Target reached!
With extra money we will have the chance to purchase even more game changing equipme...
Help buy The Butch Baker a proper oven!
Brighton, Brighton and Hove, United Kingdom
Aim
Help buy The Butch Baker Brighton an industrial oven so they can keep their lgbtqia+ centred, 100% gluten-free cafe growing!
Hello,
My name is Sammi aka the butch baker, and I’m looking for your help to buy my queer little gluten-free cafe an oven!
In the winter lockdown I started making gluten free treats for my gluten intolerant wife and they turned out to be the most delicious gluten free bakes she had ever tasted!
Desperately struggling and with no income due to Covid but plenty of professional baking experience I decided I had nothing to lose and stated selling my cookies on Etsy. Every batch I sold funded better equipment and ingredients but we were still barely covering bills. My Etsy business was still growing when I was offered an amazing opportunity to rent a cafe space within Glitch Brighton last winter. In the months since first opening I have managed to cobble to together a little kitchen and hire four lovely queers whom I will eventually form a cooperative with (I need a little more time and money to sort this out officially!).
I’m really proud of what I have achieved with no financial support and so many months of lockdowns and regulations meaning for 5 out of the past 10 months of being a business - we have been shut!
Word is getting around that there is a coeliac friendly cafe in Brighton and it fills me with so much pride whenever I see someone’s eyes light up when I tell them that yes, indeed EVERYTHING is gluten free. We're starting to get a small roster of delightful regulars and it feels so good to have a chill queer space to sit together in after months of isolation.
Everything I sell I bake on site each morning which means waking up early to do multiple batches of bread, cakes and cookies in one tiny oven. A tiny oven which is already starting to give up on me every day at this point. I have very little rest or free time and the exhaustion is starting to get the better of me. On the encouragement of my coworkers, customers and friends I have decided to ask for help - which is where you come in!
Having a bigger industrial size oven would be life improving at this point. It would mean I could do less batches in a day and drastically cut my workload. My business is at the point now where I am finally able to start paying myself and of course my coworkers a living wage but we’re still not in a position to make bigger business purchases. We’re selling out of stock most days, and there is a HUGE demand for new bread and pastry products but without bigger batches and an oven that doesn’t break every day - we simply can’t get there!
Anything you donate will make an actual difference to The Butch Baker Cafe. You can rest assured that it’s money that will be used wisely for an established and viable queer community space and cafe with specific tangible goals and industry experienced queers at the helm.
As a working class queer I’m not super comfortable asking for money so I’m going to be running a competition for those who donate so I can give a little back!
Donate £20 and be entered into a prize draw to win 3 months of free coffee
Donate £50 and be entered into a prize draw to receive free coffee for a year
Donate £100 and be entered into a prize draw to receive free coffee for a year and a free lunch for 2
Donate £200 and be entered into a prize draw to receive free coffee for a year, a free lunch for 2 and a customisable occasion cake of your choice.
Any amount is super helpful and we are all incredibly grateful.
Thank you for reading and donating.
Sammi
The Butch Baker
This project successfully funded on 6th October 2021