Kickstart This: Hot Bread Kitchen Helps Train Immigrant Women In Bakery
We're big fans of Kickstarter here at Food Republic. The website is the world's largest funding platform for creative projects, allowing users (dreamers?) to outline ambitious projects backed by donations from visitors, who are often able to give as little as $1 to furthering a worthy cause.
Hot Bread Kitchen tops our list of worthy causes we've come across lately. An alternative to expensive culinary school, the Women Bake Bread Scholarship provides a yearlong paid training for low-income immigrant women. The training curriculum tackles key elements of bakery work, as well as in-demand skills for culinary positions, including speed, accuracy, safe food handling and punctuality. The program supports trainees in their job search and connects them with well-paid positions in the baking industry. Graduates have moved on to management-track positions at top bakeries and restaurants across the U.S.
Perhaps most impressively, Hot Bread Kitchen creates its own funding stream through selling its line of multi-ethnic breads. Board members include Eater.com co-founder Ben Leventhal, Momofuku Milk Bar owner and founder Christina Tosi and Food & Wine Editor-in-Chief Dana Cowin. Rewards for donating range from various samples of the breads to the opportunity to cook with and pitch ideas to board members.
With just three days left to donate, the project remains roughly $2,000 short of its $54,000 goal. Head to the Kickstarter campaign page today to help fund training positions for new bakers.
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