For God’s Love We Deliver

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Chuck Piekarski, the pastry chef for God’s Love We Deliver, a charity that prepares meals for people who are too sick to shop or cook for themselves.
Volunteers at God’s Love. The pastry work is done in the Joan Rivers Bakery, named for the comedian, who served on the God’s Love board.

Mr. Piekarski’s photograph is on Page 278 of the “God’s Love We Deliver Cookbook,” opposite his recipe for double chocolate oatmeal cookies, in proportions that would not overwhelm a home kitchen, and the accompanying words reveal something he did not mention as he inscribed the cakes. His biography says he did not know what God’s Love was when he answered a want ad for a baker.

He found out during the job interview that the group was serving people with H.I.V. or AIDS, a mission since broadened to include people with other serious illnesses. There was an emotional resonance — he had lost his companion to AIDS four years earlier. He has been making hundreds of desserts a day ever since.

His workplace is the Joan Rivers Bakery, named for the comedian who was on the God’s Love board for 20 years. At 62, he is old enough to remember when she appeared on “The Ed Sullivan Show” and “The Tonight Show With Johnny Carson.” He also remembers when they decorated cakes together.

By then he had personalized a birthday cake for Helen and was starting on one for Barbara.

Sometimes, he said, he wonders about Anthony or Michael or Daniel, what their stories are. He does not usually deliver meals, but once, in a pinch, he did. The experience was emotional, even if he tells it matter-of-factly.

“This guy had absolutely no food in the house,” Mr. Piekarski said. “His partner had passed away, he got sick and lost the business. He was just trying to pay the bills, and he didn’t have money for food. He offered me water. That’s all he had in the refrigerator. He thanked me, like, 10 times. You hope somebody would do the same thing for you. That’s what we’ve got to do for each other.”

He started on the cake for Alessandra, the longest name on the day’s list. The writing is a little tight. The conversation stopped for a moment.

Mr. Piekarski worked at an Italian bakery in Providence, R.I., after graduating from Rhode Island College. He was a theater and music major, but eventually came to a realization: “It was not the life I wanted, always looking for work.” Just after he took the job with God’s Love, a call came from a theater in the Berkshires.

“They wanted me for the whole summer,” he recalled, but he said no. “I made the right choice,” he says now.

Of course he did, he added: His last name means “baker” in Polish.