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A Bakery with a Heart

Rubicon's cinnamon bread is sold only at Whole Foods.

Rubicon’s cinnamon bread is sold only at Whole Foods.

 

That’s what Richmond’s Rubicon Bakery is all about.

You may know the bakery for its carrot cake whoopie pies, triple chocolate mousse cake, lemon tart and other delights.

But what you might not know is how it all got started and the benefit it provides.

It was founded in 1993 as a non-profit dedicated to providing employment, housing and support services to low-income folks in the Bay Area. It started a bakery as a way to provide job skills to those who were once homeless, drug abusers and convicts.

That it did provide. But it was not a sustainable enterprise, as it was losing significant money and had to reduce its workforce drastically.

Enter Andrew Stoloff, a Berkeley resident with both an MBA from Wharton and experience in the restaurant industry. He was brought in to help sell the company. But he ended up buying it, himself, in 2009.

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