At first glance, St. John’s Bakery looks like any other artisanal bread shop, but making dough isn’t its primary mission. Since opening its doors in 1986, it has been set up as a business with a social mandate as its raison d’être.
Father Roberto Ubertino, executive director at St. John’s the Compassionate Mission, says, “The reason why we started the bakery is not to have a bakery per se, but it’s to give people a chance to learn a trade, to be successful in finding work and in learning how to work with their hands. But our goal is still to make the best bread in Toronto."
Social enterprises are often owned by non-profit organizations such as churches and charities to fill the void left by government cuts to social programs in their fight against budget deficits. “We pay people from the sales, so it’s a fine dance because we’re not subsidized, so we have to find the work, we have to sell the bread and make money and the money we collect goes into paying salaries that are well above the minimum wage,” explains Father Roberto.
