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An Awesome 2011

ancbakery — Tue, 03 Jan 2012 14:34:20 -0500

Looking back at 2011, we thank God for what He has accomplished through us and the bakery. We have so much to give thanks for. We were able to raise money to buy various equipment and supplies to get the bakery started. We had many volunteers who helped us in the kitchen and in many other ways.

Special recognition goes to Colfax Selby from Columbia University and Kaila Jurado from Baylor University for stopping by over the summer to give us a hand. Christina Ju, a dear friend of ours, helped us tremendously over the holiday season. The bakery won’t be where it is right now without you guys.

We are excited for the new year, especially since we can’t wait to get a storefront up and running. We also have many new initiatives that we plan to introduce in the coming months, and we hope you guys will continue to support us as we push to serve the community of Washington Heights and Inwood!

From all of us at ANC Bakery & NYC Love Kitchen.

Featured!

ancbakery — Thu, 15 Dec 2011 17:06:02 -0500

We were recently featured on World New York. Check out the article.

Also look out for this weekend edition of NY Post. We are being mentioned in an article featuring small businesses that use crowdfunding.

Thanksgiving Banquet @ NYU

ancbakery — Sun, 20 Nov 2011 21:58:43 -0500

This year there is much to be thankful for! Here at A New Creation Bakery, we’re thankful for a working oven, a space in The Love Kitchen to operate, and, most of all, the many people we have met along the way that makes it all worth it. In short, we’re thankful for YOU! This Monday at the Thanksgiving Banquet hosted by NYU’s Christian Inter-Fellowship Council, we had a chance to meet some of you as well as provide a wide variety of our baked goods for the event. It was truly a privilege to bake for so many at an event aimed towards raising awareness about poverty, hunger, and homelessness in New York City. Despite having made 300+ items, there was actually a shortage after the first round of food! We were amazed at how successful the event turned out, and doubly appreciative for having been a small part of it.

Personally, the biggest blessing for me was hearing the testimonies of George and Luis, two gentlemen who, through the grace of God, arrived at the Bowery Mission and were forever changed. Their stories show the kind of radical change that the Bowery Mission, The Love Kitchen, and A New Creation Bakery strive to make in our city. It fuels my passion to continue serving the community that needs us most, and gives hope to our mission. It’s a good reminder that what we do is not for our own achievements or goals, nor for some change in statistics, but to make a difference for real people facing real challenges.

At the end of this night, I could not be more encouraged to see so many people stand up when called to “put faith into action” and get involved with some of these organizations. Let’s keep fanning the flame of passion for social justice and never settle for less. As for A New Creation Bakery, we shall continue to hold true to our motto: Changing lives one bite at a time.

God bless,
Colin Quek

Weekly Update 11/17

ancbakery — Thu, 17 Nov 2011 09:37:00 -0500

What an eventful week for us! On top of the wonderful weather we have been experiencing in New York, we were involved in two awesome events this week.

On Sunday, we brought our cookies and brownies to NYU to support the Ashoka Youth Venture Do it Dream it High School Challenge. This event was extremely inspiring. The Ashoka Ambassadors packed a room with high school kids living in New York City and challenged them to come up with innovative solutions to the social problems in their communities. There was so much passion and energy in the atmosphere, and we are excited to see what ventures are going to come out of this. We are an Ashoka Youth Venture ourselves, and this really brought me back to the days when we first had the idea of this bakery but nothing much to work off from, and now we are providing the snacks for the next generation of social entrepreneurs. To find out more about this challenge, visit this website http://dreamitdoitnewyork.org/.

And then on Monday evening, the NYU Christian Inter-Fellowship Council organized a huge Thanksgiving Banquet to raise awareness about poverty, hunger, and homelessness in New York City. So many people showed up - that air conditioning in the room could not handle it! We were featured during the banquet, along with KNO Clothing and DoYouHaveOneDollar.Org. It was truly an amazing event, and we hope students in NYU were inspired to take action in fighting poverty and the many social problems people are facing every day in New York City.

This week is all about preparation for us. We are getting ready for Thanksgiving as well as Christmas, so expect to hear about our seasonal offerings in the next few weeks. Take this opportunity to order some goodies from us in this holiday season and bless the Love Kitchen and the people that seek refuge there. FInally, Feed 500 & Feed-A-Few is happening this Saturday. This initiative is very eye opening, and I highly recommend everyone who lives in New York City to be a part of this. We meet at the NYC Love Kitchen (where we bake!) and head out into the city to bless the homeless. A New Creation Bakery will be there selling our goodies, so come join us for breakfast! Hope to see you all there.

