Help Bread and Flours build a commercial bakery!

Hi! We are Mark and Kristin, the founders and operators of Bread and Flours, an artisan micro-bakery in sunny Palm Springs, California. Since starting Bread and Flours as a home-based cottage food operation in 2019, it has been our dream to build out a commercial and retail brick-and-mortar sourdough bread bakery. We are two first born children, married, and hail from the Northeastern US. All of this makes it hard to ask for help, but we realize if we want to fulfill our goal and stay on track with our deadlines, if there was ever a time to ask for a helping hand….THIS IS IT.

In September we signed a lease on a commercial space that we hoped to turn into a bakery and retail location. We were thrilled to secure the space and lease, and to move forward with our business plans. The aesthetic left a bit to be desired…but we had vision, and a love of all things DIY. Yes, we would need to have gas lines run down from the roof, and we would need to purchase a commercial bread oven, as well as do some cosmetic upgrades in order to receive customers when we opened our doors…but we budgeted for this. After we purchased the bread oven, we discovered that the existing commercial hood setup was not large enough to provide the ventilation our new bread oven would need. Further investigation revealed that in order to put in a bigger hood, we would need to upgrade many of the other HVAC components.

Larger exhaust fan? Yes. You need that. (no fumes)

New evaporative cooler for makeup air? Yes. You need that. (fresh air)

Mechanical drawings to show how the new hood will be safely hung, and how the ducting will be run?

Yes. You need that too. (don’t want it to fall on your heads)

These pieces of equipment and their installation more than doubled our estimated started up costs, and though we had factored in a bit of a cushion – we did not plan for a cushion this large.

Currently, we are paying monthly rent and utilities on a space we are not able to use. Supply chain and logistical challenges mean that every thing we need to get for the build-out and renovation is taking longer than usual. And all we want to do is to be able to welcome you all into our new space, and make it easier for our customers to get our sourdough without having to order three days in advance! Imagine just stopping by and buying a loaf of freshly baked sourdough for dinner! We know…it’s our dream too.

Funds raised via gofundme will be used to replace the hood and associated HVAC equipment, cover the cost of the permits, the mechanical drawings, and any other HVAC expenses we haven’t been told we need yet. (we are sure there will be more). If there is additional money raised, we will use that for some cosmetic upgrades (when first visiting the restroom – Mark asked if the design was “prison-chic”).

We both really appreciate you taking the time to read through this, and we would be humbled and eternally grateful if you would consider supporting us in this next phase of our business. This little business has grown organically over the last couple of years, largely due to the support and word of mouth of our community. We literally cannot wait to welcome you into the bakery in 2022!

With gratitude.

Mark & Kristin