Online Bake Sale for the Philippines 11/25/2013

Last November 7, 2013, the Philippines was hit by super typhoon Haiyan. Despite government preparations, this category 5 typhoon left the hard hit areas in ruins. Houses and buildings were razed to the ground due to the very strong wind. Power and telecommunication lines were cut off. And the worst, thousands of people died and almost half a million were left homeless. Given the scale of the destruction, the Philippines is facing a very long and difficult road to recovery…and the Filipinos need all the help they can get.

Though I'm thankful that both my family and my husband's family are all safe and weren't badly affected by this calamity, my heart breaks to see my fellow Filipinos suffering. For the past six days, I've been thinking of what I can do to help ease their burden. I've personally made a donation to CRS, I've also finished packing some clothes and towels for donation, and using social media, I've tried to encourage other people to give support. I know that I've helped in my own little way, but I feel that it's not enough! I know I have to do more than that. Inspired by the online bake sale I joined 2 years ago, I thought why not host one myself for my beloved native country. The fear that I've not been active in the blogging community gave me second thoughts. What if nobody joins? Nevertheless, I tried reaching out to some of my blogger friends to see if I can count on their support. To my surprise, a lot of them are willing to lend a hand! I am truly grateful to know some very supportive people in the blogging world! Adora of Adora's Box, Amy of uTry.it, Jessica of Kitchen Belleicious, Liz of That Skinny Chick Can Bake, Kate of Diethood, Manu of Manu's Menu, Sandra of Sandra's Easy Cooking, Serena of Serena Bakes Simply from Scratch, Sue of Munchkin Munchies, Swathi of Zesty South Indian Kitchen, and Tiffany of Como Water were the first ones to email me. Knowing that I have a bunch of wonderful bloggers behind me gave me the confidence that I can make this online bake sale possible!

The auction will take place on November 25, 2013. All donations from this bake sale will go directly to Sagip Kapamilya. Meaning "rescue family" in Filipino, Sagip Kapamilya is the emergency humanitarian assistance program of ABS-CBN Foundation, Inc. which provides food and non-food relief to affected communities of disasters, as well as engage in rehabilitation and disaster risk reduction projects. They have launched Operation “Tulong Na Tabang Na Tayo Na" which means "Let's Help" and aims to raise funds that will aid in the rescue and rehabilitation efforts for the victims of typhoon Yolanda. By either donating your baked goods or being a buyer, you will be supporting a great cause and helping bring concrete hope to Filipinos in their moment of greatest need.

My goal is $2,500. With your help, I know we can make this happen!

If you would like to donate some homemade goodies, please fill out this form, and if you know any bloggers or professional & home bakers, whether they have a blog or not, who would like to participate in this bake sale, please have them email me or make them fill out the form too! Pledges for baked goodies will be accepted until Friday, Nov. 22, 2013.  I am also looking for corporations/individuals who would like to match any portion of the sale. If you or someone you know are interested, please fill out this form.

I'm sure some of you are asking how this online bake sale works? Well here are the basics:

• People who are donating to the bake sale won't be sending me the items they are donating. They will just email me pictures and descriptions of their baked goodies. This is open to anyone even those outside of the US. Bakers have the option to ship "only from country of origin" or internationally.
• Two days before the bake sale,  I will have pictures with descriptions posted for bidders to have an idea of the yummy goodies they can bid on.
• On the day of the bake sale which is November 25, bidders can bid on items by filling out a bid form which will be posted on that day.
• All bids start at $20 and go up in $1 increments. You can go for "buy it now" option for $200.
• The bidder with the highest bid wins! All winners will be announced a few hours after the bake sale has closed. Each winner will pay the specified bid amount by making a direct donation to Sagip Kapamilya  through ABS CBN Foundation International and then, will have to forward the donation receipt to bakesale4pinas{at}gmail{dot}com within 24 hrs.
  
• Once the donation goes through I will e-mail the baker the winner’s address and it will be the baker’s responsibility to bake and send/mail the baked goods to the winner within 7 days.

Please help spread the word! Email it to your friends, tweet about it with the hashtag #bakesale4pinas, share it on your blog, facebook, google+ or in any of your social networks.

If you have any questions concerning this fundraiser, email me at

Any help will be greatly appreciated!