ALBANY, NY – The Daughters of Penelope, the Philoptochos and the Maids of Athena, the three main philanthropic women’s organizations of St. Sophia Greek Orthodox Church in Albany, all share a common mission- to help charities and those in need in the community and beyond. This year the three organizations worked together for a spectacular Greek Pastry Holiday Drive Thru Bake Sale. Residents of the Capital District ordered pastry online and selected a pick up day and time just before Thanksgiving and Christmas for drive thru pick up, just in time to add a little Greek to their holiday table this year.

The online bake sale featured beautifully packaged pastry boxes in a variety of sizes with baklava, kourambiethes and almond cookies making the perfect holiday gift, plus trays of ready to serve spanakopita and pumpkin roll.

The Albany Maids of Athens delivered the pastries on Dec. 28. Left to right: Matina Ziamandanis, Michelle Papandrea, and Nia Cohen. Photo: Kristina Marinopoulos

The Holiday Drive Thru Bake Sale also sold “Hero” pastry boxes which customers purchased to be donated to local first responders at Albany’s two major hospitals, Albany Medical Center and St. Peter’s Hospital. Almost 200 “Hero” boxes were sold enabling the organizations to donate almost 100 boxes of pastry to each hospital which were delivered by the Maids of Athena on December 28, 2020.

The bake sale also teamed up with the children’s book drive organized by Grassroot Givers of Albany. The drive thru was a collection site during the December pickup. Over two large boxes of books were collected.