Skeena Bakery
When you buy an artisan bread or indulgent sweet treat from the Skeena Bakery, you’re getting more than exceptional baking. Every purchase whether big or small supports people with disabilities, offering dignity, employment, plus work and life skills. The Skeena Bakery is a social enterprise that produces outstanding natural, hand- crafted bread and baked goods using organic ingredients. The Skeena Bakery makes everything by hand fresh each morning using no preservatives or trans-fats. In addition to its outstanding baked goods, guests will also find a selection of locally-roasted Mercedes Beans coffees, teas and natural juices.
The Skeena Bakery is operated by the Skeena Supported Employment Society.
Meet the Skeena Supported Employment Society
Meet the Skeena Supported Employment Society
Like other small rural towns, employment is an ongoing challenge for even the able-bodied in the Hazeltons. Add to this the challenges that disabled people face in the employment market, and the problem may have once seemed like a near-impossible hurdle to get over. However, the founding members of the grassroots Skeena Supported Employment Society saw this less as a challenge and more as an opportunity. They formed the Skeena Supported Employment Society and eventually established the Skeena Bakery as a way to fulfill the group's mission to "enhance the work and life skills of people with disabilities by providing supported employment and volunteer opportunities in the Hazeltons."
At the Skeena Bakery, people with disabilities are offered the chance to learn both baking and business skills. Disabled individuals work alongside people who are either paid employees of the bakery or disability support workers who help to supervise, instruct and coach. On any given day a visitor to the bakery may see people with disabilities kneading and shaping bread dough, pouring coffee, working the cash register, greeting patrons or any of dozens of other tasks necessary to running a successful business.
What makes this business different is that all profits that are generated are put back into the enterprise and into creating more employment opportunities for the disabled in the Hazeltons. Not only does this enterprise provide essential life and employment skills for disabled people, it also meets a need within the community, providing a service and products that were previously unavailable in the region.
