SYRACUSE, N.Y. (NCC News) — When the COVID-19 pandemic first struck in early March, many people were left unemployed due to the pandemic’s economic impact on our country.
Maura Koenig, who was working at a non-profit in New York City before the pandemic, was one of many who lost their job. Now, she has returned home to Syracuse and discovered her new calling: baking challahs, which is a special braided loaf of bread that is very common in Jewish cuisine.
Koenig has started a new company called Challah At Me that sells challahs, and the company has gotten quite popular in the Syracuse Jewish community. Koenig, who began making challahs just four years ago, said that she “solidified her challah routine” in that time, making challahs every Friday.
Along with uniting the community through her baking, Koenig has also made it a point to give back to the community through Challah At Me, donating a dollar to the Syracuse Jewish Federation’s COVID-19 relief fund for every challah sold. However, Koenig chose to switch up her donations this month, giving the dollar per loaf to Joe Biden’s presidential campaign. Koenig not only has helped make her local Jewish community more comfortable through baking the traditional challahs for the community, but has done even more with her donations, giving over five hundred dollars to the COVID relief fund and over one hundred dollars to Biden’s campaign.
Koenig has not only made the most of the challenging situation she’s been put in due to COVID-19 but has made a huge difference in her community by starting Challah At Me.
