NOTES FROM THE BOARD

Positive things can come from the worst circumstances. In these notes I want to briefly address two terrible circumstances that the United States and the world have faced this year which are definitely showing major positive outcomes. One is the horrific murder of Mr. George Floyd, which was the most graphic testimony of a series of other recent cases where African Americans died in the hands of law enforcement officers. The other is the COVID-19 pandemic which is still hitting the world and amounts now to nearly 700,000 deaths worldwide. Over 150,000 of those have been in the United States. Even with all the pain caused by both circumstances, very important positive outcomes are following.

The outcry in response to Mr. Floyd’s murder is bringing about overdue transcendental changes in every spectrum of society, which makes me feel that we are all witnessing one of the most important developments toward the eradication of racism and social injustice in history. Besides all the people that suffer first hand from the effects and abuse of the systemic racism existent in the United States and the world, people not part of the oppressed groups mostly knew or heard about it. But now the world was able to actually see how a defenseless human being was murdered in front of a camera, while others that could have saved his life only stood there safeguarding the perimeter for the perpetrator. Watching this incident brought tears, deep pain, and a strong feeling of frustration to many of us. As I saw that image, the feeling that took over my soul was that I wish I could have done something to save that man’s life. That was a call to action. And I quickly understood that I needed to do more, maybe not for Mr. Floyd now, but to save others from ending up in the same tragic circumstances.

Individuals and organizations all over the world reacted to this and started taking action. Organizations that were otherwise passive about issues of social injustice understood that they needed to speak up and do much more to eradicate racism and other forms of social injustice.

On June 16, 2020, the Bread Bakers Guild of America issued a statement standing unequivocally against racism and in support of the overdue outcry of the Black Lives Matter movement. We acknowledged that we need to do better and we need to do more toward diversity, equality and inclusion, and that includes, in our particular profession, looking after the rights and dignity of all the immigrant men and women working in bakeries all over the United States. We also shared a list of initiatives that the BBGA is currently working on. The full statement follows these notes. I feel hopeful and optimistic when I see so many organizations, including the BBGA, reviewing their structures, rethinking their ways and taking actions against racism and toward diversity, equality and inclusivity. We are seeing things change which should have never been the way they were up to this date. That is happening!

On another spectrum is the COVID-19 pandemic, which has hit us hard in many ways. In addition to all the lives lost, it has also brutally impacted our baking profession and businesses. But even as such, I feel very optimistic about our future. And I’m not saying this in a vague effort to cheer myself or others up. I’m seeing a phenomenon unfolding in plain sight where the community is stepping up to support us, in different ways not quite as it used to be in prepandemic days, but they are saying loud and clear that they are there for us. We dug so deep into our continuous desire to make the best products we could and to serve our community the best way we could, that we now discover that while we were immersed in our task there was a community growing together around us, looking carefully and noticing our hard work and commitment, and it is now out there, stronger and more grateful than ever, standing behind us.

As a baker with a genuine commitment to serve our community, at no other time I’ve felt Pablo Neruda’s famous words to be more meaningful and revealing when he artfully stated that “the best poet is he who prepares our daily bread: the nearest baker who does not imagine himself to be a god. He does his majestic and unpretentious work … handing us our daily bread as a duty of fellowship.” And, if the poet succeeds in achieving this simple consciousness, this too will be transformed into an element in an immense activity, in a simple or complicated structure which constitutes the building of a community, the changing of the conditions which surround mankind, the handing over of mankind’s products: bread, truth, wine, dreams. We (bakers) build communities, and these communities are strong.

In a not as poetic but more pragmatic note, we need to take actions to continue to be there for our community. That is, we need to follow a basic rule of supply and demand, we need to understand what our community needs, how and when they need it, and figure out a way to give it to them. The “what”, “who”, “how” and “when” certainly do not have the same answers they did a few months ago. Our customers’ needs and priorities are certainly different. They now need products delivered at home, or curbside pick-up, or ordered online, cashless, contactless, or else. We need to pivot in that direction. The worst mistake would be to resist and try to make customers adapt to our ways. Pivoting is the most relevant concept for us these days, which is “a significant business change usually intended to help a business recover from a tough period or survive after experiencing factors that make the original business model unsustainable.” We need to pivot in the direction of those new “whats”, “whos” “hows” and “whens”. And while doing this we have to look further than our direct customer relationship, we also need to look internally to our ways of doing things, our systems and processes. I assure you that if you look carefully, you will find ways to do things better and faster.

This is what will make a difference in our businesses’ ability to evolve, survive and thrive, or remain static and disappear. By no means am I saying that it will be easy. In fact, the opposite is true. It has been hard, really hard in fact. But while going through this process we have been forced to finally do things which have been in the pipeline for too long. We have been able to come up with better, faster and easier ways to process orders and transactions, and have been able to identify and correct inefficiencies in our production processes. At the end, I’m absolutely confident that I have a better business model now than I did a few months ago.

Same goes for the BBGA as an organization. Our main sources of revenue have been absent, classes and membership renewals suspended and our sponsors facing their own challenges as well. Therefore, we have been meticulously looking into all our ways to make sure we can make it through. I’m sure that we will come out as a stronger organization. While this happens, we have continued working and planning our future events with a great deal of enthusiasm. We are eager to resume our offerings and come back with a stellar line up of events, classes, articles and more educational opportunities. I can assure you, on behalf of all the board members, that we will give our last drop of sweat to make it out of this period healthier and stronger to fulfill all your expectations, and as an organization more conscious and fully engaged in our duty to combat social injustice in any form.

CARLOS RUIZ

Board Member and Owner El Horno de Pane

San Juan, Puerto Rico

IG @elhornodepane