Blackburn Village bakery roots out food insecurity
Through various roleplayers, the Ithuba Blackburn Village Community Bakery has been started as a way to support the community of Blackburn.
UMHLANGA resident, Shaun Peschl’s background in community initiatives is what has led to him lending a hand at the Blackburn Village Informal Settlement.
Through Peschl, NPO Celebrate Life, local ward councillor Nicole Bollman, a local insurance company and various other roleplayers, the Ithuba Blackburn Village Community Bakery has been started.
Volunteers last week refurbished an unused storeroom and converted the building into a fully functioning bakery, complete with an oven and benchtops.
Two local Blackburn residents run the kitchen and on average bake 40 loaves of bread, some of which are sold in uMhlanga while the rest is sold to residents of the informal settlement to generate income for the bakery.
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“I’m what you would call an initiating support partner. As programme director for the GO!Durban Cycle Academy I’ve always worked closely with the community and with this initiative, it needed that partnership and the blessing of the community leaders within the settlement. The lockdown has hit this settlement hard and after the unrest in the province I began interacting with the people more closely as food security was a massive obstacle they faced,” explained Peschl.
“After liaising with the ward councillor, Nicole Bollman, I asked what I could do and we came up with the idea of setting up a bakery. Through Celebrate Life, who made the oven and helped train the bakers we started the initiative to root out food insecurity. This form of entrepreneurship with employing local ladies has paid off and already they are baking 30 to 40 loaves of bread a day. They also make muffins, snowballs, pizzas and Chelsea buns which are sold to the community and residents in uMhlanga,” he said.
Peschl added plans are afoot to get the Early Childhood Development (ECD) centre at the settlement fully operational again.
If you would like to find out more or support Peschl contact him on 083 453 6207.
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