Let's Holla for this CHALLAH MAMA!

By Jill Cousins

Prior to the Walk MS event, Sarah sold challahs with orange sprinkles (the color orange represents MS awareness), with 100% of the proceeds benefiting the National MS Society.

Winter Park resident Sarah Krantz is affectionately known by fans of her delectable baked goods as MSChallahMama, which is also the name of her cottage industry bakery. But not everyone knows that the MS in her nickname was not intended to be a marital status title. It actually stands for multiple sclerosis, a chronic disease of the central nervous system that Sarah has – and has successfully managed – for the past five years.

Sarah has found a way to combine her passion for baking with her desire to help others who struggle with the same condition. She began participating in fundraising walks for the National Multiple Sclerosis Society in 2020, and Team MSChallahMama has since raised thousands of dollars for the cause.

Sarah’s delicious challahs are available in a variety of sweet and savory flavors, including chocolate chip, Nutella, Oreo, and even jalapeno cheddar cheese.

A portion of her year-round challah sales goes to the nonprofit, with additional funds raised during the annual Walk MS fundraiser in the Orlando area. This year’s event was held in April at Blue Jacket Park, and more than 40 members of Team MSChallahMama came out to support the cause and walk the one-mile loop.

“When I decided to start baking and selling (in 2021), I wasn’t doing it for the money,” says Sarah, who also works four days a week as a juvenile criminal defense attorney. “I was doing it because I like doing it, and I wanted to have a good purpose behind it.”

A SCARY DIAGNOSIS

Sarah’s MS journey started with strange mouth pains in the late spring of 2019. A wife and mother of two young girls, she knew something was wrong, but getting a diagnosis was no easy task.

First there was a trip to the dentist, who couldn’t find anything out of the ordinary. Then she went to an oral surgeon who also found nothing, but – after some pushing from Sarah – sent her to an ear, nose, and throat (ENT) doctor who was a salivary gland specialist. After two visits to the ENT doctor, who also found nothing, Sarah was given a magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) test to see if she was having atypical migraines.

“Nobody wanted to believe me,” says Sarah, “but I knew something was wrong.”

Pictured above, left to right: Sarah Krantz’s biggest supporters are daughters Rachel and Samantha and husband Jason Korenblit, and For the 2024 Walk MS event at Blue Jacket Park in Orlando, Sarah (center, with visor and sunglasses) was joined for the one-mile walk by more than 40 members of Team MSChallahMama.

A second MRI confirmed that Sarah had multiple sclerosis, often called an invisible illness because its symptoms are not always noticeable.

“I was scared,” says Sarah, now 37. “I had two little kids, and I got this diagnosis, and I didn’t know what was going to come next.”

BAKING BREAD AND MAKING STRIDES

Fortunately for Sarah, she had the support and assistance of her husband, gastroenterologist Jason Korenblit, who helped schedule appointments with the ENT and a neurologist. Sarah has been on medication since her diagnosis and has been stable since then.

The energetic mom of daughters Rachel, who turns eight in July, and Samantha, who is six, was eager to learn as much as possible about multiple sclerosis. Internet research led her to the National Multiple Sclerosis Society website and its various fundraising events.

In January 2020, a few months after her diagnosis, Sarah signed up for a Walk MS event and raised more than $5,000. But, like almost everything else that year, the event was canceled due to the Covid-19 pandemic.

Her team had a different name then. A few months later, MSChallahMama was born, when Sarah started baking challahs at home after school was canceled at The Roth Family JCC preschool - again, because of the pandemic.

“We would always bring a challah home from the JCC on Fridays,” says Sarah. “After school was canceled, Rachel asked me, ‘Why can’t we have challah? It’s Friday!’ And that’s why the challah baking started.”

The following year she began promoting her business on Facebook and Instagram. She came up with the double-entendre name of MSChallahMama for the 2021 Walk MS, which was virtual, and her team of family and friends has walked with her for the past three Walk MS events.

“Nobody needs to wake up early on a Saturday morning and schlep their kids to a park to do this,” Sarah says of her supporters. “They do it because they want to. And it’s totally overwhelming to have that kind of support.”

This story was originally published in print in Summer 2024.