In a small, sun-lit shop, Shalika Khindurangala cheerfully greets customers. She inquiries about one shopper’s grandmother, and they chat over a case of baked goods situated between them.
Piece & Freedom Bakery opened on Main Street in Ames this year, serving both sweet and savory treats from Ukraine. Khindurangala co-owns the business with her mother, Iryna, and her friend Hanna Petrova.
She first came to Ames in 2010 to study at Iowa State University, and returned in 2021. In the years since, Russia’s war in Ukraine has brought an influx of Ukrainian people to the area, including Khindurangala’s parents and brother.
“Ukrainians are very rooted people. It is not very common for us to just come and leave the place and find a new home somewhere else,” she said. “We are rooted into our ground, into our soil, so this is a big deal.”
Khindurangala wanted to raise money to send back to Ukraine, so she decided to organize a bake sale. The idea was to make a bunch of honey cake — a layered Ukrainian treat — and sell it out of her garage. As she told more people about her idea, others offered to bring their own goods.
“I literally had over 50 people bring their baked goods to my garage and we had a bake sale,” she said. “And my dad said, ‘We're gonna make $100 and send $100.’ We made $5,000.”
Following that success, Khindurangala and her mother started selling at the Ames farmer's market. They met Petrova and her mother, Yana. After collaborating at the farmer's market, the mother-daughter pairs decided to open a storefront.
Their staples are honey cake, Kyiv Cake, and spinach raspberry cake – an invention of Yana Petrova. They also sell bread, cookies and some savory treats.
But for Khindurangala, the business is about more than just tasty food. She said she wouldn’t describe herself as a baker.
“What I have as a mission is to educate people and to change the palette of Iowa.”
Inside the bakery, posters sharing bits of Ukrainian culture decorate the walls.
Though it’s a small shop, it was important for Khindurangala to have a few tables and chairs where people could sit and visit. Some cautioned her that she would want to get customers in and out quickly, but they made space for four tiny tables along the wall.
“When I looked out and I saw that at four of those tables, there were four huge families with kids sitting and chatting and eating and having fun and trying everything, I realized that we did the right thing.”
The business has even prompted Ukrainians living in Minnesota and Wisconsin to visit Iowa for a taste of home.
The bakery does more than serve food. It serves as a space for community and conversation. With many Ukrainians in the United States feeling nervous about their future, Khindurangala has seen the bakery serve as a gathering space for people to discuss their concerns and the hardships they face.
“I just thought that it was really cool that it could be a place where they all could find comfort in other people's decisions or thoughts.”
To hear this conversation listen to Talk of Iowa, hosted by Charity Nebbe. Caitlin Troutman produced this episode.
