We’ve launched our CommuniBakes bakery in Shirley

In case you’ve missed the good news – we’ve, at last, opened the doors to our new community bakery, which will now raise money to help fund our work to eradicate loneliness in Southampton.

This is our first commercial strand, which we’ve been able to pursue following a successful Crowdfunding appeal, and we’ve taken over Love Cake on St James Road in Shirley and rebranded it to CommuniBakes. The aim is to offer residents a community hub while continuing to sell the same delicious bread and cakes.

Our Manager, Annie Clewlow, says: “We are thrilled to have finally reached this point with a project that has required a great deal of time and careful planning to come to fruition.

We are especially grateful to the staff, who will remain with us, the Board of Directors of CommuniBakes and Paris Smith, the solicitors that have guided us through this process. We are also grateful to the owners of Love Cake, who exercised extreme patience as we navigated through a complex series of negotiations to reach this marvellous end point.

We look forward to an exciting future with this new venture for the charity.”

We raised more than £6,400 with our Crowdfunding campaign back in May, which gained the support of 111 backers, and this will help pay for future work on the new venture now it is up and running.

Our Development Officer, Nick Thomas, explains: “It was fantastic to receive so much support through our Crowdfunder from the residents of Southampton. Our services are a vital lifeline to lonely and isolated people in the city, and having the bakery as an additional revenue stream to help us deliver these services to meet demand is wonderful.”

Anyone interested in finding out more about CommuniBakes can visit its new website or call 023 8070 1888. The bakery is open on Thursdays and Fridays between 8.30am-12.30pm and on Saturdays between 8am-12pm.

You can also find CommuniBakes on Facebook, Instagram,Twitter and Linkedin.