CHRIS FOX PHOTO
Kuppie’s Bakery in Villa Park suffered a major hardship when its 16-rack revolving oven broke down on Jan. 23. The massive oven, which is approximately 80 years old, appears to be beyond repair. “The guys took one look and said that the parts were probably going to be really hard to get,” said Dawn Hanrahan, who has owned Kuppie’s for the last 15 years. Since the oven—Kuppie’s only oven—broke down, the bakery has been unable to produce several of its most popular items. Some longtime customers have made an online push to generate support for the bakery. One of those customers, Michelle Steber, set up a GoFundMe fundraising page. As of Feb. 6, that fundraising effort generated nearly $62,000 in donations to help pay for a new oven. Hanrahan (right) is pictured outside of the bakery with her husband, Pedro Landa (left). Landa, who handles the majority of the baking at Kuppie’s, was making cookies when the oven broke down last month. “There aren’t any words,” said Hanrahan of the deluge of donations in the last couple of weeks. “What do you say? We’ll have to figure something out to really thank everyone.”
