New Business Spotlight: Paobread

Sina Baking LLC’s founder, Jewelie Cordero Schultz, spent her junior year in High School as a foreign exchange student in the state of Minas Gerais, Brazil, the birthplace of pao de queijo. Jewelie loved pao de queijo so much that she learned the traditional way of preparing it during her stay in Brazil, so that she could recreate it upon returning home to Oregon. In the years following her return from Brazil, Jewelie perfected her recipe for pao de queijo, much to the delight of her family and friends. In 2009 Jewelie decided to turn her hobby of making pao de queijo into a business, and Paobread was born.

Jewelie and her Husband Derek founded Sina Baking, LLC in 2010. Their objective is simple: To produce an authentic and all natural pao de queijo (as well as a few of Jewelie’s delicious variations.) Paobread is currently available in Portland area markets. Julie is a recent graduate of Mercy Corps Northwest’s Foundations Business Planning course. Visit Sina Baking, LLC online.

Delicious Produce from Mercy Corps NW

The Portland Growers Alliance is a new social enterprise helping beginning farmers to market and distribute fresh produce. It is a collaborative effort between Mercy Corps Northwest’s refugee agriculture project and Grow Portland, a new grassroots urban agriculture organization.

Starting this August, they will be kicking off a 14-week Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) program. CSAs offer customers a share of the harvest at the start of the season. Members pay upfront and receive a box of fresh vegetables each week. In a CSA, the community can both connect with and support local farmers on an ongoing sustained basis, and also easily incorporate fresh, delicious and seasonally harvested food into their lives.

Let Them Eat Cake

Mercy Corps Northwest Cake

Originally uploaded by Mercy Corps Northwest

Week 5 of the Foundations business class, and students are talking about their costs, finishing up research on their competition, and defining their sales unit.

What’s Tracey Blacksmith’s unit of sale? Why a slice of cake… or a gluten free scone… or an almond toffee… or a delicious drizzled dessert pretzel.

She brought all those in to share with her Foundations classmates today, including a delicious sheet cake with the Mercy Corps Northwest logo.

The Foundations class is a great opportunity for participants to talk about their businesses with a group of their peers, and to share what they’re struggling with, what’s working for them, and even just give everyone a taste of what they do. It’s just icing on the cake if they happen to be baking experts and want to share that skill with the class…

Tracey’s business to this point has been word of mouth, but she’s working on getting her business name set and business cards made up. For now, those with a sweet tooth can reach her at tracey [dot] blacksmith [at] yahoo [dot] com.