Thirty years of baking raises over £35,000 for CAFOD

Elizabeth Wallace

Source: CAFOD

Woking resident, Elizabeth Wallace, is celebrating over three decades of baking cakes for CAFOD every month, raising an estimated £35,000. Elizabeth is modest about the amount that she and the others who have helped at the stall have made. “We’re just normal people and that’s our strength,” she said. CAFOD representative in Woking, Martin Brown, describes Elizabeth’s dedication to CAFOD as “inspirational”.

Elizabeth’s baking odyssey began back in 1986. Her mother had died two years previously and the terrible Ethiopian famine of 1984 was still fresh in her mind. One of Elizabeth’s friends suggested that she did something to help her both recover from the loss of her mother, and help those in need overseas. She says, “I can cook and I like to bake, so that’s how it all began!”

Elizabeth set up a cake stall after Mass once a month at her parish of Our Lady of Christ, Kingfield. As well as selling cakes contributed by parishioners, they held sponge competitions. Elizabeth says: “One of the reasons I kept going was that it made other people join in, and there have been some amazing examples of generosity. There was one lady who died a couple of years ago who donated £20 every month!”

When they moved to St. Dunstan’s in Woking, Elizabeth kept on baking. She says: “You don’t stop. The world is still in need and we can’t just be reactive to big crises, we have to take the initiative too. And you can’t just walk away, because you feel you’re betraying the people you’re supporting. These aren’t just people on pieces of paper, these are people whom you’re praying for.”

In 2014, after almost 30 years as the organiser of the CAFOD cake stall, Mary handed over the running to two other St Dunstan’s parishioners, Ruth Whiddett and Lin Mason. Inspired by her American mother’s recipes, Elizabeth still bakes delights, such as cookies, every month for the stall, adding to the mounds of freshly baked bread, homegrown fruit and delicious homemade cakes. Mary says: “The girls took over and run the stall with their children and it’s going really well; it’s gone from strength to strength and they make wonderful cupcakes! It’s very popular and we regularly run out of what we’re selling!”

Link: www.cafod.org.uk