About

Since 2013, Kids Bake a Difference has been making homemade dog treats and raising funds to support local animal causes and in 2022 a new chapter begins.

Gracie Kermisch always loved animals.  That was not terribly unique for an elementary school aged kid.  At age 8 Gracie asked her friends and family to make donations to the Animal Humane Society rather than give her birthday gifts.  She wanted so badly to make a difference for animals in need and looked for a way to do so where it wasn’t about what her parents were willing to contribute, but what she and her friends could legitimately do.  In 2013 Kids Bake a Difference was born.

Kids Bake a Difference makes homemade goodies for dogs and sells them with 100% of the proceeds donated to animal causes.  The treats are made with human grade ingredients and every batch is “tested” by Gracie’s dogs, formerly Olive (an Irish Terrier) and Sushi (a Soft Coated Wheaten Terrier) and currently, Waffles (a 5 year old Australian Labradoodle) and Pancakes (a 5 year old Australian Labradoodle). 

Kids Bake a Difference has supported events for the Animal Humane Society, Carver Animal Humane Society, Coco’s Rescue and Pause for Paws.  In the past, the kids sold homemade dog treats at the events and provided items for silent auction.  A group favorite was auctioning off a 4-course meal for your dog’s birthday or special celebration with items like Sweet PUP-tato Chips, MUTT-loaf, PUP-kin Pie WOOF-les and Peanut MUTT-er BARK-nana Cake.  To date, Kids Bake a Difference has raised over $8,000 for local pet organizations.

Beyond raising money for pet causes and having fun in the kitchen and with pets, Kids Bake a Difference has always served another purpose, developing business skills.  In the past 8 years, Gracie has learned a lot about the cost of operations from ingredients and packaging to paying for Square and credit card fees.  She has had to work to predict demand to determine how much inventory to prepare. She has had to estimate the amount of labor needed and recruit friends and family members to service the business.  She has had to make prioritization decisions about which events/organizations to support.  And throughout, she has learned about marketing – from the products offered to pricing to distribution and generating awareness and consideration from potential customers.  Kids Bake a Difference became a real-life experiment and like an actual business, there were failures and learning opportunities throughout.  Gracie had to learn to use critical thinking and problem solving to assess what worked, what didn’t work, when she needed to ask for support and determine how to adjust to improve for the next time. 

Kids Bake a Difference may be made up of “do-good” young entrepreneurs, but they are savvy.  They accept cash or credit cards, they sample to their potential customers (with permission from the owners, of course), they maintain a simple ingredient label and are quick to remind customers to either serve the treats soon or keep the treats frozen – since they have no preservatives, they won’t keep forever!