St. John the Compassionate Bakery at Carrot Cache

“Many people have told us that ours is the best bread they have tasted,” boasts Marc van Beusekom, manager of St. John’s Bakery in Toronto. The compliments
are not surprising considering that the St. John’s bakers got their recipes and training from the bakery of a small village in Brittany, renowned for it’s crusty sourdough. “The community of le Vaublanc in Brittany France, has sent several bakers to St. John’s to train us in the techniques of artisan-style Breton bread baking. Several of our bakers have visited Brittany in turn and worked in the village bakery there. As a result, the bread we now bake - using organic flour - is of very high quality,” explains van Beusekom.

St. John’s Bakery is a social enterprise that was founded on the notion that meaningful work is important to human dignity. Participants at the bakery have included people who have had experience of homelessness,mentally handicapped adults, refugees,

people struggling with various addictions, single parents struggling with poverty, long-term unemployed, as well as people with physical disabilities, mental illness or emotional difficulties. But the bakery is not a charity, notes van Beusekom. “This is important work.” And it is work that the employees at St. John’s Bakery do extremely well.

In addition to lemon cakes, banana breads, cookies and pies, employees and volunteers at St. John’s Bakery bake over 1000 loaves of organic artisan style bread each week. Once out of the oven, the bread is shipped fresh daily to dozens of stores across the city including The Big Carrot, Karma Co-op, Altitude Bakery, and Nunzio’s Find Foods. From there, it is snatched up by enthusiastic customers, “We have a lot of customers from eastern Europe who say that it reminds them of the bread made in their home villages in their grandparents time.”

“Bread is deeply connected with our past as a society,” continues van Beusekom, “There is a sense that we are part of a bigger story, part of a long tradition of making a food that has sustained hundreds of generations. Being a part of that story is healing because it gives meaning to daily life.”

Meaningful work is not available for many who are willing and eager to work. In a society where poverty is often treated
like a crime, this can be difficult.

Van Beusekom relates the story of the man who currently packages bread for the bakery. He is on welfare and once told van Beusekom that he was afraid that he might ‘be a bum’ for the rest of his life. Today, he works at the bakery part-time four days a week. “He is a wonder of efficiency, rarely misses a shift, and is always helpful,” says van Beusekom. Although the bakery can offer him a small stipend to help supplement his income, the business is not big enough to hire him full time- not quite yet.

“One of our goals is to grow big enough to offer employment to more people,” says van Beusekom. St. John’s Bakery is now moving towards that goal. The Bakery is expanding and has purchased a larger building at 153 Broadview which will include a modest retail outlet for the bakery. “It took a lot of support from different areas to make this happen,” he explains. “The Toronto Enterprise fund of the United Way, private foundations, the federal government and the Canadian Alternative
Investment Co-operative all pitched in to make this possible.”

With more space, the bakery will be able to offer more people work. Meaningful, healing, important work. And hard work, adds van Beusekom. “Chaotic, exhausting, and very satisfying.”