New York Bakery Trains Immigrant Women To Bake Their Way To A Brighter Future

A nonprofit bakery in East Harlem (N.Y. City) is making bakers out of immigrant women from around the globe. The artisanal breads the women apprentices prepare at the Hot Bread Kitchen have their culinary roots in Morocco, Mexico, Bangladesh, Togo, etc., and are sold to some of the city’s best restaurants. The bakery offers more than two dozen types of bread, including Moroccan M'smen and Caribbean fruit bread. The bakery is the brainchild of a former U.N. immigration policy worker who knew that many immigrant women have a passion for the culinary arts, but end up in dead-end minimum wage jobs. With the proper training, she says, many will advance to bakery management positions.