Local bakery Sara’s Sweets celebrates 8 years of business in Lima.
LIMA — A dream became a reality for baker Sara Anderson. She started her career as a math teacher and decided to take a leap of faith into something new.
Anderson said she always loved baking but never thought it could become a business. Friday morning, the bakery (now known as Sara’s Sweets) celebrated 8 years in the community.
“We originally opened in 2016,” Anderson said. “Before that, I had run the business from home for about three years and had a pop-up shop at the Met — I was teaching at the time and just started on the side for fun. I then quit teaching to work the business full time. Then, we opened here because it had outgrown our home. We started with two part-time employees — we now have 22 employees including eight to 10 full time.”
The bakery now invites the community in with cake decorating classes, fundraisers and much more. As a way to give back, Sara’s Sweets began hosting fundraisers for 19 different organizations in the area. They raised over $27,000 in 2023 alone.
“We love any sort of holiday, theme, or any excuse to come up with something creative,” Anderson said. “We started a fundraising program, which helps raise a lot of money for different groups.”
The company celebrated its birthday in a fun way. Customers waited outside the doors early in the morning to be the first to catch the birthday prizes.
“We only started doing a big birthday bash two years ago on our sixth birthday because usually we were just drowning in the holidays,” Anderson said. “Now we have our feet under us enough to do something for our birthday — we hand out swag bags to the first 50 people who come in the door so they get a bag of items including an exclusive recipe, a cup of sprinkles, birthday candles, our party mix, a number eight cookie and a macaron.”
Some customers joined the party as early as 4:30 a.m. to get a VIP card for one free item a day for the entirety of next year. Anderson also said the suspport of the community overall is overwhelming.
“(The community support) means a lot,” Anderson said. “It is almost jaw-dropping. To believe so many people would care to come out — it is also interesting to hear comments of those who remember the Met (pop-up shop) and have grown with us —the community here really has each other’s back with their small businesses. They support. So, it’s fun to be able to give back and celebrate in that way.”
Reach Precious Grundy at 567-242-0351.
