Image courtesy of Recipe for Hope
 
What started out as a baking business transformed into something life changing for people in the Simi Valley, California area.

Pizzscotti is a bakery located in the Simi Valley Town Center Mall. Owners Alina Gheta and Kim Santander have taken their baking business and started a non-profit called Recipe for Hope.

Recipe for Hope helps victims of domestic abuse by giving them empowerment through culinary training. The bakery provides a free 6-to-9 month curriculum designed in demonstrating the culinary art for those who qualify.

Gheta and Santander are both law enforcement officers with a great deal of experience with domestic violence victims. After being assigned to the same station, the two started Pizzscotti in 2013. That led to the formation of Recipe for Hope in 2015.

The non-profit has a clear goal. "That victim has to feel empowered again and feel like she's worth something," Gheta says.

Not only does the program provide job training, but it also offers self-defense classes and finance-to-freedom programs.

You can learn more about Recipe for Hope and its mission at its website.