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In sad news, Bloom Bakery and Towards Employment, the nonprofit that launched and operated the bakery, announced that both Bloom locations (Public Square and Campus District) will permanently close at the end of today's business day.
Bloom debuted in the spring of 2016 with a core mission of training and employing those who faced barriers to employment.
The full announcement is below.
Bloom Bakery, a social venture of Towards Employment, will close its retail locations (in Campus District and Public Square) at 4PM on Wednesday November 6. Wholesale and catering business will wrap up Friday, November 8, 2019.
Kate Terrell, Towards Employment Board President, noted: “Our primary responsibility is always to sustain Towards Employment’s critical services so we can deliver effectively on our mission. We have come to realize a more impactful way forward is to focus on Towards Employment’s mission through our core programming, leveraging other partnerships to achieve our training goals in the culinary and retail pathways.”
Jill Rizika, Towards Employment executive director, added: “Over the past years, we have learned so much, made new partnerships and increased our ability to connect more people to careers in the culinary and retail industries. We are looking forward to leveraging this acquired strength into our core business that connects over 2,000 people to careers every year.” Towards Employment’s commitment to our mission and helping individuals along their career pathways is stronger than ever.
Both Terrell and Rizika emphasized: “Our first commitment is to connect each Bloom employee to new opportunities.”
Launched in 2016 by Towards Employment, Bloom Bakery served three purposes: prepare individuals who have faced barriers to employment for a career in culinary arts; produce exceptional handcrafted baked goods; and create meaningful career opportunities for individuals beyond Bloom so the Greater Cleveland community can prosper.
In almost four years of business, Bloom has delivered on these goals. With a dedication to training, supporting, and launching employees along their career pathways, Bloom provided 90 people with training, paid internships and employment during its operation. Bloom also had a huge impact on raising awareness of the Towards Employment mission, making personal connections to the importance of creating opportunities for returning citizens and young people with barriers to employment. The food and products created at Bloom gave all of Bloom’s employees pride in their work; and retail, wholesale and catering customers reciprocated with high praise for products and service. We are so grateful to employees, funders, partners, and loyal customers for supporting Bloom Bakery.
