Hot Bread Kitchen is a bread baking company in East Harlem. The founder and CEO Jessamyn Rodriguez came up with the idea in 2000 when she accidentally said baking instead of banking in an interview. She envisioned an international women’s baking collective. It all started with a baking class and job from Jessamyn’s kitchen. Hot Bread Kitchen has two main programs, Bakers in Training and HBK Incubates. Bakers in Training is a 6 month long program for women facing economic insecurity. These women, many from dif
ferent parts of the world, learn how to bake and are trained in proper technique for baking artisan breads, learn English, math, and science. When these women graduate from the program the team at Hot Bread Kitchen helps them find a full-time, fair wage position with benefits and opportunities for advancement.
Innovation practically seeps from every part of this business. Their artisan breads can be bought online or at the bakery, which is the funding for a large part of their programs. They have taken something as simple as bread, something we eat every day, and created a social enterprise out of it. Jessamyn saw the deep need for women in economic instability to have training opportunities that will allow them to provide for themselves and their families. The more I have researched this business, the more exciting and inspiring I find it. They are literally changing lives by teaching women to bake bread.
This is a great idea to empower women and teach them these basic skills to support themselves and their families. Even though this idea is simple, it touches lives throughout the world! It is exciting to watch this company provide women advantages that we often take for granted.
Not only do I see what Jessamyn is doing as a wise business idea, but I love the social implications which her business also has, and the positive way in which it is impacting others. Especially the fact that Hot Bread Kitchen first seeks to hire those in need, and then make those people better off than before they learned how to bake. A great story and a great lesson to be had.
I like how she solves s many problems and offers a multitude of solutions from an idea as simple as baking bread. It is an extremely innovative idea that not only helps her make money, but also and more importantly helps those around her in need.
This is an incredible idea! Not only does this program help people bake a product but it also encourages other skills to be learned. Giving women an opportunity to thrive economically is not often seen today, and this company puts a special emphasis on doing just that. Well done!
It’s so encouraging to see businesses like this! Rodriguez took something so seemingly mundane as bread baking and transformed it into a social enterprise that’s benefiting so many. Also, the fact that it all started from a mere slip-of-the-tongue goes to show that all things happen for a reason.
This is an awesome business and outreach, and I find it very interesting how it was started with just a slip up in an interview. This shows how some business ideas can spring from very unexpected places in ours lives.
So cool! Love seeing how a business is not only teaching a useful skill like baking, but also the skills that we need to succeed in the world like math and reading.
This is such a neat business idea! I think it is cool that she took something kind of random like bread and made it the staple idea in educating women and giving them usable skills. It is so encouraging to see women training other women so that they can go into the workforce, and how they stand by their side and help them through the entire process!