I created Kiss My Bundt Bakery in 2005. At that time I had a full-time job and nearly everyone I knew though it was a crazy idea. "Who opens a bakery when their background is in relationship building and community development?" I heard this time and time again.
But then it became a challenge for myself: Could I follow my passion of baking and integrate my passion for relationship and community building?
What I learned from years as a community organizer and a director of a nonprofit organization is that relationships are key to everything. And relationships are more important that the things you think are most valuable or important (like money or power). Essentially, relationships are power.
What I also know is that building relationships is hard work because there has to be a genuine foundation for that relationship to grow. And, relationships help you build support systems around you that help you and the community you live in thrive. Who doesn't need support here and there? This business wouldn't be alive today if it weren't for my relationships.
What I also learned as a community builder/organizer, was that an essential component of a healthy, happy, and connected community is a central place to gather to help build these relationships. These central places where people gather are called simply "public spaces" in the world of Urban Planning.
Here on 3rd Street where the bakery is located, there aren't any real public spaces--no parks, no benches, and no piazzas. Yes, I said Piazzas. I went to Romania in 2003 to study public spaces and to understand how a sense of community with strong relationships might be created if there were public spaces. There were some plazas there, and some of the youth and people we talked to shared that they were just beginning to use these public spaces to get to know their community.
In 2007 traveled to Italy and saw that the Piazzas were central gathering spaces for communities to come together. In Rome, I saw teenagers, or parents with babies talking with one another, sharing in the day's events, and planning the next opportunity to see one another.
I am quite simply fascinated on why and where people come together as well as how relationships are built. In this regard, opening my own bakery is not very different at all from being a community builder. Community builders have to know why people come together, where they come together and what tools (such as food or a common issue) help people come and stay together so that they can do their work.
The “why” question varies, but the “where” question is easy: people gather in spaces where they feel comfortable. Public Spaces are essential to strong communities. So when I told people I wanted to create a “Community Bakery” this notion is one of the essential components. Kiss My Bundt Bakery should be a place where people feel comfortable.
As business owner, my job is to create a product that tastes good and can helps you build relationships. I have customers that have made many friends at work by bringing in bundts to the office! I have countless customers, such as salesmen, that use our cakes to build relationships with potential customers. Or parents who give cakes to their child's teacher. Or people who pick-up cake to take to an impromptu dinner party with friends. Even I have taken bundt cakes to a neighbor's house, just last month in fact, to both introduce myself to a new neighbor as well as begin to build a relationship.
When I decided to open Kiss My Bundt Bakery, my vision was that it would be a "Community Bakery." Some were confused by this. What I meant, and still mean, is that this Kiss My Bundt Bakery would be like a Piazza in Rome. A place for people to gather. The bakery would provide a resource to help build community, whether it be bundt cakes, coffee, or a donation to a community-based organization. It would be a business that looks out for the best interest of the community and sees itself as a resident in its community and not just a business located here.
Today a customer came into the bakery, and she looked very different somehow, and yet she was very familiar. She was pushing a stroller and cooing with her baby all while looking at our flavors of the day and deciding what she wanted to have. I said to her "You've been in before, that I'm sure of. But something's different. I can't place it." She smiled and said "When I was in here last, I was 8 months pregnant, and now my son is 1 month old."
This customer was out on a walk, but she was meeting her friend at the bakery to get a glass of milk and a chocolate mini bundt cake. She said they needed to "catch up" and that my bakery was "the only place I could walk to where my friend and I could meet to get good cake and be comfortable ." She also said that she was getting some cakes to take over to her neighbor's home as a thank-you gift.
I've got dozens of stories like these where people have connected with the bakery and have really adopted us not only as their community bakery, but as a place to build and strengthen their relationships.
And for this particular customer, my bakery has now been a part of her baby shower, her "welcome home baby" party, and other parts of her life. She has, essentially, trusted us to be a part of her memories. And now she gives our cakes to the people in her life, connecting Kiss My Bundt Bakery to all of the relationships in her life.
You can build relationships and community with bundts.
Through this experience, and many, many others, I understand that a community-centered business can create spaces that help communities thrive, and help people build relationships in what may seem like very small ways.
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