Family-owned bakery in Stillwater delivering free soup to sick OSU students
STILLWATER, Okla. (KFOR) - A family-owned bakery in Stillwater has been offering free soup to sick Oklahoma State University (OSU) students after several parents reached out to them asking for help.
“The parents let us know that they have a sick child, and we just take the soup... We go and do what we can to try and make those kids feel supported and loved,” said Tara Rose, Magnolia Fresh Baked Goods.
As we get into the cold and flu season, the family saw a need and decided to give back by delivering homemade soup to students on OSU’s campus.
“We have bags and bags of carrots,” said Lindsey Rose, Magnolia Fresh Baked Goods.
A mother and daughter baking duo recently started using their business, Magnolia Fresh Baked Goods, to give back to the community.
“Seeing the faces when we drop off the soup and them just being in awe of the wonderful generosity that we give,” said Lindsey Rose.
Lindsey’s mother, Tara Rose said since they started the business last year, they got several messages from out of state OSU parents asking if they could make their sick students' soup. But there was a problem. They operate out of their home kitchen, and they don’t have a commercial kitchen to be allowed to do that. Plus, they strictly make baked goods.
“I wasn’t in a position to do that,” said Tara Rose.
But one day, after being overflowed with messages from parents asking for soup, something in Tara changed.
“Soup was never in our mind at all... It was put on us by the parents, but I really think it was the Holy Spirit saying stop saying no, I’ll make a way and he has,” said Tara Rose.
The family says they deliver about 10 to 20 soups each day to OSU students and about 100 every week.
“We feel really blessed to kind of be that bridge between parents that are out of state that they know their kids are sick and they can't take care of them,” said Tara.
One of those parents is Brigitte Golay who lives in California. She told KFOR she is thankful for this service as she's unable to take care of her daughter from so far away.
“I don’t see stuff like that happening here in Southern California, so I just want to give her a hug through the computer, Tara a hug because it’s so sweet... People like that are rare to offer this for kids, it’s just unbelievable,” said Brigitte Golay, OSU parents in California.
Word got around and now the service is being funded through donations. People in the community and OSU parents have been supporting their mission to serve students.
“We’ve got enough support right now that we can keep going at least through November... We believe we have a long future doing this, there’s definitely a need,” said Tara Rose.
The free service is offered to sick students Monday through Friday. You can choose from chicken noodle soup or beef soup if you have a gluten restriction.
The family also says they could use some volunteers chopping up vegetables or delivering soup to students during the week.
If you’re interested, you can message them on their Facebook page to get started.