The girls from Eat My Words – and why they’re monkeying around right now.

If you’ve got a sweet tooth and a sweet heart, then make your way over to Eat My Words for something even sweeter. There you’ll find Sacha, Heidi, and Jeanne decorating away amongst the colourful ribbons, hat boxes, and beaded animals that fill their studio. The Cowgirls wanted to learn about this not-for-profit organization, and how such cute little cupcakes (along with their new venture: MonkeyBiz) could make such a big difference in somebody’s life.

Pony: Explain to us how Eat My Words started and how the Stephen Lewis Foundation inspired you.

Sacha: The company started almost 10 years ago by my mother, Jeanne. Initially, it was launched to help fund the Out of the Cold program so that when you’d buy a box of treats from us, you’d help provide a meal to a homeless person. It was about eight years later that Jeanne met Stephen Lewis, saw the phenomenal work he was doing and really wanted to become a part of that – being South African it really spoke to her.

Pony: Is it a big foundation?

Sacha: Not really, which is good because that way their administrative costs are quite low. It’s mainly him and his daughter working really hard; always on the go, and we just decided it was important for us to help him.

Pony: What made you switch from the Out of the Cold program to the Stephen Lewis Foundation?

Sacha: Mostly because the Stephen Lewis Foundation spoke so directly to Jeanne and her connection to South Africa.

Heidi: We still love the Out of the Cold program, the work they do is tremendous, but it was what Stephen had said that really moved Jeanne to want to become as involved as possible. 95% of their dollar goes to the grassroots of the issue, not to some person behind a desk making phone calls.

Pony: What’s the process from start to finish in terms of your creations and how they help the foundation?

Sacha: Because we’re a not-for-profit it varies. With any business there are ups and downs and we’re about to come up to a busy time of year: Christmas, so there’s a lot for us to do which is great. Valentines is another big time of the year for us, and in the end it’s about getting our cupcakes out there and sending the profits to him.

Pony: Do you work with a lot of events in Toronto?

Sacha: Yes, we have a lot of corporate clients.

Heidi: Palette, Hart House. We do a lot of private events like weddings, anniversaries, baby showers stuff like that. Our cupcake towers are really popular because it gives everyone their own little treat at a big event.

Pony: What is your background in regards to baking or beading?

Heidi: We don’t bake or bead haha

Sacha: We come from various backgrounds, but in the end our background comes from love. Love is our background and wanting to help support a great cause. Our packaging, icing and decorating gets done here; I used to be a stylist in L.A. so that background has helped aesthetically with the cupcakes. Jeanne was in advertising and journalism before this, which helped her launch the company, and Heidi worked in an art gallery. In the end, this a job where the three of us use all of our skills in hopes that the common ground is the love and passion behind what we do.

Pony: Do you find there is more popularity for either MonkeyBiz or the cupcakes?

Sacha: Well, MonkeyBiz is still quite a new venture, it’s only a year old and these things take time. But we’ve had such a wonderful response to it with the press and generally people are loving it. At the end of the day I guess the cupcakes are more popular simply because they are the history behind the company. We did however have a big event in Yorkville recently and on November 12^th and 13^th we’ll be at Wychwood Barns so people will be able to see our stuff there.

Pony: What is the dynamic between the three of you like?

Sacha: What’s really nice is our history. Heidi and I have been friends since we were twelve and Jeanne is my mother – although let’s be realistic there’s the odd mother-daughter battle every now and then haha. But really it’s so wonderful to be working closely with the people I love. They’re family.

Pony: It’s obviously working! You’ve got people like Oprah and Nelson Mandela talking about you.

Sacha: Ya, that really helped get the MonkeyBiz stuff out there in the world. It just brought a huge smile to our faces to see something make a big difference like that.

Pony: So what’s the biggest challenge with your job?

Sacha: We are a small business in the end. It’s hard for people to really understand that we are a not-for-profit organization. That term gets thrown around and it doesn’t always sink in.

Heidi: And gaining awareness is a tough issue because of that. Building our reputation took a while to do with a lot of help from Jeanne and her advertising background. We’ve got limited resources and we’re lucky to have this space donated to us. But that means that these things can also easily disappear for us.

Pony: Where do you see Eat My Words in another year? Or 5 years?

Sacha: I imagine all sorts of things. I guess that’s part of my charm but I tend to need reeling in every so often. I’d like to get people to be more aware of the MonkeyBiz stuff and realize that it’s about giving something with so much meaning behind it. This (as well as the cupcakes) is one of the few products that can really help make a difference out there. A shop one day would be amazing too: an Eat My Words shop.

Pony: Do you have any favourite flavours of cupcakes? Or a favourite cupcake shop you go to?

Sacha: My favourite would be the carrot cranberry cupcake with cream cheese frosting because I would like to practically wear that frosting – I love it that much. In terms of shops I loved Sprinkles in L.A., or Jones on Third – they make a great cupcake. But nothing compares to ours really, I used to get my mum to bring them on the plane with her when she’d visit me. And I’m not just crazy we had one customer literally charter a plane to New York just so she could have our cupcakes there. No Magnolia for her haha. The ingredients we use clearly make a big difference and I think that’s why they taste so amazing. But there’s room for everybody out there; there’s always room for cupcakes.

XoXo
–The Cowgirls

There's Always Room for Cupcakes., 5.0 out of 5 based on 3 ratings

Category: Feedbag, Pony Diet · Posted by: Mushy Pony Tagged: cupcakes, Eat My Words, Hart House, Out of the Cold program, Stephen Lewis Foundation on Wednesday, November 4, 2009 · 3 Comments »