We’re all familiar with the saying: “When life hands you lemons, make lemonade.” In Montgomery mom Heather Wolper’s case, she made lemon meringue pie.
Good Pie Y’all started in 2018 out of necessity: Heather’s family was weathering “a long, hard season of unemployment,” and this mom of five needed to help pay the bills. She also wanted to contribute to her church’s campaign to help Back2Back Ministries. So, she turned to something familiar and comforting: pies.
What began as a suggestion from her daughter quickly grew into something more. In four weeks, she’d raised $1,000 for Back2Back Ministries, and told herself she’d keep baking until a job came.
Word about Heather’s delicious baked goods spread, and friends started requesting pies for their families. Heather outgrew her home kitchen, applied for her Retail Food Establishment license, and recently moved to the kitchen at St. Paul Community United Methodist Church in Madeira.
Throughout it all, Heather remained committed to the original mission of her pie baking: giving back to the community. Ten percent of every Good Pie Y’all purchase is donated to a different charitable cause, and Heather hopes her pies can be a slice of comfort and love for busy families.
Cincinnati Parent talked to Heather about what’s next for Good Pie Y’all:
Why pies?
Before my husband and I began dating, he casually mentioned how much he liked key lime pie. I had never made a key lime pie before, but catching his eye was great motivation to learn, so I got out some cookbooks and made him a pie. That pie was the beginning of the rest of our story.
You’re a busy mom of five. How do you balance everything?
Starting Good Pie Y’all has definitely been a huge adjustment. I’ve had to let go of some things that I love to do to carve out the time to run a business and care for my family. It’s been a team effort for us to figure out a new rhythm one day at a time. My husband and kids have been troopers.
There are a lot of days when the list of things that need to be done is much longer than the time I have, but I am trying to give myself grace to let go of some of the expectations I had for our family prior to starting my business, and accept that it’s OK for this season to look a little different for us.
Each month, you donate a portion of your profits to a different charity. Why is this important to you?
The Mission of Good Pie Y’all is to love and serve our community. Our goal is to make life a little easier for families, give parents a few more precious minutes with family and sweeten celebrations by providing family–friendly weeknight meals and delicious desserts. Ten percent of every Good Pie Y’all purchase goes directly back into our community to help orphans, foster children and families in need.
I’ve walked through some pretty intense periods of suffering in my life that have instilled a strong desire in me to love people who are going through hard things. Being able to give back to folks walking through difficult circumstances is what excites me most about Good Pie Y’all.
What’s next for Good Pie Y’all?
This July, we’ll host our first-ever Summer Baking Camps at St. Paul Community United Methodist Church. We’ll have a session for younger, less-experienced bakers to teach the basics of baking, and a session for tweens and teens to build on basic baking skills. Our campers will learn lots of new tricks in the kitchen and bring home goodies for their families to taste.
For more information and to order one of Heather’s delicious pies — we highly recommend her white chocolate raspberry pie! — visit facebook.com/GoodPieYall.