A creative director has been baking sourdough by night and in the early morning in the hopes of helping raise $1 million, if only to make things a little easier for at least one family.

Patrice Pollack is behind Bread & Better, a hidden home-based sourdough bakery where a portion of the proceeds from every loaf sold goes toward SickKids.

"I started Bread & Better on February 8 with one mission: to help Alana, the woman behind Mom Halo & Project Mom Halo reach her $1 million fundraising goal for SickKids hospital," Pollack told blogTO.

"Her son 'Hank the Tank' who is now eight months old has spent close to three months in the hospital for open heart surgery and complications that came from the surgery. Initially, baking bread was a way for me to show my love for her and her family. But, I thought baking bread with so much heart could do so much more." 

She works for FUSE Create by day, but has devoted much of her free time to the labour-intensive production of sourdough in order to help fundraise for Project Halo, which has a goal of raising "$1 million by the end of 2021 to help build a new SickKids." They've raised just over $7000 so far according to an online tracker.

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"Mom Halo was started by Alana Kayfetz who is a very good friend of mine. We were on mat leave together with our first babies. So of course, I was drawn to her mission because of my personal connection to her and her family, but also because of the millions of children SickKids is able to help," says Pollack.

"As a mom, being able to raise money to help build safe, calm spaces for families and their sick children spoke to me. I am one of the many people contributing to the $1 million dollar goal. In fact, she is asking 1,000 people to raise $1,000 each. I am hoping I can raise far more. Cause-based initiatives are so important."

Orders are pickup only just northeast of St. Clair and Bathurst, and you can DM Bread & Better through Instagram to get a spot in the calendar. Loaves are $15 each, and they sell fast. You can also get them bundled with dish towels from CampMoms, which is also raising money for charity.

"I'm baking max six breads a day, it is a passion project and not my job, and a portion of the proceeds from every single loaf will be donated to SickKids. It's essentially a modern day bake sale," says Pollack.

"The response thus far has been tremendous! I'm booking into the last week of March and am looking at ways to expand. I did not think things would take off this quickly, but so happy I can feed bellies and souls."

Just three weeks in to her sourdough project, Pollack has already almost reached her $1,000 individual contribution goal, and seems poised to surpass it.

"I spend about three hours a day making sourdough. So it's roughly 22 hours a week. It's a labour of love. I start when the kids go to bed and then wake up super early to get the bread in the oven," says Pollack.

"I only have one Staub dutch oven so I can only make one at a time and try to get them done before my working day starts at 9 a.m. I am taking orders into late March/early April right now, but in just three weeks since starting I've already raised close to $800 for SickKids."