LIFE
10 • Thursday, March 11, 2021
By Emily Williams-Robertshaw
OVER THE MOUNTAIN JOURNAL
She started an Instagram account and began posting pictures of colorful cookies. “I started having people that I went to college with, people that I haven’t spoken to in 10 years, asking, ‘Where can I get these?’” she said. She began organizing contactless porch pickups, expanding her client base from friends to people she had never met.
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Journal photo by Jordan Wald
hen the time came for Vestavia Hills mother of two Kathryn Yarbrough to step back from her career in nonprofit management with UAB, she knew she still wanted to work in some way. While she doesn’t consider herself a pastry chef by any means, a pandemic goal to master the macaron A Nonprofit Model gave birth to a new neighborhood As the pandemic wore on, she saw baking venture, Patricia-Irene’s. the damper health and safety meaNow, Yarbrough is using her sures put on nonprofits’ ability to homemade macarons to not only give raise funds. Annual events were being back to some of her favorite nonprofcanceled, postponed or formatted for it organizations but also connect with virtual participation, while the need grassroots causes throughout the for services continued. community. “My uncle had just been diagThe company is named after her nosed with ALS and I really wanted grandmothers – Patricia Jerome and to do a fundraiser for the Muscular Glenda Irene Williams – two women Dystrophy Association, knowing that who had a profound effect on her I probably wouldn’t raise a lot of relationship with the kitchen. money,” she said. Yarbrough’s paternal grandmother, She had a surplus of macarons sitPatricia, hailed from a small town ting around that she didn’t want to go outside of Rome called Abruzzo, to waste, so she decided to use them Italy. When Yarbrough was still little, as a fundraiser. Patricia and her Hungarian mother “I started posting on social media moved to Pennsylvania to be closer saying, whatever you want to donate, to the family. just come by and grab a 12-pack,” With 12 children who had families Kathryn Yarbrough’s company is named after her grandmothers – Patricia Jerome and Glenda Irene Williams – two she said. of their own, cooking and baking was women who had a profound effect on her relationship with the kitchen. “We raised about $300, which a constant in the household. isn’t much in the grand scheme of “She showed me how to weigh things, but for a day’s worth – about out my first cup of flour, because she six boxes – it’s huge.” was always in the kitchen when we would Inspired by the success, she began holding visit,” Yarbrough said. “That’s how we got to monthly fundraisers in a similar fashion. hang out with her, because she was constantly Over the past eight months, Patricia-Irene’s cooking for children.” has generated more than $2,000 for local chariWhen she thinks of her grandmother Glenda ties, as well as donating cookies to schools, Irene, Yarbrough’s sense memories paint a picretirement homes and hospitals. ture of a full breakfast. She sold boxes to raise funds for the “I guess because my mom was born in the Fultondale tornado victims and donated boxes of late ‘50s and was a ‘70s child, she always had baked goodies to local health care workers, breakfast for us but it was never big,” she said. teachers, Children’s of Alabama, The “My grandmother insisted on a full breakfast. Vestavia Hills-Based Patricia-Irene’s Gives Back to WellHouse, assisted living facilities and other “The first time I can remember scrambling nonprofits. eggs was with her.” Local Nonprofits Through Baked Goods “I never would have thought this is how this Developing a Business business would fall into a routine,” Yarbrough As Yarbrough searched for a way to work said. “It’s mixing two of the things that I am while staying at home with her kids, she turned extremely passionate about. I get to do it and I to the kitchen. get to do it on my own terms, and I know where She was looking through her collection of the money is going.” cookbooks, which she had purchased as remindBaking is now a part of her daily routine. ers of great meals and travel experiences. She drops her 2- and 5-year-old sons off at “I have a Bouchon Bakery cookbook from their Mother’s Day Out program for four hours Napa,” she said. “I was looking through it and I a day and then hits the kitchen. ‘I have a Bouchon saw a recipe for macarons, which I love. I could “I’m like superwoman in the kitchen for Bakery cookbook from eat these things like candy.” those four hours, because once they get home, Napa. I was looking She tackled her first batch and the cookies it’s chaos,” she said. emerged baked to perfection. But when they are at home, they get to see through it and I saw a “I thought, this isn’t so hard,” she said. their mom not only running her own business recipe for macarons, “Then I made a second batch, and they did not but choosing to make community service a turn out well. That was the case for the next 10 product of her success. which I love. I could eat batches I did.” In the near future, Yarbrough wants to make these things like candy.’ The failed attempts only emboldened her in an even bigger impact by not only raising more her quest. money but becoming more connected with local, It wasn’t until one of her cousins, a fellow grassroots nonprofit efforts. macaron enthusiast, tried her cookies that she Her social media accounts and forthcoming even considered her bakes market worthy. website are open for communication. People can “I never meant to be a baker, I didn’t go to message and let her know about organizations culinary school,” she said. “But my cousin they would like to see her partner with. asked if I would make macarons for a baby For more information, follow her on shower she was hosting.” Instagram @patricia_irenes_bham.
If You Give a Mom a Cookie
