Moved by Texas school shooting, a Raleigh bakery raises money for gun control group
The Raleigh bakery Union Special will hold a fundraising cookout in response to last month’s elementary school shooting in Uvalde Texas.
On June 6, Union Special will host “Until the Shooting Stops,” the first in a series of fundraisers for Moms Demand Action, a national group calling for legislative measures to end gun violence.
The menu will be hot dogs, curly fries and soft serve ice cream from Union Special; beers from Gateway Plaza neighbor Mordecai Beverage; and macarons from Little Blue Bakehouse.
Beyond food sales, the bakery is asking for individual donations, matching money up to $2,500. Union Special owner Andrew Ullom said the Texas shooting, the latest in years of American mass shootings, demands a solution.
“I have a 5-year-old going to kindergarten,” Ullom said. “My wife and I didn’t sleep on Tuesday (May 24). I understand it’s different for parents, but if you’re not able to be empathetic to the massacre of children you’re going to get called out. We have to do something and we have to do something in perpetuity.”
Ullom has repeatedly used his business to raise funds for various causes, with the most recent fundraiser bringing in more than $1,500 in bread sales for the Ukraine Crisis’ Children’s Relief Fund in March.
“Parents shouldn’t have to worry about kids going to public schools,” Ullom said. “Teachers shouldn’t have to worry about being the front-line of defense for kids going to public schools.”
Restaurants in the Triangle are frequently the organizers or centerpieces of large fundraising efforts, from the long-running and high profile Triangle Wine Experience for the Frankie Lemmon School, to hurricane relief. Ullom and Union Special have been part of a new generation of businesses with a political voice.
“I own enough of this business that I don’t have anything to lose,” Ullom said. “As a business owner, it’s your job to get involved. ... If we’re going to pick one hill, this is it.”
The event starts at 5 p.m. at Union Special’s Gateway Plaza location at 2409 Crabtree Blvd., Suite 102 in Raleigh.
