Nonprofit gluten-free bakery holding fundraiser
Wednesday, March 2, 2011 10:56 AM
By KEVIN PARKS
ThisWeek Community Newspapers
The second annual silent auction fundraiser for Food for Good Thought Inc., a nonprofit gluten-free bakery and job-training rehabilitation facility, will take place on Saturday, March 12, beginning at 3 p.m.
Food for Good Thought is at 4185 N. High St.
The goal of the event is to bring in $5,000, according to president and chief executive officer Audrey Todd, Ph.D.
The clinical psychologist founded Food for Good Thought in 2008. Todd's son Liam has autism, and she and her husband Scott Bogner, in researching ways to help the boy, discovered a possible connection between a gluten-free diet and improvements among autistic children.
The $5,000 would provide the local match for an Ohio Department of Transportation grant providing 80 percent of the cost of a 12-passenger van to transport the supported employees at Food for Good Thought, which Todd said received national accreditation as a rehabilitation facility in November.
If the effort falls short of that goal, the president added, the funds raised March 12 would go toward salaries for bakery employees.
Food for Good Thought, in addition to being a bakery, is also formally now a nonprofit organization able to apply for such grants. It took 11 months to achieve that status, according to Todd.
"That was a long process," she said.
After initially operating out of her office in the 3700 block of North High Street, Food for Good Thought moved into a former health food store with a commercially licensed kitchen. That enabled the organization to sell products baked by supported employees, many of whom have autism.
Previously, they learned baking at churches but the goods could not be sold.
"Things have been going really well since we opened in July," Todd said.
The local Giant Eagle store has been selling Food for Good Thought pizzas and Weiland's Gourmet Market will be taking some of the bakery's products, the CEO said. In addition to the already existing sales partners of Raisin Rack, Clintonville Market and Global Gallery, Kent State University has ordered 120 of the organization's pizzas for students who need to eat gluten-free products.
Finally, Todd said that a teahouse in Michigan where her husband works at times sells Food for Good Thoughts goodies.
"He's a theoretical physicist and he's also a muffin deliverer," Todd said
