BREAKING Lawrence bakeries have earned the title of “ essential essential”” by providing not only bread to grocery stores and customers, but also a feeling of comfort and support to local residents. by Sarah Ngoh, photos by Steven Hertzog
As a staple food across the globe, bread, in all its various forms, provides quick, easy and inexpensive sustenance for people everywhere. It is not surprising, then, that businesses that make, bake and sell bread are considered “essential” during the current global pandemic. This label makes sense for large grocery stores responsible for meeting the needs of a huge range of customers, but what does it mean for the smaller Lawrence bakery? Three downtown bakeries, 1900 Barker Bakery and Café, Great Harvest Bread Company and WheatFields Bakery Café, have learned just what it means to be an “essential business” during this global pandemic. COVID-19 quickly clarified for each of these bakeries just how essential they are. WheatFields has noticed an uptick in orders from grocery stores, who turn to them when they run out of bread and cannot get more from large, national distributers quickly. Max Watson, bakery manager, explains: “WheatFields offers these grocery stores a more direct process (fewer calls, steps and channels to go through) and a faster response time, which enables them to meet their customers’ needs by getting bread back on their shelves more quickly.” Without bakeries like WheatFields, many local grocery stores would have a difficult time meeting customer demands for bread and other bakery items. These bakeries are not only essential to local grocery stores, they are essential to individuals. As the pandemic persists, and people are urged to keep their distance from one another, Sarah Burtch, owner at Great Harvest Bread Company, has noticed an increase in customers who come to her bakery not only for the convenience it offers them but because it allows them to get what they need without having to go into 54
