Alicia Vanover, 25, owns Alicia's Treats, a home-based bakery. Many of her customers are senior citizens, and she delivers orders to their homes.
Alicia got started early with baking by working with one of her great-grandmothers, Dessie Vanover, when she was very young. From another great-grandmother, Allene Majors, Alicia has inherited many recipes.
In college, Alicia began marketing her treats to help pay her expenses. Her business has grown from there.
Alicia’s specialties include her Reese’s Cup peanut butter cake and her banana pudding cake. Her painted sugar cookies are also popular, especially with college students whose families have ordered her care packages. “They call me the cookie lady,” she says. She drops off 35 or 40 care packages every two weeks.
Alicia also connects with students as a teacher. “All the way back to pre-school, I wanted to be a teacher,” she says. She holds bachelor’s and master’s degrees in education from University of the Cumberlands. Previously, she worked at Williamsburg Independent Schools, where she attended from preschool through 12th grade, and she taught second grade at Pine Knot Elementary. This year, she’s teaching two classes in freshman composition and literature at Union Commonwealth University in Barbourville.
Alicia also serves older people in the community. Every month, members at the Corbin Senior Citizen Center celebrate their birthdays with a cake Alicia donates.
Jo Florence Cordell, a retired teacher in Williamsburg and a family friend, receives a treat from Alicia every month. She’s part of Alicia’s Sweets for Seniors care package program. That program began after Jo’s son, who doesn’t live in Williamsburg, ordered a treat for her. After Alicia made the delivery and talked with Jo, she told her mother that she’d like to do something special for seniors.
Alicia contributes to the community in other ways as well, including helping with fundraisers, contributing to pay funeral and medical expenses of community members and donating to schools.
Down the road, Alicia hopes to open a pastry shop in town so she can serve the community even more fully. She says she takes joy in making people happy with her baked goods. “Alicia has a tender heart,” Jo says.
Alicia's mother, Lonnia Vanover (right), helps with deliveries to University of the Cumberlands students and seniors in the community.
Katherine Bailey, 92, always opens the door for Alicia's apple pies. Katherine is part of Alicia’s Sweets for Seniors program.
Alicia really enjoys bringing her baked goods to people in the community.
Baking involves many trips to the store to purchase eggs, flour and confectioners' sugar.
Baking all starts with the ingredients, a lot of ingredients. Alicia makes weekly shopping trips.
Family friend Jo Florence Cordell, 89, checks out Alicia's Reese's Cup peanut butter cake.
Often Alicia, Jo and Lonnia share stories in the kitchen.
Alicia teaches two freshman literature and composition classes at Union Commonwealth University in Barbourville. On Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays, she gets up early to make her 8 a.m. class.
Gergly Torok, a first-year student from Hungary, and Enzo Constaste, from France, work on a poetry assignment in their first-year writing class at Union Commonwealth University. Alicia often coaches students individually as they complete assignments.