Elk Grove Village bakery surprises residents with free baked goods
Some Elk Grove Village residents who are cooped up amid the state's stay-at-home order have been treated to a sweet surprise, thanks to a long-standing bakery in town.
Jarosch Bakery this week began randomly delivering free boxes of its famous danishes and doughnuts to neighbors near its store at Arlington Heights and Higgins roads to lift spirits during the coronavirus pandemic.
The local bakers have also dropped off baked goods for employees at AMITA Health Alexian Brothers Medical Center in Elk Grove Village and the village's police and fire stations.
“Our overall thought is to find someone to brighten their day,” said Kathy Jarosch, who runs the bakery with her husband, Ken.
Each Jarosch cardboard container comes with a dozen baked goods and a note stapled to the outside: “From our family to yours. Enjoy this Care Package. Please stay safe.”
Jarosch said they got the idea from their friends at Weber's Bakery on Chicago's Southwest Side who have also given out neighborhood care packages.
“They randomly went out into the neighborhood and knocked on people's doors and said, 'Hey, we're here for you,'” Jarosch said.
Jarosch enlisted local students to make the deliveries, and on Tuesday alone, they donated nearly 30 boxes.
She said the bakery normally donates leftover product on Tuesdays to a PADS shelter and on Wednesdays to the USO at O'Hare International Airport, but both of those places have temporarily closed.
In addition to the surprise home deliveries, the bakery plans to donate boxes of cookies to a Queen of the Rosary food drive on Friday.
“We're taking normally what we have as extra and finding new ways to spread the love,” Jarosch said.