Bakeology club hosts holiday fundraisers throughout the year in order to focus on their culinary skills while resupplying themselves through monetary funds.
Bakeology consists of both Culinary Arts students and those who opted to join them voluntarily.
“I have some students who have never done this [cooking] at home and they are baking over here at the Culinary Arts kitchen,” Culinary Arts teacher and bakeology club sponsor Ciaran Devlin said.
“We are able to help each other to reach the same culinary goals,” Tsesang said. “Some [participants] are really hard workers, and there’s a collective sense of teamwork and strong work ethic in the room always.”
“Our club is self-funded, which means when we sell our products, the revenue comes back to our club so we can buy ingredients for the next fundraiser,” club member and sophomore Tenzin Tsesang said.
“The main idea was just to provide a stress-free environment for both creators and buyers,” Tsesang said.
Bakeology said they meet only before and during holidays due to the rapid decline in demand after big celebrations.
“We are at the point where we can introduce new treats and biscuits from our revenue,” Tsesang said. “We help our academy to stay financially vital.”
Tsesang also said that the club appeared only during national holidays such as Christmas and Valentine’s Day when people have higher demand on their goods, because it takes a lot of time to get the permission from Principal Litz.
“There is some paperwork needed to get work done concerning the ingredients we put in our food, and there are rules and regulations of the county to follow,” Tsesang said. “Some of these regulations have no impact towards our club activities, others do.
Another purpose of their club is to provide additional money to the Culinary Arts class while restoring their depleted funds.
However, there still exists rules about how they are to handle money within the school.
“They cannot have their profit inside of the school, that is against the policy,” Devlin said. “Instead, all of the earnings return to academy itself in order to cover expenses,” Devlin said.
While Devlin said the club aims to teach members new recipes, he conducts most of the baking on his own because most of them do not know enough about baking.
“Even though our sponsor does most of the baking, we still get to learn different recipes,” sophomore Ashley Kim said.
Kim said that participants are also able to practice real-life skills, like marketing and accounting, when they sell the baked goods.
“We are welcome to newcomers to learn and practice their skills,” Kim said.
Kim also said she hopes to change the foundation of the club in the future.
“I want to possibly turn it into a non-profit organization, once I get past the regulations around it,” Kim said.
Kim said she plans to at least expand the club in the future, and to get more people involved in it.
The club bakes treats pertaining to the occasion. The process to prepare for one holiday fundraiser takes several weeks with approval from principal Litz.Kim said she plans to at least expand the club in the future, and to get more people involved in it.