Doughnut shop’s sweet charitable endeavors
Helping others, one doughnut at a time. That is the slogan Chris Stiansen uses when his doughnut shop, Doughology, uses their baked treats for the greater good. Operation Halo created after Stiansen and his wife wanted to find a way to further give back to the community. Realizing that a doughnut resembled a halo in shape, he went with it.
“We do a lot for charity and whatever we can do to help and give back, we’ll do,” said Stiansen, who created Operation Halo in May 2017. “Instead of waiting on people to come in to the shop and buy the specialty donuts we create, we wanted to give other people the ability to raise money.”
Here’s how it works. Stiansen and his Doughology crew sell their doughnuts to organizations at a discounted price. The organizations then sell the doughnuts at whatever price they choose, allowing them to raise money and awareness for their cause. Operation Halo customers can choose doughnuts off Doughology’s doughnut board or create their own, some dependent on school colors or organization logos. For example, the shop always has a display of pink donuts with pink ribbons for Breast Cancer Awareness Month in October.
“It’s geared toward schools, churches, sports organizations, essentially all 501c3 organizations,” said Stiansen of the groups he works with. “We don’t want people saying we need donuts and it ends up being for a Sweet 16. We make sure they’re certified.”
Whenever someone needs help, Doughology is there year round. Although they don’t deliver, once the group comes to the shop and meets with Stiansen, Doughology takes it from there. Doughnuts are made fresh day of and can be created to be unique in terms of flavor and design to suit the charitable cause. Stiansen also supplies his Operation Halo customers with food trays.
“We make everything on premise. So far, the most we made was 300 donuts for one school event,” he said, noting that for schools, Operation Halo has really been a pilot program. “We started in Oceanside School because that’s where we live, and had 300 donuts sell out in eight minutes.”
Recently, Operation Halo has done work for Camp Sunrise by creating a gold doughnut for the organization. They have also collected supplies for hurricane Harvey victims in Texas, giving customers a free Texas themed doughnut of they donated materials and goods.
“We want to give people the ability to help others. Plenty of people are in need and if this is a way to help someone I think it’s a great program,” he said, adding that organizations like the PTA, schools, administrators, church members and sports organizations would greatly benefit from a partnership with the program. “If we can use our doughnuts to help their cause, then we’re all for it.”
To learn more about Operation Halo or to become a program partner, email doughologyny@gmail.com or call 516-341-0882.
