Local bakery close to reopening after fundraising success

A popular bakery in Bedminster is hoping to reopen after launching a crowdfunder to continue tackling food insecurity and distributing bread to those in need.

Charlie Haughton founded Batches Bakery in 2019, with a small group of friends who love to bake.

But when lockdown hit in March 2020, Charlie found a new focus for the bakery, and began working with charities in Bristol to deliver bread to those in isolation who may be in need.

The community interest company has now grown, utilising talented local bakers who are all volunteers, working with charities like Heart of BS13 to supply bread and offer support.

The project has been an ongoing labour of love for Charlie, but recent challenges meant Batches Bakery, named after its home Batches Lane, was forced to close to the public in July.

As a result, Charlie launched a crowdfunder in the hopes of being able to reopen in the near future, with the aim of providing 70 loaves to the community every week.

“The people at BS13 work hard with people dealing with food insecurity in that area, we’ve been working as partners with them for a while and giving them bread,” Charlie told Bristol24/7.

“They had built a cargo bike which would drive around and deliver food to people, with our bread as part of that.

“So, when the bike got finished, we felt we had to put it on pause, so that’s one of the main motivations of our bakery – to help people again.”

Charlie and his team have been spurred on by the support they have received from the local community.

“We decided to create a fundraiser to help cover the wages for the bakery for the first six months to ease us into it and help grow the business and the number of people we sell bread to. That would help us get back on our feet.

“A little extra money would also help us fix the leaky roof. As well as equipment for growing the business.

So far, reactions the crowdfunder have been hugely positive.

“When we had to stop, we had lots of lovely messages from people who bought our bread wishing for us to be back, which was really heart-warming,” said Charlie.

“I feel like everyone involved has a lot of faith in the model, and people who get bread off us appreciate it as an idea.

“We did a launch night at the beginning of day one and had fifty people there for a three-course meal – all the money going to the crowdfunder. It was a really nice atmosphere of people just appreciating what we were doing.”

So far, Batches Bakery has raised nearly £7,000, nearly reaching its target of £9,000.

“A few people put in a lot of money, and we raised quite a lot from the launch night. It’s been an interesting process watching the fundraiser develop but we’ve got over a week to go so should make it to our goal of £9000.”

You can donate to the fundraiser, which ends in November, here.

Main photo: Batches Bakery

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