Meet Glenda Moore | Founder and Executive Director of Kind House Ukraine Bakery

We had the good fortune of connecting with Glenda Moore and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Glenda, what was your thought process behind starting your own business?
It wasn’t even a thought. I went to Ukraine in 2013 and fell in love with the people there. I came home and told my mom that I desperately felt a deep urge to help them. She said, “Well then, you will learn to bake” and that is just what she taught me to do.

We began with her having me over at 4:00 AM each morning with the dough rising and ready to roll out into my grandmother’s cinnamon roll recipe from long ago. We sold these cinnamon rolls to schools, to teachers, to businesses and to anyone that would buy. We helped young adults that were graduating out of the orphanage system in Ukraine to become settled in their dorms or flats for trade school or college. That was in 2013. In 2014, Crimea was annexed and the war in Eastern Ukraine began. We began helping widows and widowers, the elderly, the disabled and anyone who was living along the front lines of war.

I baked out of my home kitchen for nine years and then opened the commercial bakery in November of 2022 with the aid of over eighty volunteers who now mostly run the bakery on their own.

My thought process then and now is the create a stable nonprofit that will help Ukrainians in the years to come and to have it stand alone without me if needed. Currently as I write this, I am leaving in four weeks to go into Ukraine with a team of three, work with a small village there to find out their needs for the winter and meet with my contacts there so that we can establish the work ahead for the coming winter. Some have asked, “Why would you risk going to Ukraine?” My answer will always be, “What good are we if we do not meet them face to face and find out if we are actually helping?”

I read this quote recently and it resonated well with me:
“When you make yourself irreplaceable, you put a time stamp on that which you love. You become a cog in the wheel. Yes, while you live you are viewed as necessary. The wheel turns and everyone is nourished. And then you are gone, an irreplaceable cog in the wheel stops turning. The glory days are remembered well but what good are they when that which you offered is no longer accessible? Your gift is expired, because you lacked what it took to become a conduit- the vision clogged, stopping with you instead of flowing through you from God to others.” – Keturah Hickman

Alright, so for those in our community who might not be familiar with your business, can you tell us more?
In 2013, I came home from Ukraine and with the help of my mom, we started baking. Over the years we grew bit by bit. By 2017, we needed volunteers on the weekends as the orders started to fill up each month. In Texas you are allowed to bake and sell from your home under the cottage food law. Every week we posted on social media about the baked goods and how cakes save lives in the war zones of Ukraine. Was it easy? Heck no. I worked a full time job as a teacher and then as an administrator during the day. On early mornings, nights and weekends, I gave my heart and soul to creating great baked goods for donations that would help buy coal, medicine and medical equipment for people living on the front lines of the war in Ukraine.

There were long nights and early mornings and also a call to the community to help. We went on the news, Texas Country Reporter came and did a report. The community brought eggs, milk, flour, sugar and our garage turned into a pantry to help provide ingredients in order to ultimately save lives on the other side of the world. We had to be vulnerable, let strangers into our house, let them come help, let them help us clean and do all the things necessary to make it possible to save people.

In 2018 we heated 19 homes with coal. In 2019 we heated 36, In 2020 we heated 119 homes and I left my full time job as a school administrator to work for KHUB full time. My husband and I took a leap of faith when I left education because that meant taking a pay cut of one third of my salary in order to do this work full time but it was a crossroads, a time where I had to decide to either work on the nonprofit and say good bye to education or to say good bye to the nonprofit and to saving thousands of people on the other side of the world.

In 2021, we heated 44 homes and did not complete the winter deliveries as Ukraine was invaded mass wide in February of 2022. In 2022, we rescued more that 2,000 people from the harshest areas of warfare in Ukraine. In 2023 we rescued another 1,500 people and started helping more with orphanages, refugee housing, repairing homes before winter, generators, power banks and schools. In November of 2022, we opened the doors of our commercial bakery,

We learned to let people help, to tell them the stories every week that we were hearing from Ukraine. We learned that our world that was peaceful and unshaken, was often taken for granted. We learned to help others feel what we were feeling and to take part in loving Ukrainians that they had never met.

We learned that the luxuries of having hot and cold running water in our homes, heating and air conditioning, roofs and walls without bullet holes, roads without holes from missiles and rockets, cities and communities that are thriving, are all to be treasured.

If you asked any of our volunteers why they love serving at KHUB, I am sure you would get a long list of beautiful things. The top answer would most likely be, because Ukraine needs us and we have the privilege to have a place to be able to come every day and do something for others just because we can. We aren’t paid in money. We are paid in knowing that we helped another human to survive this war.

What are we? We are Kind House Ukraine Bakery and we are made from a community that gives back, that cares about Ukraine, that wants to be a part of giving something to the world and being an integral part of humanity.

If you had a friend visiting you, what are some of the local spots you’d want to take them around to?
Believe it our not, Amarillo is a great place to visit and give back to the community at the same exact time. If a friend came to Amarillo, I would definitely introduce them to the organizations that give back to our community repeatedly. Sounding like a strange vacation idea? Not really. This is the latest and greatest trend from fellow humanitarians globally. In Amarillo you can both check out the great wildlife and be a part of helping the Wild West Wildlife Rehabilitation Center. Sure, you might need to wear your boots and to clean up after you are there but nothing is more rewarding that talking to the animals, seeing the difference that the crew is making in the surrounding area. This would be our exact plan on Monday and from there we would visit Sunday’s kitchen for lunch. This family owned restaurant is the perfect place to find out how incredibly loving our community is. On Tuesday we would head to Snack Pak for Kids and help distribute snacks into bags for hungry kids in the Texas Panhandle. On Wednesday nights we would head to Hali’s project at Southwest Church of Christ. Hali’s project is the coolest place in town to hang out with the best people with heart and soul. Hali’s project serves families with special needs kids. These young adults with special needs are just your average kids at heart. You will become addicted to the laughter and love among these incredible souls. On Thursday we must head out to Storybridge and help sort books for children and young adults. If you are here in the summer, you might just get to attend an event where they give away thousands of books to vulnerable children that may not otherwise have books to read at home. On Friday, hang onto your hat because we should head out to Cowgirls and Cowboys of the southwest. This horse therapy ranch is an excellent place to find out how horses can help ease anxieties and help young people focus on good living and life skills for the future.

Shoutout is all about shouting out others who you feel deserve additional recognition and exposure. Who would you like to shoutout?
This adventure with Kind House Ukraine Bakery would cease to exist if it were not for our dear friend, Dmitry Pashchenko in Ukraine. He has risked his life repeatedly since 2013, going over the front lines to rescue people, bring medicine, supplies for heating their homes, repairing homes, and countless other tasks that easily could have taken his life. Without his sacrifice, thousands of Ukrainians would have perished.

The incredible people of Amarillo, TX, donors throughout the US and Europe, all who have beckoned the doors of KHUB to offer support, and to the over one hundred volunteers that have come to bake and contribute their talents and efforts in order to save lives on the other side of the world.

None of this would have happened without my lovely husband, Cody and our two daughters, Faith and Hope.

Last but definitely not least is my mother, Glenda Sue Pope, who listened to my dream to help Ukraine and helped me make it a reality. She will forever be missed but she was a conduit to helping change happen so that we could give life to thousands of Ukrainians. May we all become conduits in this lifetime.

Website: https://kindhousebakery.org

Instagram: kind_houseub

Linkedin: kindhousecharityfund@gmail.com

Twitter: @KindHouseUB

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/ukrainebakerykindhouse?mibextid=LQQJ4d

Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@kindhousecharityfund138

Image Credits
Glenda Moore, Dmitry Pashchenko