Awesome bites
The club helped with the setting up of the unit and pays a percentage of the rent for space as well. The parents also chipped in with the initial investments, and well-wishers pitched in with donations and equipment to set up the unit. People with autism are also trained in baking here.
Anita Pradeep, one of the members of the club and a home baker, provided the training. “These kids are routine lovers; regular orders means work, which means structure for the kids. They feel relaxed and the activity lowers their anxiety levels,” Deepthi says. The precision of the processes — measuring, mixing, and shaping — helps them stay focussed. The chores are allotted based on the prociency of each person. The packaging too is handled in-house. “As they have heightened sensory perception, we cannot make everyone do everything,” she says.
Besides the obvious benets there are others such as fostering friendship among the six young men when they work together. The mothers benet as much from being part of Ausome Bites. They bond over their shared experience and have formed a support system for each other. Although they started out with a menu of three types of cookies, today they have grown to 18 varieties, besides other items and diversifying into healthy alternatives such as wheat, oats, millet cookies, jaggery and brown sugar.
The unit usually functions on three days a week, from 9.30am to 3pm depending on the number of orders. The mothers supervise and help with the processes and handling of equipment. “Anita is the only baker among us, the rest of us learned along the way with the kids,” says Vidya. Over the past two years of its existence, since July 2022, Ausome Bites’ clientele includes Wipro (Kochi), Aster Medcity, Centreal Bazaar, Street Store, and Chillax.
Online orders can be placed at ausomebites.com