Hot Bread Kitchen

I had the pleasure of meeting Jessamyn Waldman this week.  She is the brains and power behind Hot Bread Kitchen.  Super smart woman who is truly making a difference on many levels.  A trained baker as well as an expert in immigration policy.  She combined the two and Hot Bread Kitchen was founded. 

Hot Bread Kitchen recruits immigrants to teach them English and the skill of baking.  With those skills these women are able to enter the food industry, start a food company of their own or bake for Hot Bread Kitchen.  The kitchen is churning out fresh baked daily bread with recipes that come from the women and the countries they are from.  Although HBK is a non-profit business, the part of the business that is now supplying bread to Greenmarkets and grocery stores around the area and country have the potential to be quite a large profit business.  There is also the potential to roll this particular model out in urban areas around the globe.

Jessamyn is trying to figure out exactly how to have a profit business and non-profit business under the same umbrella where they feed off of each other.  This goes right back to the conversation about companies that are trying to do social good yet can be profitable but need to raise money to run the business initially.  Donors Choose has done that.  From a Government standpoint, this is not so easy.  It is easy to be either a profit or a non-profit but how do you do both under the tax system.  How can these businesses be monitored if they are not paying taxes but not need to raise money initially because the profits will eventually plow back into the business which is for the social good of the community.  My gut is that the legal system will try to figure this out in the next few years as more and more people want to go this route.

Regardless, I love the entire concept of Hot Bread Kitchen from teaching the skills of baking to immigrants, teaching them English, integrating them into the community and selling the product to all of us.  Might be something I get more involved with.