Bake Muffins & Feed Homeless Folks for National Muffin Day!

BY JACOB “MUFFIN MAN” KAUFMAN

A long, long time ago, there was a show called Square One TV, which was a sketch comedy show for kids that was about – wait for it – MATH.

Fuck. Yes.

One fun thing I learned from Square One TV is that the digits of the multiples of 9 always add up to 9:

9 x 2 = 18; 1 + 8 = 9.

9 x 5 = 45; 4 + 5 = 9

9 x 8 = 72; 7 + 2 = 9

9 x 26 = 234; 2 + 3 + 4 = 9

And it gets better:

9 x 51 = 459; 4 + 5 + 9 = 18; 1 + 8 = 9

9 x 746,852 = 6,721,668; 6 + 7 + 2 + 1 + 6 + 6 + 8 = 36; 3 + 6 = 9

As the song went, “Times any number you can find, it all comes back to nine.”

You can see the video right here. The video quality sucks but the song is still a banger.

Why do I have nine on the mind? I’m so glad you asked.  Why because on Sunday, February 26th it will be the 9th annual National Muffin Day!  Yes, all of that math was just a long introduction, but hey, you got to learn some MATH, so that’s awesome!

Me and the muffin crew baking for National Muffin Day

What is National Muffin Day?  It’s a holiday for baking and giving.  It all started back when I lived in San Francisco (I moved to the ‘burbs last year…you can judge me, but please don’t hate me). Back then I worked in a law firm downtown (again, judging is okay but please don’t hate), I used to hand out muffins to people experiencing homelessness on my walk to work.  After doing that for a couple of years, my friend Julia Levy in Atlanta convinced me that it would be beautiful if we could get other folks around the country to do the same thing in their communities, so we created National Muffin Day to encourage as many people as possible to bake and give.  If you want to see a passionate, dramatic, and painfully awkward interpretation of my origin story, check this out:

We’re now in our 9th year of doing this!  Our first year, we had 70 participants, but the past couple of years we’ve had over 500.  This year we’re hoping will be our biggest year yet…and this post on the nation’s most reputable news source just might bring us there!

Participating in National Muffin Day is as easy as 1-2-3:

1. Bake muffins on February 26th! The yummier, the better.

2. Give muffins! Donate your muffins to people experiencing homelessness in your city, or to local shelters.

3. #givemuffins! Take a photo of your group and your muffins and post them to social media with the hashtags #givemuffins.

But wait, let’s sweeten the deal (pun very, very much intended).  For each person who participates, I’ll donate $5 to Project Homeless Connect, an organization that provides valuable resources to people experiencing homelessness in San Francisco, and $5 to Family Promise, a national organization that sets up programs around the country for families experiencing homelessness.

That means that if you bake with your significant other, your first-grader, and your crazy Aunt Mabel who makes the best babka muffins this side of the Atlantic, then $40 will be donated to charities…except it might really be $80 because I can get donation matching from my employer. We’ve sent over $10,000 to charities each of the past 4 years!

But don’t take my word for it, ask our friendly media friends: SF Standard, SF Chronicle, Forbes, CNN, ABC, CBS’ Inside Edition, J Weekly.  And most importantly, Broke-Ass Mother-Honkin’ Stuart, who has been with us since our first year!

It’s easy, fun, feels good, and helps those in need.  That all adds up to a great time!  See, I reincorporated the MATH, get it? Get it?

I’ll see myself out…and I can’t wait to see your muffins!

My wife, myself, and our little muffin