NAHT’s Sweet Daisy Social Enterprise Bakery Builds Connections

“It’s about so much more than cake,” says Katie Moessner, creative director of Sweet Daisy Petit Four Shoppe, the faith- and cake-based social enterprise of the Nashville Anti-Human Trafficking Coalition. 

To be sure, the lovely bakery inside the Berry Hill headquarters of NAHT is more than just a source for pastries frosted with flowers and laced with gold — the kind of bite-sized confections you’d hope to find on a tiered tea tray. The commercial kitchen, which launched in 2023, provides employment for NAHT members pulling themselves out of the sex trade and drug addiction, while offering a comfortable way for the broader community to engage in the campaign against human trafficking.

Community and Love

In 2023, the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation reported approximately 1,375 calls and tips to its human trafficking hotline, with the majority of those calls from Middle Tennessee. Given those chilling statistics, it’s no surprise that dark stories echo in the gracious rooms of NAHT, where volunteers, case workers, and members in classes and therapeutic counseling share accounts of unthinkable abuse and manipulation by traffickers. 

While such open communication and conversation are essential to identifying the social forces and healing the emotional traumas of trafficking, the frankness can be overwhelming. It could all just be too grim to talk about. And without talking about the problem, there’d be no solving it.

But right down the hall, there’s NAHT’s Sweet Daisy kitchen, an unexpected gathering spot where the program’s survivors, counselors and mentors share compassion and encouragement amid the cheerful creativity of expert pastry cuisine. The beautiful culinary workshop, designed by Anne Buchanan — with white marble countertops, custom cabinets, an industrial freezer donated by Crown Bakeries CEO Cordia Harrington, and a soothing hue of paint reminiscent of Farrow & Ball’s “Vichyssoise” — provides a hub for community and love, along with a manufacturing facility for petits fours, the specialty desserts whose French name translates to “small ovens.”

Defiantly Optimistic

The tagline of this defiantly optimistic sweet shop is: “Go ahead, get your hopes up,” a slogan that speaks on two levels. On one level, Katie says, “We believe we can confidently say there is hope for transformation for the lives of victims.” On another level, yes, you can expect these cakes to taste as delicious as they look. 

On a recent afternoon leading up to the holidays, the kitchen hummed with cooking and conversation, as creative director Katie — a culinary entrepreneur formerly known as @petitfourgirl — led bakery interns Kellie Compton and Lana Hendrix in producing 50 dozen Sweet Daisy petits fours for the week’s orders. 

They trimmed sheet cake on an Italian cutting table as elegant as a finely tuned string instrument, then drizzled chocolate glaze onto pillowy sponge, all the while reflecting on the strength of NAHT survivors to embolden more women to break from lives of trafficking and addiction. 

Executive director Mary Trapnell dropped in to show the bakery operation to a visitor. And soon we were all gathered around the sugar-dusted island countertop, with case managers Molly Hogan and LeAnn Walters and director of operations Christina Meadows telling stories, tasting cakes and laughing. 

Not All Laughter

But, all too obviously, it’s not all laughter.

“We all cry in here sometimes,” says intern Kellie. Pausing from her task of glazing tiny cakes, she prompts someone else to tell the tragic story of a woman who didn’t make it to NAHT in time to save her own life. Upon learning of her fentanyl-related death, members of the program retreated to the Sweet Daisy kitchen to grieve together. 

Creating such tender moments of connection is a silent healing power of this kitchen, which takes its name from a delicate flower forcing its way up through concrete to thrive beyond oppression.

“The kitchen fosters connections, which, at the end of the day, is what everyone needs,” Katie says. As the bakers nod in agreement, case manager Molly adds, “It’s so much more than a bakery.” 

To order Sweet Daisy petits fours, available for pickup or delivery, visit nahtcoalition.org.