On Sunday, November 13, we celebrate World Kindness Day. The purpose of this day, as outlined by the World Kindness Movement, is “to highlight good deeds in the community focusing on the positive power and the common thread of kindness which binds us”.

Good Bitches Baking is a network of people who want to spread kindness to those in their communities who are having a tough time. Let’s examine how we, as an organisation and as individuals, are fostering a chain of kindness.

Every week, about 540 boxes of baking are delivered by about that many Good Bitches around New Zealand, but the actual number of people who experience a link in this chain of kindness cannot be so easily quantified. The message of kindness implicit in our baking is not typically confined to us as an individual, but shared with the person delivering the baking, our recipients, our families, and our friends.

A good example of this is in the artwork that often decorates our baking boxes.

In our internal social media groups, there are countless references to children assisting with bakes, whether that be manifested in decorating the baking boxes, honing their own skills in the kitchen, or accompanying a parent (from as young as a few months old) to deliver the bakes.

One Good Bitch remarked on how her son told their relatives that “Mummy bakes for people who might not have a place to live or are not feeling happy”, illustrating how involvement in the baking process can teach children the importance of being actively kind.

Good Bitch Friday delivering some of his bakes

Michele, another of our Good Bitches, commented that the organisation is “a great cause for the quiet kids to be a part of”, as they are able to contribute, but don’t have “to be front-facing”. Michele’s son Friday recently performed two bake and drops, and she says, “he really enjoyed himself.”

Some of our younger volunteers have taken this message of kindness even further, committing to doing their own baking as part of a service project, for programmes such as the Scouts and the Duke of Edinburgh Award. The son of another Good Bitch has just completed about fifty hours of baking over the past two and a half months.

The next time you do something kind, whether it's filling a GBB baking box or bringing in your neighbour's rubbish bin, remember that your act has a greater ripple effect than you realise.

Spreading kindness in your home and your community is contagious. Jez Alborough’s well known poem A Smile, aptly captures the contagious nature of kindness.

A Smile

by Jez Alborough

Smiling is infectious,

you catch it like the flu.

When someone smiled at me today

I started smiling, too.

I passed around the corner

and someone saw my grin.

When he smiled, I realized,

I'd passed it on to him.

I thought about my smile and then

I realised its worth.

A single smile like mine could travel

right around the earth.

If you feel a smile begin

don't leave it undetected.

Let's start an epidemic quick

and get the world infected.