‘Little cakes of love’

[Guest guest]

Sisters start a doughnut business and include `heart healthy' creations

By Mark Baker

 

The Register-Guard

 

Posted to Web: Monday, Mar 30, 2009 09:23AM

Appeared in print: Monday, Mar 30, 2009, page B3

 

 

--

 

News Updates: Photo

--

Amanda Smith/The Register-Guard

Karen Nunley cuts doughnuts in the kitchen of Holy Donuts! in Eugene, where she

creates traditional, vegan and gluten-free treats.

 

--

 

News Updates: Story

--

 

" It's the doughnut lady! "

 

Karen Nunley isn't getting tired of hearing that. In fact, she thrives on it.

 

The Eugene woman hears it at least a couple of times a week, such as last

Thursday when a little girl belted it out at the Market of Choice store on Green

Acres Road. The girl was excited because she can't have dairy products, Nunley

says.

 

" It was so cute, " she says. " That's one of the reasons we do this. "

 

Imagine Homer Simpson moving from Springfield to Eugene and going " vegan, " and

you get an idea of what Nunley has done in the past 12 months.

 

She's taken one of mankind's favorite goodies, the doughnut, and made it very

Eugene.

 

" We have a `Homer' doughnut, " Nunley says. It is raised and glazed, strawberry

with sprinkles — and just the way TV's famed cartoon dad likes them: pink.

 

After losing a job in 2007, and then a year of reflection, Nunley launched Holy

Donuts! with her sister, Kim Jones, last April.

 

Twelve months later, their " heart healthy " creations, made with no animal

products or hydrogenated oils, are available in 13 locations, from the coffee

counters at Market of Choice stores to the Kiva, Sundance, New Frontier and

Friendly Street markets.

 

" It grew really fast, " says Nunley, who began baking regular doughnuts — before

going the vegan route — at home a year ago for reasons that still are not

completely clear to her.

 

" Divine intervention, " she says, when the question is put to her as she and

Jones baked away Sunday in the space they have rented in a building between

Willamette and Olive streets in south Eugene.

 

The address is spray-painted on the plywood door in an alley way. The space was

once occupied by Rising Moon organic foods, Nunley says.

 

" It just feels like God put it on us to do this, " Jones says as she prepares

chocolate, blueberry, strawberry, lemon and maple-hazelnut crunch doughnuts for

Monday morning delivery.

 

This is not just a way to make a buck in a bad economy, Nunley says. This is

about finding your purpose, and helping others.

 

Sometimes, they just give their doughnuts away. They drop them at the Eugene

Mission, or at Looking Glass, the nonprofit agency that helps at-risk youth. Or

at bus stops.

 

They kid that they are Eugene's " First Church of Donuts. " And they joke about

" the doughnut lovers being our congregation, " Nunley says. " And there's a

blessing in every doughnut. "

 

Although not in this for the, uh, dough — they are making money at it, Nunley

says. The stores and coffee shops they sell to wholesale offer the doughnuts for

$1.79 to $2 each, she says.

 

This appears to be a success story amid a nation full of woeful

business-gone-bad tales. Maybe local folks are finding that comfort food helps

in such harsh economic times. Consider, for example, the recent The New York

Times story about candy makers and sellers reporting increased sales, similar to

what happened during the Great Depression.

 

The sisters are hoping to do a little fixer-upper work in their Willamette

Street space, and begin selling the doughnuts and other baked goods they make —

scones, fritters, petit fours — right there. They also make gluten-free

doughnuts upon request, and like to use in-season fresh fruit for frostings and

glazes.

 

" We're going by what people want, and they want us to open a bakery, " Nunley

says. " It doesn't look like anything now — but you can visit me this summer and

wait in line. "

 

But Nunley and Jones have another dream, too. They'd someday like to take

profits from the business and use them to open a drug-and-alcohol recovery house

for young women, to help them gain needed " life skills, " something very close to

their hearts.

 

Jones is a recovering addict with almost two years of sobriety, and their

father, Norman Nunley, died last year after spending the last 34 years of his

life as a recovering alcoholic.

 

Helping people is what this is all about, Jones says. " We see the need in the

community. "

 

They also see the need to dance, sometimes, while baking in the middle of the

night.

 

They'll crank up the " oldies station " and hope no one is looking in the windows,

says Nunley, an avid belly dancer.

 

The business has also become a family affair, with Nunley's husband, James

Gross, making 4 a.m. deliveries, and their daughter, Sierra Nunley-Gross,

helping with signage and " computer stuff. " Jones' son, Jeremiah Jones, also

helps on occasion.

 

" It's pretty fun making doughnuts for a living, " Nunley says. " They're little

cakes of love. "

 

 

 

--

 

HOLY DONUTS!

 

Karen Nunley will provide samples at 4:30 p.m. today at the Market of Choice

store at 29th Avenue and Willamette Street.

 

More information at 510-6635 or www.myspace.com/holy_donuts.