Opportunity is on the menu.
Yellow Cottage Kitchen is a training bakery in East Waco where adults with intellectual and developmental disabilities build job skills, confidence, and community.
November 7, 2026
Honored on the field at Baylor Homecoming
Cultural Arts of Waco, the nonprofit behind Yellow Cottage Kitchen, is a 2026 TFNB Your Bank for Life Charity Champion.
Three of our baking students walked onto the field at McLane Stadium in their yellow aprons and caps, carrying signs that read "Help build the Yellow Cottage Kitchen" in front of the homecoming crowd.
Charity Champions recognizes McLennan County nonprofits nominated by the community and selected by TFNB employees.
Professional training. Personal growth.
Participants learn commercial baking in a structured, supportive setting. They rotate through roles, wear real uniforms, work with commercial equipment, and bake alongside volunteers and professionals.
Some will go on to jobs. Others will simply belong. The point is that they have the choice.
- Transferable skills
- What our bakers learn here works in any kitchen, not only ours.
- Community roots
- Built by locals and funded by locals, for the people of Waco.
- A place to belong
- For more than 20 years, Cultural Arts of Waco has offered inclusive arts programs with The Arc of McLennan County. The kitchen grows from that work.
A permanent home at 402 Tyler Street
We have outgrown our current space, and the demand keeps growing. The new Yellow Cottage Kitchen will be a full training bakery with a garden and greenhouse, designed to be both beautiful and safe.
It is the first piece of the ArtPlace Campus, where Cultural Arts of Waco is bringing baking, visual art, music, and community together in East Waco.
Architectural renderings of the planned building.
Every gift helps unlock $120,000
The Mabee Foundation has awarded Yellow Cottage Kitchen a $120,000 challenge grant. To receive it, we must raise $228,344 toward the building by July 14, 2027.
Four ways to help
-
Give once
Any amount goes to work for the program and the building.
Make a gift -
Join the Band of Warriors
Founding members give $1,000 a year. Leadership gifts start at $5,000, and business and corporate gifts at $10,000.
Become a founding member -
Order shortbread
Baked, boxed, and tied by our baking class. Every order supports the program.
Order from the bake sale -
Volunteer, enroll, or hire
Bake alongside our students, ask about a place in the program for someone you love, or talk with us about hiring.
Email the kitchen
With thanks
Band of Warriors founding members
Jesse Sanford, Susan and H.D. Wilbanks, Donna J. Swartz, AliceAnn and Richard Brunn
Our supporters
Dr. Patricia Leonard, Lisa Sheldon, Doreen Ravenscroft, Lake Brazos Rotary Club, Lucretia Darden, Daniel Hollingsworth, The YCK Baking Class, Diane Deaver, Peggy Lane, Talia Colombo, Elida Felix, Audrey Velasquez, Phoenix Reivers, Raven Yoda, Jose Macias, Megan Gunnels, Merideth Mahan, Beverly Fallon, Tyler Vansyckle, Rebecca Presnall, Nathan Myers