”

To learn more about this organization, click on this link: Community Loaves – We're Breader Together

U.S. Green Building Council

This hope-filled organization started as a local group and has grown into a national organization, making a positive impact on our environment.

USGBC accelerates and scales the transformation of the built environment. The evolution of LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) through LEED v5 sets a new standard for sustainable building, pushes boundaries, and creates effcient and extraordinary spaces. Building a future where the built environment supports a healthy, sustainable world.

To learn more about this organization, click on this link: USGBC | U.S. Green Building Council

One example of a recently completed Green Building is: Ascent MKE - A mass timber apartment community in Milwaukee, Wisconsin encompassing 351,347 square feet.

New Land Enterprises' 25-story multi-use building is the world’s tallest mass timber apartment community, and it certainly adds a flourish to the skyline of downtown Milwaukee, Wisconsin. In addition to its striking walls of windows, Ascent MKE showcases a construction using engineered wood products such as cross-laminated timber, which the team approached as way to lower its carbon footprint.

Offering 259 apartments, as well as office and restaurant spaces on the first floor, Ascent MKE opened in 2022, but sought LEED certification just two years later under LEED v5 for Operations and Maintenance, to further meet its decarbonization goals in a way that would be ongoing throughout the building's life cycle. Ascent MKE achieved Silver certification under the beta program in November 2024.

According to Ascent MKE's sustainability resource page, attaining LEED v5 for Operations and Maintenance is "a milestone that reflects both innovation and stewardship," combining results in energy efficiency, indoor air quality, sustainable site management and water conservation.

“We were excited to learn that Ascent would be the first project in the U.S. to receive LEED v5 O+M certification," says Laura Kleczkowski, vice president of property management, New Land Enterprises. "While our choice of mass timber construction has drawn worldwide attention, it’s important to note that we don’t think of sustainability as a one-time achievement, but rather as an ongoing practice."

To learn more about the Milwaukee project, click on this link: usgbc.org/articles/look-leed-v5-ascent-mke

About Cards for Hospitalized Kids

Cards for Hospitalized Kids (CFHK) is an internationally recognized nonprofit charity that distributes uplifting, handmade cards to Children’s Hospitals and Ronald McDonald Houses in all 50 states. Doctors provide the medicine and CFHK aims to provide hope, joy & magic through cards. CFHK was founded in 2011 by a high school student named Jen Rubino whose own experiences a “hospitalized kid”, undergoing 20+ surgeries, inspired her to start CFHK to help others. Founder Jen worked to build CFHK from the ground up into the national charity it is today.

To learn more about CFHK and how you can be part of this joyful effort, click on this link:
https://www.cardsforhospitalizedkids.com/

To view a 4 minute, 45 second interview of Jen Rubino, click on this link:
Cards for Hospitalized Kids Founder Jen Rubino Interview on NBC News

I know this is a lot of information about one organization, but the more I looked into CFHK, I was so impressed by who Jen is and what she was able to start and keep it going. And I found her story and organizaton truly inspiring. I hope you will take a few more minutes to read an artcle which an interviewer did with her several years afer she got CFHK going. Click on this link: Interview with Jen Rubino, Teen Founder of Cards for Hospitalized Kids