Our Volunteers Bake All the Difference

Katherine Kehrli is the founder, chair, and chief bread & energy cookie officer. At the pandemic’s beginning, she found herself displaced, working from home, and searching for a way to help our local communities. Her heart was pulled to find a way to support local food banks struggling with increased demand and decreased supply. She is a lifelong advocate for nutrition and wellness for people and the planet. Research informed that the supply of freshly baked whole-grain sandwich bread at local food banks was limited. Her eureka moment was the discovery that donating freshly baked whole grain bread and, later, Energy Cookies, from our home kitchens directly to the emergency food system is allowed. Community Loaves was launched, and our “Breader Together” volunteers lean into the belief that we can bake the world a better place.

Cynthia Nims is a food writer and culinary consultant whose most recent books reflect her particular love of seafood, including Oysters and Shellfish. A graduate of the La Varenne cooking school in France, her work has included serving as food editor of Seattle magazine and contributing to many publications such as Cooking Light, Alaska Airlines Magazine and Coastal Living. In the realm of cookbooks, she has authored a dozen herself, and co-authored, edited or otherwise contributed to many others. Cynthia has also devoted much of her time to nonprofit work, which includes having served as president of the International Association of Culinary Professionals and serving as board member for Tilth Alliance in Seattle. A novice baker, count Cynthia among those who the pandemic inspired to learn the art of homemade bread.

Amy Slate is a wife and mother of twins. She is passionate about active travel, longevity, and spending quality time with family and friends. Amy retired after almost 20 years with McKinsey & Co. in their practice management area. She is enjoying applying her former work life skills to her role at Community Loaves while continuing to learn from others.

Spencer Groth

Treasurer

Spencer is a technology driven CPA with a passion for optimizing AIS for his clients. Leveraging AI and data analytics to support the growth of businesses in all industries with respect to their accounting processes and procedures. He is an alumnus of University of Washington Bothell where he earned his Bachelor in Business Administration Degree with a focus in Accounting and Finance. Outside of work, he enjoys spending time with his wife and friends exploring the area’s great food and beverage scene, hiking, skiing, and travel.

Spot Stephenson

Bookkeeper

Coming Soon….

John Zimet

Transaction Processing

John has been a volunteer baker with Community Loaves since August 2020, supporting Redmond Hopelink through the Redmond Hub. Retired, his career highlights include being an export manager for a Japanese company, managing director of the European branch of that company, freelance Japanese to English translator and interpreter, and manager of a translation department. He has always been interested in database management and has remedial programming skills. Retirement brings time for helping the breader together organization. He enjoys reading US history, is a huge Marvel fan, and Mariners fan. Now, empty nesters, he and his wife are greatly enjoying traveling together.