Baking the Morning Away!
Posted by Kaitlin Walter, Fellow
I have been working at a small bakery here in Atlanta for the past few months, and it has been a good learning experience for me. It has prepared me for early mornings and other important parts of bakery-life. Although working at the register has not given me a lot of exposure to the bread-making part of this work, I have gotten good exposure to the daily grind that is running a successful small business. I woke up today to go to work (as I now know, bakeries have to start the day before the sun rises), and I realized that June is just around the corner! I could not be more excited about the project, which is slowly but surely coming to life! I wanted to reflect on my time working at this bakery, and I have come up with five key lessons that I have learned:
(1) Quality is everything at a bakery.
(2) You have to wake up early, no excuses.
(3) Appearance counts, the bread needs to look good and the bakery too.
(4) You must be consistent- when the bakery is open, bread must be available.
(5) People like sweet treats. Cookies are big sellers.
Not sure if this project is still operative but it was very interesting:
The Lower East Side Girls’ Club have the “Sweet Things Bake Shop” in New York City. Here is a quick blurb as well as a few links in case you find it relevant:
Sweet Things Bakeshop is a professional bakery afterschool program of the Lower East Side Girls’ Club. The Bakeshop caters events and produces baked goods such as cookies and muffins for wholesale and retail sales. The girls are paid minimum wage; they must be 13, and must complete an application and interview process. They learn business skills, recipe testing, math, teamwork and more. June, Miladys and Ngina are adults who work supervising and helping the teen-age girls.
http://nyfoodmuseum.org/what/w-sweet.htm