In conversation with Good Bitches Baking

Good Bitches Baking (GBB) is proudly founded by Nicole Murray and Marie Fitzpatrick. Established in 2014 - they are the 2020 Mitre 10 New Zealand Community of the Year – Ngā Pou Whirinaki o te Tau. Over the past six years they’ve helped more than 650,000 New Zealanders going through trauma or difficulty. The volunteers’ baking is distributed by the 170 other charities that GBB supports - organisations such as Women’s Refuge, mental health group homes, Rape Crisis, Age Concern, night shelters, missions, hospices and hospitals.

As a charity, it relies on public donations and its enterprise to keep running. GBB’s purpose is to make Aotearoa the ‘kindest place on earth’. The charity regards itself as a virtual community with 2100 volunteers throughout New Zealand, in 24 local chapters. GBB is volunteer driven – with only one part-time staff member for general administration.

We caught up with Nicole Murray from GBB and asked her what the award meant to them, her advice for others and what impact it had on the charity. Here’s what she had to say.

How did it feel to receive the 2020 Mitre 10 New Zealand Community of the Year Award?

Well the actual moment is a bit of a blur, but I feel so proud of our community of over 2500 volunteers to have their work recognised in this way. Because we are all about small acts of kindness, sometimes people feel the impact is small - this award is a BIG recognition and acknowledgement that all the small acts have made a huge impact on Aotearoa.

I also felt grateful to the judges for recognising the small things have big impacts, and that being purposefully kind has significant value to our country. I don't envy their decision though, there were some incredible communities in the semi-finals and finals.

What does this award mean to your community and what was your initial reaction when receiving this award?

This award is particularly meaningful to us because it's about all of us, our whole community. Although Marie and I are often acknowledged as founders, it's the work of thousands of people that has made the impact that we have. Every one of our volunteers can see themselves in this award because it says it's about our community, not one or two people. Our initial reaction was pride that our people were all recognised and hope that they all felt special and loved in that moment.

How has this award impacted Good Bitches Baking as a charity to continue helping communities?

Our charity has grown so rapidly over the five years we've been operating, it shows no sign of slowing down either. The award, and legitimacy and profile it brings will certainly help that. Covid19 happened shortly after the awards, and that's taken a toll on many organisations, charities included. For us it means some uncertain financial times ahead, and we are hopeful that the prestige of this award will help us gain supporters and funders in the coming year as we all recover.

What advice would you give to other New Zealanders rallying support for a community-based initiative?

Charities, NGOs and community groups need help and support more than ever right now - all are facing financial and other challenges from Covid19 while their services are needed more than ever. My advice to anyone who values the work of any particular community initiative is to help it, now. Money always helps, but skills are needed too - ask what they need.

Tell the volunteers how much you value them - they are probably pretty tired now and any morale boost is good. We get little notes and messages often from someone saying that we made them smile on a dark day. And it gives us all the energy to keep going. A little kindness goes a long way.

And public shout-outs and accolades will help keep their spirits high! The Mitre10 Community of the Year award is such a prestigious and special acknowledgement of what can be achieved with combined hands and hearts - take the time to nominate a group you value.

Nominate a group of people that have made an outstanding difference to your community.