Charles E. Hill 
NASHVILLE, Tenn. (WTVF) – The Baking Notification Project online platform allows home bakers to share their surplus baked goods with their neighbors for a profit.
“I started cooking a lot, and we just can’t eat it all. So I wanted to try new things like making croissants…I could make a dozen, and we can’t eat a dozen. Croissants. And so I would text my friends or text, you know, a neighbor or two that I knew to try and give them away,” Jessica Morrison, who founded Baking Notification Project, explained.
Her husband is a software developer and they worked together during the pandemic to create a platform where home bakers could donate their extra baked goods to a network of subscribers or followers.
“[The subscribers] pay $10 per month to receive text messages. And then I send an offer. So, like last night, I sent an offer for the croissants we have today. And I’ve had 10. So people text back and say ‘claim’ and that holds theirs,” Morrison explained. “Then, once 10 people claimed, the offer closed. So these 10 people are the people who come this morning [to my house] like to pick up, and so they don’t pay anything extra for it.”
Morrison said she never wanted to be a baker, but enjoyed doing something for her family about once a week.
Claire Kosky
“People share food, right? It’s not like we’re not innovating when it comes to food sharing. I had a real problem, which was that I couldn’t spend all All day texting trying to get rid of a few cinnamon rolls, right? I might have four more cinnamon rolls, or eight more chocolate chip cookies. was just more efficient,” Morrison said.
Once the platform started working for her, Morrison added other bakers in different neighborhoods to the network.
“It’s definitely more of a passion project or I guess it’s more of compensation for something you’d already be doing,” baker Alison Carden explained.
Carden had been experimenting with baking with cookbooks brought in by friends around the world for about a decade before joining the Baking Notification Project in March.
“You can’t just make like a huge cake and then get rid of it very easily. So that’s a way of, you know, being able to bake at least once a week and not just having tons of stuff like sitting down,” Carden explained. “Because before that I didn’t really get to cook more than a few times a month just because you know there are only two of us here and like I said you can’t do 30 cookies, you know? What are you going to do with them?”
Claire Kosky
Morrison said the project had surprisingly formed a community at a time during the pandemic when she admitted she felt very disconnected.
“It’s made me feel more connected and grounded here. And then opening it up to other people like other bakers, I see the same thing happening for them. Like they just feel more connected with people in neighborhoods like maybe for some reason they hadn’t met them, and they start meeting more people, they just feel more connected,” Morrison explained. “That’s pretty awesome.”
Claire Kosky
“You cook because you like to take care of people and do nice things for them. Whether it’s your family or your co-workers. And, you know, I think it’s nice to think that it creates a positive moment in people’s lives. day, you know, “I get a piece of cake today. Awesome!” Carden said.
Morrison said his followers say they love the element of surprise.
“I think it’s just like the spontaneity of someone giving you something that they have a little more, right?” said Morrison. “Like, I’ll make a dozen blueberry muffins and we’ll eat six or something. And then we’ll give away the other six. And so I think it’s just, you know, it’s spontaneity, it’s a little bit of joy in your day.”
To become a baker or subscribe to a baker in your neighborhood, visit the Baking Notification Project website.
Claire Kosky
