If you are looking to make friends and promote the wheat industry in Kansas, home baked goods will do the trick.

Giving a home-baked gift is a great way to show someone you care and by doing so during Bake and Take Month, you might win a prize. This March, the Kansas Wheat Commission is teaming up with the Home Baking Association to promote Bake and Take Month. For more than 40 years, Bake and Take Month has been an opportunity to celebrate relationships with friends and family by baking and sharing treats.

The purpose of Bake and Take Month is to encourage participants to bake a product made from wheat and take it to a neighbor, friend or relative, says Cindy Falk, nutrition educator of Kansas Wheat and coordinator of Bake and Take Month.

Whole Wheat Sugar Cookies are a great Bake and Take Month recipe. Source: Kansas Wheat Commission

Participants who share their stories of the Bake and Take experience with the Kansas Wheat Commission by April 16, will be entered into a random drawing for a Home Baking Association "Gift Basket," plus the popular "Baking with Friends" cookbook by Kansas authors Charlene Patton and Sharon Davis. The Kansas Wheat Commission also will give away its "Kansas Gold" book, a 50-year history of the Kansas Wheat Commission complete with historical recipes.  

"Bake and Take Month has a long tradition in Kansas as a promotion designed to educate consumers in the importance of home baking and wheat foods consumption," Falk says. "The personal visit to members of the community is as rewarding and important as the baked goods you take them."

Bake and Take Day began in 1970 as a community service project of the Kansas Wheathearts in Sumner County. The Kansas Wheathearts, an auxiliary organization of the Kansas Association of Wheat Growers,  set out to share baked goods with family members, friends, neighbors, and those in need, generating goodwill in the community. The idea of a community member sharing a favorite recipe with someone special became so successful that the Kansas Wheathearts created a national Bake and Take Day celebration in 1973. Even though the Kansas Wheathearts disbanded in 2001, the tradition continues to be supported by KWC and KAWG.

In 2011, residents in eight Smith County adult care homes were the recipients of baked goodies from the Movers and Shakers Family Community Education unit, which won first prize in the annual Bake and Take Month give-away.

"Two members prepared the cookies and four of us assembled cookie packages and made the deliveries," said Edith McClain of Gaylord, president of the Movers and Shakers FCE.

Members of the FCE include McClain, Nadine Holmes, Carol Haresnape, Judy Tucker, Norma Larson and Helen Carter.

To be eligible for the "book bundle" prize pack, participants of Bake and Take month should visit www.kansaswheat.org and under the "Consumers" section, click on Bake and Take Month for a brochure and entry form. For a hard copy of the entry form, write to Kansas Wheat, 217 Southwind Place, Manhattan, KS 66503.

Contest participants should include the following information: name, organization (4-H club, FCE, church group, etc.), phone number, mailing address, and a note describing the Bake and Take activity. Entries must be postmarked by Monday, April 16, 2012.

Story by Nicole Stieben, Communications Intern