Episode 36: Hayes Valley Bakeworks

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A transcript, lightly edited for clarity and length, follows.

Show Guests: Mark Bailey, Head of Operations and Martha Martinez,Head of Production & Training, Hayes Valley Bakeworks

Voices of the Community Introduction: Welcome to voices of the community which explores critical issues facing Northern California communities. We introduce you to the voices of community thought leaders and change makers who are working on solutions that face our fellow individual community members neighborhoods cities and our region. This is George Koster your host. 

Series Introduction: This episode is part of our series exploring COVID-19’s impact on nonprofits and small businesses in San Francisco. Back in April 2020 when we decided to create this ongoing series on Covid-19’s impact first on nonprofits and then on small businesses in the San Francisco Bay. We like you had no idea how long the pandemic would go on and what the health and economic impact would be on our community. Going into 2021 the pandemic is now killing more people, shutting down more nonprofits and small businesses, along with wiping out the lively hoods of families, neighborhoods and communities.

We will continue to shine a spotlight on the nonprofits, and small businesses that make up the fabric of our community along with the founders and staff who are struggling to deal with the impact of the COVID 19 pandemic on their operations, services and sustainability until we can all get to the other side of the pandemic. Along the way, we will also share with you all the amazing solutions that our nonprofits, small businesses, foundations, and government leaders are working on to help us all get to the other side of the pandemic and come together to rebuild our communities with more economic, social and environmental equality

Show Guest Mark: We started a program, the Meals to Work program, and reached out to Project Homeless Connect. So, what we do is once a week, when they're having their drop-in sessions, for people who are looking for essential services, we bring food to them for those days. Which is pretty amazing because if you've been ever experienced homelessness or people who were aware of issues, with homelessness. Oftentimes you have to choose between whether you're going to find a place to sleep at night or whether you're going to get something to eat.

Episode Intro - Show Host George: In this episode, our first featured voices are Mark Bailey the head of operations, and Martha Martinez the head of production and training at Hayes Valley Bakeworks. We wanted to share the story of Hayes Valley Bakeworks because of its unique self-supporting social enterprise model to provide a workforce training program in the culinary arts. Hayes Valley Bakeworks trains people with disabilities, formerly homeless people, and people who are at risk. Hayes Valley Bakeworks was created by Toolworks which is the parent social enterprise that is a self-supporting nonprofit agency. Toolworks is dedicated to improving the lives of people with disabilities and operates two other workforce training programs through providing janitorial services and recycling services for businesses

Show Host George: I'm joined remotely via zoom by Mark Bailey, the Head of Operations, and Martha Martinez, the Head of Production and Training of Hayes Valley Bakeworks. Thanks for being here, Mark and Martha.

Show Guest Mark: Thanks for having us

Show Host George: I'd like to start with you Mark, by having you, provide the audience an overview of who Hayes Valley Bakeworks serves and then some of your key programs? I know you guys have a partnership with Project Homeless Connect, for example, and the Bakeworks itself is a social enterprise. So please provide us a little overview.

Mark: Correct. So, Hayes Valley Bakeworks has been around for eight years now. We're a subsidiary of Toolworks organization. They're a nonprofit here in the city and they do social enterprises and we're one of their social enterprises. So, we do training and employment for people with disabilities and those at risk of homelessness.  We have two locations. We have our location that we're in right now on Gough Street and Fulton.

And so, one at the San Francisco Public Utilities building, which is currently closed, because of Covid. So essentially, what we do is we take people from various different backgrounds. People with developmental disabilities, people who are homeless, people who just got out of prison and we give them an opportunity to be able to, learn the work environment, learn the kitchen environment, front of house as well. And, Yeah, that's what we've been doing that for eight years. So, does that cover what the question was?

George: The other question there would, Mark would be, some of the programs that you have. So, for example, you, you have the Project Homeless Connect, the meals to work program. If you could explain a little bit more about that.

Mark: Sure.  I wouldn't say that's our main focus right now, but that's one of the ways that we've been dealing with COVID. I think it's where we try to be a community organization as much as possible. We, you know, order all our food, all our coffee and things like that. We always use local vendors whenever possible. So being able, to serve the community in any way is what we're all about. So, you know, we lost a lot of sales due to COVID. So one of the ways to be able to not only help ourselves and be able to bring more trainees on, but being able to feed people who are homeless.

