Building Community and Partnerships with Just Bakery

Just Bakery of Atlanta  is a nonprofit partnering with New Americans on paid job training and living wage work, working at the crossroads of feeding people and making change since 2017.

In this week’s Splendid Spotlight I spend time with Leah Lonsbury, founder and Executive Director of Just Bakery of Atlanta, how it all started and plans for the future.

I love this concept that you’ve created. You train and employ refugees and actually pay them a living wage, which is such an important distinction that I think not a lot of other businesses or organizations do.

 So in your own words, what does Just Bakery do?

I think the most beautiful thing about it is the kitchen family that is created by the people who come to work with us. All the ways they shape and lead and teach all of us in the kitchen is just an invaluable experience. It never feels like work.

What is your favorite part of your role as Executive Director? 

I love getting to connect with people. People who work with us to people in the community. They could be foodies, they could be people interested in New American resettlement and make new friendships to cross artificial boundary lines and create that community. It’s more like the world, how it is, here in Atlanta.

Day to day, what does your role look like? Are you in the bakery? Running logistics?

Pre-Covid, I spent a lot more time in the kitchen. We reduced down to just two people in the kitchen at a time, but are slowly building back up to normal, with vaccinations rolling out. I stop in now and then, but I don’t want to take up too much of the real magic makers’ time.  Most days you can catch me in my (very messing) home office, writing grants and working on strategic planning for our next steps. I worked recently with community consulting teams, doing a project for us on sales and  marketing. We don’t focus too heavily on selling our products as much as telling our story. But it’s sort of chicken and egg. We have to be selling our product in order to employ our people. 

That’s something that makes you different from what most people think of when they think of a non-profit. There is this component where you are training people and giving them a living wage AND you’re producing a product you can sell. It’s like you have two businesses “baked” in one. (Pardon the pun) I can see how it would have its challenges and also be very, very rewarding. 

I dreamed about doing this for 10 years! How to combine change-making and feeding people. And let me tell you, starting a small business and a nonprofit was very exhausting but so worth it. It wasn’t my field of training or experience, so it’s been a steep learning curve. But exciting! Every day is different. From doing taxes to taste testing.

That must be the hardest part of your job! 

So let’s fast forward 5 years, what are you doing and what is Just Bakery doing?

Five years from now we will have our own retail location, which will resolve a lot of operation issues. And it allows us to hire and train more folks to send out into the community, empowered with job skills and economic security to build a life. A life that is safe and settled here. 

I see us continuing to work with a lot of community partners. It’s very important to the work we do. I’d love to just be working on telling our story and doing more of the leadership pieces. I’d love to hire capable people to handle more of the day-to-day aspects of running the bakery.

So what I hear is scaling. Right now you don’t have a stand alone shop, so that will be an important step for you. Tell us where people can buy your baked goods and how that works.

The best way to find us is at the local farmer’s market, Oakhurst Farmers Market and we do deliveries every Tuesday and Thursday. There’s also a rotating calendar available on our website, where we go to different neighborhoods and you can order ahead of time. We label and package the baked goods and you can come pick it up. And it will be the most delicious baked goods you’ve ever had!

So is the goal to train refugees and then they “graduate” from Just Bakery. Most companies focus on retention, but is your model slightly different in that you want to give them these job skills and then send them out into the world?

We do need to be more of a train-and-send model and less of a small business model, which does make it tricky from an operations standpoint. People do come and stay. We build community. It’s a baking family. We’ve done as much “sending” as we need to do. We’re about to start our Community Rising program which is a short term program, this time focusing on new American food business entrepreneurs. The goal is to equip them so they can then provide for their families.

And as you scale, naturally you’ll need to bring on more people.

The retail location would be a huge part of that. It would allow us to bring in more people and train more and partner with more people in the community.

You know I love social media, so tell me what’s been your favorite social post or movement that you’ve experienced?

The work we did around our second birthday party a few years ago, we worked with Tucker Brewing, and it was just such a magical night. We had great volunteers and the social media marketing really drove people to attend and see who we are and what we do. Even now, I can picture the posts we used for advertising and it was so perfect and so special!

Give us a pro-tip! What’s one thing that makes your role or your goals easier to achieve?

Learn to delegate to really talented people. They’re there and you need to find them.

Move people within your organization into leadership roles and empower them.

What are their natural gifts? How can we support that? So yes, learning to delegate to talented people. 

And what’s so incredible about that is, as you work with these people, you may start to see them naturally gravitate towards roles they didn’t know they do! And enjoy. Didn’t know they could bake. But fostering that talent is so important. 

Spending time with them and getting to know what pieces of the work really suit them. And on the other end, seeing what they don’t like! I recently discovered one of our staff loved drawing and anime and really shined when given the opportunity to decorate some royal icing cookies. Anyone can tell you royal icing requires a steady hand and seeing them step into that role was very exciting. It gives such confidence as well!

I imagine confidence is such an important aspect for these refugees too. Knowing they can learn while doing, have that self-assurance and feeling valued in their workplace.

The biggest piece that I see is just doors opening. Connecting to the community. When I see them first step on to the staff they are brave. They are capable. They can handle anything that’s thrown at them. They’re flexible. They’re eager. They have all those pieces, they just need doors to be open for them to walk through.

Tell me about the term “New Americans.” You’ve used it a few times and I just want to make sure we understand what that means and when to use it correctly.

Of course! So my staff is not made up of refugees, it’s made up of New Americans who resettled as refugees in the United States. They will tell you themselves they are no longer refugees, they are contributing members of society. You’d be surprised to see the statistics of what New Americans bring to our economy and community. So I work with a lot of brand New Americans. I’m endlessly delighted  by them and the work they do. 

Thank you for educating us on that term! I love that. Finish this sentence, more non-profits should be…?

Reaching out and partnering. There’s no way we could do what we do without the community farmer’s markets and the IRC. I would have never found my incredible staff members without the work of the International Rescue Committee. They are a wealth of resources. And local farmers and business owners. We don’t have to do this work in a silo. We can work as a community. Lean into each other’s resources. 

Last bonus question, what’s one thing you wish people knew about Just Bakery?

It’s the best bread I’ve ever eaten in my life. And I’m a bread connoisseur! It may not be as easy to find, but we’re here. There are ways to get your hands on our baked goods. And your dollars change lives. And you get to eat amazing food.

Everyone can find you on Instagram @JustBakeryATL and on your website JustBakeryATL.org  

If you’re not in Atlanta you can donate and know your money is going towards a great cause. 

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