NEW ORLEANS-– There’s a man Uptown that’s becoming known as the “Cake Man” because he hosts a weekly Cake Walk in his neighborhood.
WGNO’s Kenny Lopez introduces us to this neighbor who’s doing something very nice during these tough times.
This week he baked lemon cakes and handed out slices to his neighbors.
“Last week we gave out about 40 slices of cake,” Jeff Pounds said. In the beginning he’d let his neighbors know he was giving out slices on social media.
Pounds lives on Laurel Street and started baking cakes for his neighbors about a month ago when his neighbor Julie was in quarantine for her birthday.
“She was a little sad and down that she didn’t get to have a birthday party, so I brought her a cake and I thought we could slice it up and give to strangers or neighbors passing by. I thought to call it a cake walk because when I was in Elementary School we would have cake walks as fundraisers at our school carnivals,” he said.
Jeff’s Cake Walk is bringing people together, even if it’s just for a moment.
“Giving to the neighborhood makes me happy because the people here are so nice to me. I typically have dinner parties and I’m in a wine club, so I like to entertain. Although, we do have to keep everyone social distanced. We can eat cake, drink wine, and even listen to music,” Pounds said.
On this particular night, legendary New Orleans musician James Andrews and musician Schatzy even came to perform at the Cake Walk.
“Oh, the cake is very good. It is New Orleans baby,” Andrews said.
“It’s been great to have the musicians come and play music. We’ve had some donations therefore we are able to pay the musicians,” Pounds said.
Jeff says his next Cake Walk will be on Monday at 6:30 p.m. on the 5000 block of Laurel Street. Jeff does take cake orders and even donates cakes to Poydras House.
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