And so, we started a program, the Meals to Work program and reached out to Project Homeless Connect. So, what we do is once a week, when they're having their drop-in sessions, for people who are looking for essential services, we bring food to them for those days. Which is pretty amazing because if you've been ever experienced homelessness or people who were aware of issues with homelessness. Oftentimes you have to choose between whether you're going to find a place to sleep at night or whether you're going to get something to eat, because oftentimes you have to, you know, sign up for a shelter or you have to be at a certain place at a specific time.

Well, a lot of churches and you know, where places that are doing a meal programs are also at specific times. So sometimes if you need some medical help, you have to go do that instead of, get something to eat. So being able to provide food when people are dropping in for their sessions is pretty key and it also encourages more people to reach out for help.

George: Thank you. I'm going to turn to you, Martha. And so here we are going on month nine of the COVID-19 pandemic. How has the pandemic really impacted your production and training there at Hayes Valley Bakeworks?

Show Guest Martha: Yeah. Well, production wise because we don't have that other store. We had to scale down on production a little bit, but we also had to change the menu because when we came back from, we had like a two-month break, when everything shut down at the beginning, we decided we had to close for a little bit because we didn't know where it was going to happen. So, when we came back from that, we didn't know what our customers would kind of want.

So, we changed our menu a little bit. And also, before the pandemic, we were doing the sandwiches, for example grab and go because our trainees would come in the morning, make all the sandwiches and then they would be available for the customers. And that didn't work anymore for two reasons. Once we couldn't have that many trainees, since we didn't have that many customers.

And also, we didn't know how many sandwiches we were going to need for that day. Everything was like up in the air. As far as the trainees closing PUC was a huge part of the trainees. we would have, I think in total between 20 and 25 employees and of those maybe 10 or 12 were trainees. So, when that store closed, then we couldn't provide that training.

And when we started, we only had, one trainee right now we have four, but it’s all because of the amount of customers that we have, or don't have at this moment.

George: And then Martha, over your years of working there and training you know, folks to work at Hayes Valley Bakeworks, could you share a story that you feel shows the impact of Hayes Valley Bakeworks on our community?

Martha: Yes, I think at the beginning we thought that we were going to train people to be amazing cooks and over time working with them, we realized that it was more about having a place to come to. Some of them have never worked. So, introduce them to the workforce and just having friends, for example, at work, having a purpose in life that is very important.

And just seeing some of the growth of those clients, it's just amazing. Like some of them come very shy, they don't talk, they don't know what to do. And with time you see them and, we all become like part of one family. And for me, some of the clients, when we haven't seen each other for a long time and when they come back, it's like, I miss you so much. And they hug you of course, before COVID. That is amazing. That's what I love about most. How about big boats.

George: Thank you. Nice story. How about you Mark?

Mark: You know, it's just great to be able to see people from completely different backgrounds come together and be able to work together as a team and we recently had somebody working here who, had been in prison his entire life, and he was in his you know late fifties and you know; he was on shift with somebody with developmental disabilities. You literally couldn't have. Two different people with more different backgrounds and to see them work together and kind of work as a team and mentor each other is just It's just one of the most incredible things to see. And it just goes to show is like, you know, if you meet people where they are.

You know, people can do amazing things. If you judge people miss out on so much of what you can learn from each other. So it's, you know, being able to see, you know, get their first paycheck that they've gotten in years and just, you know, like Martha was saying, just watching people grow, you know, often, you know, people are shy and a little, You know, , they just don't know how to react and how to work as a team or, you know, be a part of something , that's bigger than themselves and the people grow along the way is just, you know, it's just an amazing thing. And that’s the impact that we, have at Bakeworks and, it takes a lot to get one person. You know, to get one person to grow and to get one person along the way. So it's you know, it's always hard to explain what the impact is overall on community you know, because it's such an individualistic thing that we do here.

George: Thank you that was a good overview. So, Mark folks who are watching are listening to this, how can they support Hayes Valley Bakeworks, obviously you guys aren't open. So, people can't just walk in. Like I used to once a week, at least in, buy your amazing baked goods, especially your banana bread. So how can people support you guys?

Mark: So, currently we're only open at one location. We're open Monday through Friday at our location in Hayes Valley from eight until three. So, we had to scale back our out quite a bit, but of course everything's to go, you can visit us online.

It's bake works sf dot square dot site, and that's a link to our online store.  We don't have our entire menu there. It's all for pickup, but there's lots of different things that people can buy there, whether it's you know, if somebody wants a pie, I always want a pie.

That's good for me. We have our cookies. We have stuff that you can, take and bake at home. And I forget what else we have on our online site.  And yeah, there's also a link for our meals to work program. So, people can buy meals for homeless people there. Buy as many as you'd like.

