3 reasons why we should distribute healthy cupcakes to kids to give a moment of joy when the poverty that surrounds them cannot be removed with just one baked good ? Well, there are more than 3 and very good ones at.
Here is #Why1 – Because look back on your own childhood. What do you recollect – the moment you tasted the delicious Chocolate souffle your mom made or the time you bought yet another new toy. What do you relive till your eyes overflow – the time your mom packed your favourite besan laddoos in a steel box when you left for hostel or when you graduated with a degree. If you are a little like me your food memories are the sharpest, the strongest, the most vivid.
Why would you then not create such memory moments for any other little child, no matter whose he / she is. Perhaps one who is still believes that the warmth of the entire universe lies in the heart of a mother, no matter whose she is.
#Why2 : Because what makes your heart soar like a bird in a clear blue sky – when your child gives you a tight hug with sweet grubby sticky little hands, and proceeds to explain how he told their friends about the chocolate pancake you make is the best in the whole world.
What breaks down our reserve of behaving like an ‘adult’ – when finally after many months, the little girl you handed over the cupcake to on the construction site you walk by regularly, does not avoid your eyes. She smiles immediately when she sees you and you smile back right into her kohl rimmed eyes.
You won’t forget your child’s words, his little hands overfull with pieces of pancake. You won’t forget that little girl’s smile that finally reached her eyes, even if for that moment.
Perhaps the two children won’t forget these moments either. Perhaps they will. But after 20 years it will come to them tiptoeing into their souls like a long-lost visitor. And will make the children again.
So reason 2 why we should distribute healthy cupcakes to kids to give a moment of joy even when the poverty that surrounds them cannot be removed with just one baked good.
#Why3 : Because the need to be “seen” is far deeper and primal than we think. The desire to feel that someone has actually looked at me, has recognized that I am there. The “I” is not the ego. The “I” is the little voice inside the child who stands by the traffic signal, or sits and sings a chirpy song in the anganwadi, or smiles out from behind the make-shift blue plastic covered tent, that he or she calls home.
The “I” is the sweet soul-song of the child who is only hoping for a next meal, but receives a delicious cupcake 🙂 Remember when you asked your parents for a cycle perhaps on your birthday, and dreamt of the one in the shop window. And then when you opened your gift, you realized that the one they got you was the one that went even beyond your dreams – it was that amazing ! That is the feeling, when you hand over a cupcake to a small child, whose only hoping to be able to find a decent warm meal in that day.
So reason 3 why we should distribute healthy cupcakes to kids to give a moment of joy even when the poverty that surrounds them cannot be removed with just one baked good – Sometimes a cupcake can mean much much more to a child, than a meal, the powerful feeling of knowing that he or she CAN get something more than what is regular ordinary.
Video from a recent distribution of these cupcakes to a small government center for underprivileged kids in Domlur / Bangalore. Age 3-6 years.
Recipe Credit- I replaced the flour with Wholewheat flour and excluded the lemon.
Ovenderful by Simran Oberoi 