Bakery event helps fight world poverty

from The Connecticut Post

MEG BARONE, Correspondent

Socially conscious owners of a bakery are employing an army of gingerbread men and the public to combat poverty worldwide.

Adults and children are invited to decorate gingerbread cookies at the Rogue Baking Co. during its Gingerbread for Bread event Saturday.

Decorators are asked to pay $2 for each cookie they decorate with royal icing and an assortment of candies donated by Rexies Sweets in Norwalk. Royal icing is a special icing used in the making of gingerbread houses and other fancy culinary fabrications. It serves as the glue.

Proceeds from the gingerbread cookie sale will go to CARE, a humanitarian organization that fights poverty throughout the world, especially in war-torn nations and places damaged by natural disasters.

"They view women as the center of the community and teach them business skills to help them help themselves," said Rion Haber, owner of the Rogue Baking Co.

"The world has become such a small place it's impossible to ignore people starving in Africa," said Haber, who also raises money for National Public Radio selling his own coffee blend called Radio Roast, one of several in Rogue's line of coffees.

Haber's business partner and pastry chef, Amie Soltis, did a trial run on the gingerbread cookies Thursday.

"I've never made gingerbread ornaments, just houses," said Soltis, who anticipates it will take 200 pounds of flour, almost 100 pounds of sugar and close to 100 pounds of corn syrup and butter to make enough dough for 5,000 gingerbread men.

While the cookies are edible, they're not intended for that purpose, Soltis said. "It's basically an industrial strength cookie. You can pretty much drop them on the floor and they won't break," she said.

Best to nibble instead on the other treats the Rogue Baking Co. bakes up in its new Stonybrook Road headquarters, including chipotle chocolate cake, flourless chocolate cabernet cake and bacon-apple-cheddar scones.

"We do products no one else makes. We wanted to recreate the traditional American bakery," Haber said.

The gingerbread men cookies will have ribbons attached, allowing them to be displayed on Christmas trees. Soltis warns they should only be used for this holiday season.

Gingerbread for Bread will take place from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Saturday at the Rogue Baking Co., 35 Stonybrook Road. For details, call 292-3973 or visit www.roguebakingcompany.com.