April 2025: Spring Edition

This edition of HOTG features an employee spotlight on Maiya Dorak, Summer CSA Sign Ups, The History of Maple Sugaring, a FREE Ticket Giveaway, and more!

Apr 01, 2025

Maiya Dorak has worked with Skinny Pancake for two and a half years at SP’s Albany location as a FOH team member and trainer. She recently spent a few days at the newly opened Peabody, MA location training the incredible Peabody team. One of her favorite things to train co-workers on is the espresso machine, watching her trainees view it as, “...this big scary thing and then learning to love it”.

Maiya sort of stumbled into working at SP. She graduated from college and wasn’t sure what was next. She had a friend who got a teaching job in Albany and suggested that Maiya become her roommate. Many of her friends live in the area and she was looking for her next step, she decided to take the leap and sign the lease. The last piece of the puzzle was finding a job; Maiya walked into Skinny Pancake and overheard two staff members discussing the book Circe, the three of them started talking about books, and the next thing she knew she was applying for a job with Adrianne!

While Maiya is passionate about the training aspect of her job, one of her favorite things is leaning into the community that the Albany team has formed. Anytime she sees tickets accumulating and the cooks getting busier she always takes the time to ensure their needs are met, asking if they need anything. She and Micah have an ongoing game where he challenges her to create different drinks with the beverages available to staff. It keeps things fun and reminds them they’re in it together. When I asked Maiya about an aspect of her job she dislikes it took her a minute but admitted she *hates* mopping.

Maiya’s advice to new employees is, “Have a fun time with it, we’re there to make people's day, a lot of people come into it and take it so seriously, I’ve found the best thing to do is communicate with people, make jokes, keep it light-hearted, and be kind to ourselves”.

In her free time, Maiya enjoys crocheting, knitting, and sewing. If she comes across something she likes she’ll figure out how to make it. One of her most recent projects was crocheting a water bottle sling for her friend’s birthday, using the tulip stitch. She hopes to one day to have a booth at the fabled Albany Tulip Festival selling some of her flower-themed fiber arts.

If you ever have a chance to meet Maiya, whether through training or stopping in at the Albany location, take the time to chat. She thoroughly enjoys talking and communicating with people, “I’m pretty chatty if you couldn't catch that already, I’m usually an open book”. Thank you for a wonderful interview, Maiya!

Summer CSA Sign-ups are Here!

Now that Spring has Sprung it's time for Skinny Pancake’s Summer CSA's Cost Share Benefit - Sign up, SP will help buy local food for you!

Did you know that Skinny Pancake will help you stock up on locally grown food by sharing the cost of your community-supported agriculture (CSA) share? If you are an active employee and have worked at least six months you are eligible for this benefit!

We truly want this benefit to be accessible for anyone that is interested. If you’re still unsure about how this program works or if you need help finding your perfect farm, please reach out to me and we can talk about CSA's, it’s one of my favorite parts of my job! Please email me at, Kate@skinnypancake.com.

Below I’ve given some examples of how the 66% contribution translates dollar wise.

If you've worked with the Skinny P for...

6 Months - 1 Year: 66% contribution up to a $200 CSA cost.

CSA cost = $200, Skinny Pancake pays $132, YOU pay $68

CSA cost = $300, Skinny Pancake pays $132, YOU pay $168

2 Years: 66% contribution up to a $400 CSA cost.

CSA cost = $400, Skinny Pancake pays $264, YOU pay $136

3+ Years: 50% match up to $350.

CSA cost = $700, Skinny Pancake pays $350, YOU pay $350

To read about eligibility, how to sign up, and for more examples of the 66% contribution and 50% match please reference the link below, Summer 2025 CSA Info Sheet. The CSA info sheet provides farm options near all of our locations. As always, if none of these farms are your perfect match don’t hesitate to use one of the New York, Massachusetts, or Vermont CSA search engines linked in the PDF to find the right CSA for you.

Summer 2025 CSA Info Sheet

As you know, local food is very important to SP. Our commitment to local food goes way beyond sourcing ingredients for the restaurants. Whether it’s through our support of local community projects or the benefits we offer our staff, Skinny Pancake firmly believes that a strong, healthy local food system is essential to strong, healthy communities. If you have other ideas about how we can best support safe, healthy, and delicious food sheds please lift up your voice: Heard@skinnypancake.com

Local Food Fact from Keith!

The History of Maple Syrup

As winter thaws into spring sugar maples emerge from hibernation, offering one of its most iconic products—maple syrup. This tradition dates back centuries, beginning with Indigenous peoples who first tapped trees and boiled sap into syrup and sugar long before European settlers arrived. Tribes like the Abenaki, Iroquois, and Algonquin collected sap using carved wooden spouts and cooked it in hollowed-out logs using hot stones.

Early European settlers adopted and refined these techniques, introducing iron kettles to evaporate sap more efficiently. By the 19th century, sugaring had become a major industry, with Vermont, New Hampshire, and Massachusetts producing vast quantities. Farmers would spend weeks in sugar shacks, boiling sap over wood fires to make syrup—a very labor-intensive process.

While maple syrup production has modernized, using tubing systems, vacuum technology, and reverse osmosis, many sugarhouses still use wood-fired boilers, preserving the deep, caramelized flavors of old-fashioned syrup. Vermont remains the top producer in the US, producing 3.1 MILLION gallons in 2024 which accounted for 53% of the American production.

Beyond pancakes and waffles, maple syrup has deep roots in New England cuisine, enhancing everything from baked beans to glazes for meats and roasted vegetables to the key ingredient in our signature house dressing. Whether drizzled on breakfast or infused into recipes, maple syrup is more than just a sweetener—it’s a symbol of New England’s heritage, resilience, and connection to the land.

VT Green, Soccer Ticket GIVE AWAY!

Skinny Pancake is sponsoring the VT Green Soccer team again this year and they were kind enough to send some free tickets our way, woo hoo!

Want to go to a soccer game this summer at UVM's Virtue Field for free? Email kate@skinnypancake.com and I can send a coupon code your way, along with additional instructions on how to purchase your ticket.

We have a limited amount of tickets so this giveaway is first come first serve, once they are gone we will not be getting anymore.

Click the following link to see the game schedule -

https://tickets.vermontgreenfc.com/

Questions? Email me! Kate@skinnypancake.com