About us

Six years ago we decided to try to make the world a little bit less shitty, by baking treats for people having a tough time. We asked if anyone else wanted to join in. We truly had no idea that hundreds hundreds would.

In fact, so many people have joined us, we’ve gone from a tiny group of 15 people based in Central Wellington to a national registered charity that’s growing all the time. Right now, we have 28 chapters already bitching around the country, and with more in the pipeline. We have over 2,700 volunteer Good Bitches and so many people joining every day that in some places we even have waiting lists.

And we’ve lost count, but we reckon we've given over 1,000,000 moments of sweetness.

What we’ve come to realise is that it’s actually not the kindness that makes the biggest difference, it’s the sense of home that home baking creates.

Home is something many of us take for granted – the physical security of a roof over our heads, the emotional security of belonging, and the comfort of having somewhere that’s yours. The organisations we deal with are supporting people who, for a range of reasons, are lacking the benefits of home - because they can’t be at home, home isn’t a place of safety, or because they simply don’t have one.

Having home baking, even only occasionally, is also something most of us take for granted. We cried for a long time the first time an organisation told us that many of the women in their shelter had never had anyone bake anything for them. Ever. Not even on their birthday.

We hear this all too often now, and it makes us sad every time. How does it happen that in our beautiful country people can go their whole lives without ever receiving this simple act of love?

So we cry tears of happiness when we hear that somehow our baking creates the sense of home that our recipients don’t currently have. They say that having baking in their sparse offices encourages people to stay a little longer and open up a little more. They say that baking made them miss their home a bit less when they got back from watching their kid get chemo. They say that they took time, over a piece of cake, to connect with someone. They say that knowing someone cared enough to make them a treat made them feel less alone.

While we’re not naïve enough to think that baking can truly save the world; it’s at least a little bit sweeter, for everyone involved.

Founding Bitches