This piece is shared as part of Pledge 1%’s #GivingTuesdayNow campaign, which highlights how Pledge 1% members and the business community are coming together as a force for good to combat COVID-19.
Blue Skies Bakery is a family owned & operated wholesale bakery located in White Salmon, Washington. We make artisan par baked bread & small batch granolas for cafes, restaurants, and grocers throughout the Pacific Northwest. We are grateful to be able to continue working with our grocery customers through this rollercoaster of a time in the food world.
When the virus shutdowns first hit in March we scrambled, along with so many others in the food world, to fulfill big orders, take care of our employees, and try to figure out which way was up!
We were pleased to be able to shift our employees’ schedules so that everyone could work solo in the bakery, thus protecting our bakers by minimizing the risk of any contact with others.
Working solo works well for granola making, but not so much for shaping our loaves. Our loaves are naturally leavened & long fermented, and require a 7 day process. We shape all 360 of our loaves in 1 day each week, and bake them the following day, after an overnight cold proof. Shaping the loaves requires 3 of us to work in close quarters, and so now it is a family affair, which has been very, very lovely.
By April we had settled into our new rhythm & we are happy to say that this month we have been able to donate $,1372 worth of bread and granola to our local food banks, school lunch program & community food boxes, domestic violence shelter, and to the local homeless population.