It definitely would help, you know, it helps to feed people and then also helps us keep our training program going strong. And then also, if people want to just leave donations for us as well. But also, you know, check us out on Facebook and on Instagram, you know, share our posts.

Talk about us. You know, I think not just for Bakeworks ourselves because of the way COVID has affected all small businesses, especially you know, social enterprises and nonprofits, you know, we're really dependent, on people supporting us at this point in time. I think COVID has really shined the spotlight on the difference between you know, small businesses and a place like Amazon.

You know, where, a lot of the small businesses, are either closing or they're not doing so well right now. So, you know, it’s a perfect opportunity to get with any small business and, you know, places like Bakeworks.

George: Thank you. I'm going to turn to you Martha and, ask of all of the horrible things happening in COVID these days and to Mark's point the economic impact on, Hayes Valley Bakeworks, what are some of the good things that you could see possibly coming out of the pandemic?

Martha: Well, for me personally, right now, I think I'm thankful that I have a job and I am healthy. Those are one of the few things that you can say I have it. But I think a lot of people have had time to value what they have and what they don't have. And I've seen a lot of people who have the time to develop new skills.

Or have rediscovered something they left because they were on the day-to-day rhythm. So, I think a lot of people are going back to that and say, Hey, this is what I like and what I'm going to continue doing if or when things go back to normal. So, we had time to sit down and process things a little bit. So, I think that helps.

George: Thank you. And same question for you, Mark. What are some of the great things are good things are possible things coming out of the pandemic, that would help social enterprises like Hayes Valley Bakeworks, and the people that you serve?

Mark: Thanks. Yeah. You know, I think Martha's right.  What we hope is that people have really understood the importance of small business, of, you know, the arts community of, you know, essentially creative business in urban settings or in any settings, that, you know, oftentimes I think, all of us take these things for granted that they're always there.

 Or, you know, SF jazz is though. And people get to see shows sometimes and they don't, but when things just are, you know, when you can't go to them, certainly when you're appreciating them more. So, you know, I think bringing people back, to a level where people understand that living in a city is exciting and the restaurants and the arts community that's, there is one of the reasons why it's so exciting. So, you know, hopefully there's value into the things that we provide and that small businesses by the community.

George: Well, thank you, Martha and Mark for sharing Hayes Valley Bakeworks today and, we'll make sure that everyone who's watching or listening to this has, your contact information website, social media, and that they can follow the Hayes Valley Bakeworks and get engaged in support all of your amazing work to help train our fellow community members and please stay safe out there in what is now become a really strange new normal.

Mark: Awesome. Thank you so much for having us and let's get the word out.

George: Absolutely.

Episode Outro - Show Host George: That’s it for this episode of voices of the community. You have been listening to the voices of Mark Bailey the head of operations and Martha Martinez the head of production and training at Hayes Valley Bakeworks. Through our interview in episode 11 with Laurie Thomas the Executive Director of the Golden Gate Restaurant Association, they estimate that Fifty Percent of restaurants will be lost from the pandemic. To find out more about Hayes Valley Bakeworks culinary arts training program and to support Hayes Valley Bakeworks go to bake works sf dot square dot site         

Series Outro: We hope that you enjoy the insights, points of view, and personal stories from the voices of change-makers and their nonprofits and small businesses featured in this series. To find out more and get engaged with the nonprofits, small businesses and staff members, featured in this series please go to my web site george koster dot com and click on Voices of the Community to find links to the extended versions of these interviews and to listen to the entire series. After listening to these stories we hope that you will consider making a donation and volunteering to provide a hand up to your fellow community members.

Series Credits: I want to thank my associate producer Eric Estrada, and Kasey Nance at Citron Studios, along with the wonderful crew at the San Francisco Public Press and KSFP. 

Voices of the Community is a member of Intersection for the Arts which allows us to offer you a tax deduction for your contributions. Please go to george koster dot com and click on the donate link to make a donation to help us provide future shows just like this one. While you are on our web site you can enjoy our archived past shows which feature community voices working on solutions to critical issues facing Northern California communities, and sign up for our newsletter to find out about our future shows as well as shows and events from the organizations that our included in our episodes

Take us along on your next Covid walk by subscribing to Voices of the Community on on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google Podcasts or wherever you get your podcasts. You can follow us on twitter @georgekoster and we’d love to hear from you with feedback and show ideas, so send us an email to george@georgekoster.com. I'm George Koster in San Francisco and thank you for listening. 

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