The Power of a Product

Even though I work for The Women’s Bakery, leveraging bread and business as means to create opportunity for women in Rwanda (and one day, around the world), don’t be fooled: I’m not an expert baker. When I was incollege, if there was a celebration, I could absolutely bake – from a box. Dry cake or bread mixes were close friends of mine and I would often curate masterful creations of funfetti cakes.

A lot has changed since then. I have baked more breads in the last three years than I previously did my entire life. Using TWB specialty recipes as a launch pad, I have been unafraid in trying new things and getting better at being unafraid in the kitchen. I may not be a bread master, but I am good baker these days, and I am proud of that.

Yet, we – The Women’s Bakery – consistently return to the question – for those not in Rwanda, how can we connect others to our work? What kind of product could we introduce to new communities, particularly in the United States?

Dry Bread Mix. Boom.

Developing and scaling a dry bread mix – based on our TWB recipes – was Markey’s brain child from the beginning. And excitingly, we are now taking the steps to fully research, develop, and test this market opportunity.

For the last three months, we have tested the product within our TWB family, sending free mixes to interested individuals to bake, test, and provide their opinion with surveys. For those that participated, thank you. Your feedback and insights are informing our next iteration of the product, which will bring us closer to launch, and inherently, the ability to build a revenue stream for our work in East Africa and fully launch programs in the United States.

TWB's Program Manager, Hilary Hilsabeck, had her mother, Stacy, test and try the mix. It was a success!

We’re learning a lot.

We learned that roasting sweet potatoes for 40 minutes is a lot of prep work when you are considering buying a mix that is marketed as quick or instant. We learned that we should double the recipe. We learned that 88% of our testers would pay more for a product like ours that supports a social mission. We learned how to adjust the label. We learned that the uniqueness of using sweet potatoes is enticing for our customers. The earthiness, color, and simplicity of our packaging is appealing.

Now, we are taking this information and iterating – again.

TWB friend, Zach Verwey, tested the bread and used microwavable sweet potatoes. This kind of innovation is exactly what we hoped to see in the market testing phase.

This is not unlike what we are doing in Rwanda – constantly designing, delivering, learning, adapting, changing, and trying again. This is business. This, in our case is social business, always changing and adapting so that we not only meet our bottom line of profitability, but also, empowering the women we work with.

We have a vision for where we are going.

Our dry bread mix is not just a mix in a box. It’s a powerful product, one that will not only support the women we work with in East Africa, but also support women that we will, in the future, work with in the United States.

Seriously, that’s bread power.

Baking More Than Bread

by Nalani Tiscareno, TWB Summer Intern

A student at Texas A&M, I had a serious misconception about what it meant to go to college. I was convinced that college was going to be the easiest, most fun, most liberating time of my life. Although college has been many of those things, there is a more difficult side to it that no one often tells you about.

There comes a time, somewhere in the middle of the experience, where you may go through a phase of self-realization, where you question things you once knew to be true, including yourself.

I was in the middle of that phase when The Women’s Bakery came into my life. I was questioning my decision to further my education, not knowing if I had made the right choice. Then, I attended an event held by the TWB Texas A&M Chapter, and I realized why I had decided to go to university. I was so moved by the stories about women coming together to build a community of empowered individuals. I gained immense perspective by learning about the women involved with TWB. Their will to do pursue opportunity and do the best for themselves and their family greatly inspired me.

Quickly, I fell in love with everything that The Women’s Bakery stands for. After hearing the speech that Heather gave, I knew why I had decided to go to college. I was empowering myself. I knew I needed to get involved and help spread the word about the wonderful things that this organization is doing and so, that’s how my summer internship got started.

I had the amazing opportunity to represent The Women’s Bakery at Hope Farmer’s Market in Austin, Texas. Every weekend, I set up a booth and sell sweet potato bread dry bread mixes, as well as zucchini, carrot, and sweet potato muffins. It was an amazing summer, as I got to spend time in my favorite city, as well as advocate such an incredible cause.

The Women’s Bakery was widely accepted in Austin, and I was moved by how much everyone was wanting to get involved and learn about the cause. Every Saturday I baked TWB bread and then on Sunday, made my way from College Station to Austin.

It was definitely challenging at times. The challenges gave me a knew found respect for the women involved in the program. They bake and sell bread every day, and yet somehow make it happen. I am so grateful to have had the opportunity to get the word out about what The Women’s Bakery stands for. I hope that I was able to inspire someone, just as I was inspired.

I am a woman, who in seeking self-empowerment in the form of education and The Women’s Bakery, could realize my worth, and my will to move forward in life.

The Women’s Bakery truly bakes more than just bread, it builds and encourages women to empower themselves, and helps them realize that they’ve always had the power to do so.

Testing, Testing

Everyone’s palate craves something different. Our breads are no exception. Heather has been working to refine our sweet potato bread recipe in the U.S. and we are almost there!

We have been getting valuable feedback from our sweet potato dry bread mix packaging, process, and price point.

Dozens of friends and family members have prepared our dry bread mix at home and filled out a survey to help us understand where we can improve.

We ask our potential customers questions such as:

-       Were the directions easy to follow?

-       What did you like best about the label?

-       How much would you pay for this product?

-       How often would you purchase this product?

Simultaneously, we have been encouraging willing participants to try samples of our beet, carrot, and banana breads.

We’ve worked on adapting our Rwanda recipes for the American market. And, now, we are trying to collect at least 100 survey responses on what the consumers like and don’t like about the taste and appearance. These responses will help us make yet another recipe overhaul!

While we aren’t ready to build a bakery in the U.S., we are paving the runway for a kick ass variety of dry bread mixes for healthful snack. Choosing our product will help to support our work in the U.S. and Rwanda.

Keep an eye out for the upcoming launch of our online store, where you can purchase the first iteration of our sweet potato dry bread mix!