An electrical fire in the bakery at Community Loaves in Murray Hill has forced the business to move to a lighter operation until repairs can be made. | Community Loaves.
Published on February 27, 2024 at 3:23 pm
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Beloved Murray Hill bakery Community Loaves needs help keeping its employees after an electrical fire this month that has limited its operations.
To help keep its employees on its payroll until the business returns to normal, it’s asking the community to buy gift cards as a way to help sustain the business.
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Community Loaves is a bakery and cafe near Edgewood Avenue and Trask Street that uses local and seasonal ingredients to make food from scratch. Earlier this month, an electrical fire started in the bakery area of the business, forcing them to shut down the bakery and move to a lighter operation.
Owner Meredith Corey-Disch said they thought they would be able to just clean up after the fire Feb. 9 and get back to normal operations, but that hasn’t been the case.
“It didn’t seem that bad when we first saw it. I mean it seemed really dirty and filthy, and the whole ceiling was black and everything was covered in soot, but we didn’t understand how damaging this fire could be,” Corey-Disch said.
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Moving to a lighter operation has led to disruptions for the Community Loaves’ biggest responsibility: its employees.
Corey-Disch said she has 21 employees and has made a priority of providing them with health insurance, paid time off and a living wage while the business recovers.
Buying a gift card is the most impactful way of supporting the employees and the business until things return to normal, she said. You can buy them at the bakery or online at Communityloavesjax.com.
The cards range in price from $10 to $100, or you can choose a custom amount.
According to the latest newsletter Community Loaves publishes, when people buy these cards, it will act as a community loan that the business will put toward keeping as many staff working as possible.
The cards are especially important because Community Loaves was told last week that it would not receive additional insurance to cover payroll or loss of income for 30 days.
Corey-Disch said it’s unclear whether the 30 days started when the fire happened or when the business last received payment.
Until there is more clarity, the business will need help from the community, and so far people have responded Corey-Disch said. Community Loaves was open this past weekend selling items from a limited menu of sourdough pancakes, egg sandwiches, coffee and small baked goods.
“We were so busy that we sold out of the pancakes, which I know upset people. We felt so bad, but we really didn’t know what it would be like being open and having no baked goods and being a bakery. But the reality was people came out in droves and there was a line and the majority of people were buying gift cards,” Corey-Disch said.
She said having that type of response makes her feel more comfortable moving forward during this troubling time. She doesn’t yet have an exact timeline for when the bakery will be able to get back to normal, but she hopes it will be soon.
Until Community Loaves can return to normal, it will sell items from the limited menu during normal business hours. That is 7 a.m. to 2 p.m. Tuesday through Friday and 8 a.m. to 2 p.m. Saturday and Sunday.
