Saskia

“Meals for Mum is a charity that was started quite a few years ago – not by me, by somebody else. Hilary Barry. along with Seven Sharp, introduced it to the world and it kind of burst onto the scene nationwide. To be honest, with COVID, it became very difficult to maintain due to health risks and isolation periods, so we put it ‘to sleep’ for a wee while. But now we’re building up again.

In essence, it’s meals made with love, from one mum to another around the country. There are lots of moments of stress in parenting. And sometimes you might get stuck under a baby all day or have to deal with a teenager, and you feel like ‘I just haven’t got the mental bandwidth to make a meal tonight/this week!’. That’s the time to put your hand up and ask our community for support.

My part in Meals for Mum, aside from Admin, is that I bake almost every week. I put the offer out on the Facebook page, and people respond if they need a bit of a pick-me-up. I then choose someone; it’s a pay-it-forward kind of thing but also some of us just like to help out where we can in our communities.

I love baking (my dad was a baker) and I find baking really cathartic. My husband doesn’t eat sweet things, and I typically don’t either because I’m actually mildly allergic to sugar! I guess it’s kind of lucky that I find giving incredibly powerful, too, and it is a perfect thing to combine my two passions of baking and supporting women.

A  charity for women has always been something that I’ve really wanted to do with my life. I do believe that I was born to do this and I have a really strong drive to help. It is something that I do on the weekends when I’m not studying for my postgraduate-diploma, or working full-time. Luckily, my kids have left home now, so that’s less that I have to worry about day-to-day.

In my day job I’m a Library Manager and I have 76 student librarians. I bake them each a cake for their birthday, every year. They love it! Teenagers and sugar go really well together. So I just bake and give  – that’s who I am and what I do.”

– Saskia