Joan and Skip Jones’ simple idea to make sure every Wildcat gets a birthday cake has become a Cats’ Cupboard tradition — one that Larry and Deanna Moeder are now carrying forward.
By Rafael Garcia
Between keeping up with classes, paying tuition and staying involved, it’s easy for birthdays to take a backseat for struggling college students.
But a simple package of cake mix, frosting, candles and decorations is helping K‑State students celebrate these important milestones — and reminding them that someone cares.
The Birthday Box program is a free service offered through Cats’ Cupboard, K-State’s campus food pantry. Students can request a box around their birthday, then choose from available cake and frosting combinations and, when supplies allow, additional party decorations.
The program began nearly a decade ago with Joan Jones and her late husband, Skip, who brought the idea with them when they moved to Manhattan. Skip had volunteered at food banks wherever the couple lived, including Mississippi and Florida. In Florida, they encountered birthday boxes for families and decided to bring a similar idea to K-State when they began volunteering at Cats’ Cupboard after its formal launch in 2017.
“A lot of students might be spending their first birthday away from home when they’re at college, and sometimes there’s no one who will make sure they get their birthday cake,” Joan said. “So we thought we had to do it. It’s the logical place.”
The original boxes were simple: an aluminum pan with a lid, cake mix, frosting, napkins, a cake decoration and candles. The Joneses initially purchased the supplies themselves, assembled the boxes at home and brought them to Cats’ Cupboard.
After Skip’s death, their daughter Camilla Roberts took over the program. Together with her daughter Taylor, the pair helped bring a new generation of volunteers into the effort, encouraging Taylor’s 4-H group to participate. Taylor also applied for and received a Riley County 4-H Foundation grant that helped the program purchase supplies in bulk, making it easier to keep up with demand.
Over the years, donations and grants helped expand the program. Joan continued to provide her time and guidance, even as others took on more of the day-to-day work.
“My husband was passionate about it, while I was doing many other different things,” Joan said. “I did not have a volunteer position anywhere in Manhattan at the time, so I joined him and had a good time, too. We stayed all that time, and I have continued that work in honor of him.”
More than a birthday cake
The boxes may be simple, but their impact has been tremendous.
Students have used them to celebrate with friends, spouses and children. One international graduate student once requested a box to celebrate his young daughter’s birthday. Another student who volunteered at Cats’ Cupboard simply decided to get a cake for herself.
For Cats’ Cupboard staff, the interaction itself has become part of the experience.
When a student asks for a Birthday Box, staff members select several cake and frosting combinations and bring them out for the student to choose from. They try to learn the student’s name, making the exchange feel less like picking up a pantry item and more like a small celebration.
“We try to make this a personal experience, and they just light up,” said Shelly Williams, director of Cats’ Cupboard.
Williams said the program reflects a broader understanding of student well-being.
“People need support in more than just one dimension,” Williams said. “Even though they can come to Cats’ Cupboard and get the food they need to survive, that’s not all you need to have positive well-being.”
Students also need to feel connected, understood, appreciated and welcome, she said.
“And I think all of that is wrapped up in this perfect box.”
Passing the cake
After years of assembling birthday boxes, Joan, Camilla and Taylor are passing the tradition along.
Larry and Deanna Moeder, who have already been steadfast volunteers with Cats’ Cupboard, are taking over the program from Joan.
The transition doesn’t mean starting from scratch. Joan and her family are sharing the lessons they’ve learned along the way, including which cake combinations work, how to stretch supplies and the importance of having enough aluminum pans.
“Students seldom have extra funds for the extra things,” Larry Moeder said. “It’s just an opportunity for us — to keep providing that little extra, little special something at no cost to them. I remember being here one time when a student came in and got a birthday box. She was so excited because she was going to get with her friend and decorate the cake together for her birthday.”
For Joan, that’s part of what makes the program worth continuing. Even a special “treat” like a birthday cake can meet a basic need when that need is the desire to be a part of a community.
“It makes people feel seen and valued just by their existence,” Joan said. “Someone cared enough to make that effort to put together a birthday box, not knowing who it would go to, but just caring enough that the person exists to celebrate with them.”
And now, thanks to the Moeders, that little celebration will continue.
