It was November 9, 2016, and Natasha Pickowicz woke up with an emotional hangover. She felt stunned. Drained. Mad. Donald Trump had just clinched the election, but she still had to pick herself up, endure her normal hour-long commute, and go to her job at Flora Bar, as if nothing had happened. But at work, no one could focus. Instead the chefs, managers, and staff met to figure out how to turn pain into purpose.
So Pickowicz—the executive pastry chef at Flora Bar and Café Altro Paradiso best known for her black cardamom-heavy sticky buns—went back to basics. She proposed the idea of a bake sale. “I was like, what if we did something that everybody could relate to this nostalgic, timeless idea,” she tells Glamour. “Whether you were little and it was in your church basement, or in middle school for your field hockey team, everyone’s had the experience of setting up your table, hanging out with friends, and raising money [with baked goods].”
Simple in theory, sure, but the bake sale Pickowicz, 35, pulled off would put any PTA mom to shame. Gone were traces of Betty Crocker or Pillsbury Funfetti. Instead, in the spring of 2017, Pickowicz invited 18 world-renowned pastry chefs and friends to come together and bake 50 items each. People like Bon Appetit‘s Claire Saffitz and James Beard award-winning cookbook author Dorie Greenspan all joined forces to sell their signature goods and raise funds for Planned Parenthood of New York City with each spoonful of sugar. That afternoon, Pickowicz collected $8,000—and an annual tradition was born.
In 2018, Pickowicz raised $22,000—once again all in $5 increments. And for the third, which was held this past spring, Picowicz set the ambitious goal of $40,000. She met it, and then some, raising $96,000. The growth has been exponential, but there are certain pillars that have anchored each event. It takes place at Café Altro Paradiso, it lasts one (long) shift, and proceeds benefit Planned Parenthood of New York City, not the national organization. “It was important to me that it was about our community and what’s happening here. This way I can find out first-hand how our funds are getting used,” she says. “The money is going towards more hormone therapy centers in the boroughs. They’re also building a fleet of mobile health centers, these trucks that will park and and be based in underserved areas. So it’s these hyper-regional things that PP NYC is working on.”
And while Pickowicz’s bake sale has remained focused on New York, for New York, more and more bake sales like hers are popping up nationwide. She’s frequently tagged on Instagram in photos from bake sales in Nashville or Charlotte, or someone emails her for advice. “I’ve had young women reach out to me and be like, ‘I had a bake sale at my local park!’ And then there’s the bigger ones, like in New Orleans where they raised $60,000,” she says. “People are also doing them in red states, where they’ve gotten a lot of blow back from people in the community who are offended by it. Like this summer we saw a lot of them for Yellowhammer Fund and [to protect reproductive rights] in Alabama.”
As she begins planning for her 2020 bake sale, Pickowicz dreams of seeing even more people follow in her footsteps—and for the sale to have an even larger impact. “With the presidential election next fall, it’s going to be a really, really crucial year. And with four years having gone by, I hope that next year explodes more than ever,” she says.
This year has made one thing clear: Women are showing up, stepping up, and taking what they deserve. From politics to pop culture, women aren’t just leveling the playing field—they’re owning it. As we ramp up to our annual Women of the Year summit, we will be highlighting women across industries who do the work every day. Whether it’s the CEO of a multinational retail corporation, a James Beard Award–winning chef, or the World Cup champions, here are the women you need to know right now. So far, we’ve celebrated women in sports, beauty, and style. Up now: 12 women who have made the food world more equitable, more ambitious, and so much more delicious. From an MIT-trained flavor scientist to a chef who’s created a new canon in Southern cuisine, these women have expanded our minds and our palates. Mmm. Dig in.