God Bless!

Derrick & The ANC Team

Weekly Update 11/10

ancbakery — Thu, 10 Nov 2011 10:31:45 -0500

Hi Friends!

Some of you may have noticed that we have shrunk our menu offerings on our website. Over the past two weeks, we realized we were unable to produce quality cupcakes that deliver well, so we have taken it out of our menu for the time being. We will still be offering cupcakes, but it will have to be a special order of a relatively large size for us to deliver it.

Even though we have downscaled our products, we are fired up to do more in the community and expand the bakery. This coming Sunday, A New Creation Bakery will be involved in Ashoka’s Dream It Do It High School Challenge. The goal is to inspire the next generation of changemakers to come up with creative solutions to problems that their communities in New York City are facing through launching ventures of their own. Being an Ashoka venture team ourselves, we were more than ready to jump on board when we were approached by Ashoka. For more information about this project, you can visit their facebook page. If you want to be a mentor or have high school students in mind that would be perfect for this program, definitely check it out.

We will also be involved in A True Thanksgiving: Thanksgiving Banquet. New York City Urban Project is teaming up with the Christian community in NYU to throw a thanksgiving banquet to fundraise for the Bowery Mission and the Love Kitchen. Guess who is catering this event? We are! So if you want to try our delicious food for FREE, head down to NYU Kimmel Center and be part of this annual event. RSVP to this awesome event here. Watch this great video to find out more.

And while we are doing all these great things, we have launched our search for a storefront! That’s right - we are currently searching high and low, walking up and down the streets of New York City looking for a perfect space to lease, and we want you to help us in this process! Ideally, the store will be located in the community of Washington Heights/Inwood, lots of foot traffic, and about 700-1000 square feet in size. If you see a place that you think is perfect for us, give us a shoutout on our facebook page at http://www.facebook.com/ancbakery. Also get ready for a bunch of fundraiser events that we will be throwing in the next two months. We are looking to open the store in the beginning of the new year, and we know we won’t be able to do it without you supporting us.

It’s time to get pumped. It may be getting cold, but A New Creation Bakery is going full steam ahead.

God Bless!
Derrick and the ANC Team

lejustin: THE PERALTA PROJECT

ancbakery — Wed, 26 Oct 2011 08:32:43 -0400

lejustin:

THE PERALTA PROJECT

Weekly Update

ancbakery — Fri, 21 Oct 2011 00:00:11 -0400

Hi Friends!

The last few months have been amazing for us at A New Creation Bakery. I know we have been pretty quiet, but that is only because we have been extremely busy working on different initiatives which we will roll out in the coming weeks. We are really excited about them, and we hope you will support us by participating in some of the initiatives.

Before I update everyone about our progress, I wanted to take some time to talk about the values of A New Creation Bakery. Our values can be summarized in three words: People, Community and Transparency.
1) People: We may be selling cupcakes and sandwiches, but we are really in the business of people. That means our customers, trainees, employees, suppliers, volunteers, funders and everyone else who comes into contact with the bakery are integral to our operation.
2) Community: We are all about being part of the community of Washington Heights and Inwood. We aim to be agents of transformation in the community, alleviating poverty and unemployment.
3) Transparency: Even though many companies seek to keep things hidden and secretive, we believe in complete honesty and transparency. That means we will be transparent about our operations, our financial situation, our problems and our victories. Why? Because we want to forge genuine relationships with people, not just “customers.” And in order to do that, we need to allow ourselves to open up and take the risk of exposing ourselves to vulnerability. This is about building trust.

Alright! Back to the update! As most of you know, we ran a fundraising campaign on IndieGoGo.com and because of the generosity and support of many people around the country and the world, we were successful in raising the five grand we set as our goal. And that five grand has brought us a long way. We purchased a commercial oven, two KitchenAid mixers, and a whole bunch of packaging and marketing supplies. Even though we bought the oven some time ago, it took us more than a month to set it up because we hit some obstacles. First, we didn’t realize that the kitchen did not have the electrical capacity to sustain the oven. That meant we had to put more money into installing the oven. Also, we ran into some trouble getting approval for the placement of the oven in the kitchen as there is limited space in the kithchen which is shared among the Love Kitchen, the Manhattan Bible Church, the Manhanttan ChristianAcademy and now, us at A New Creation Bakery. However, that is over and we now have a fully operational commercial convection oven in the kitchen, churning out quality baked products consistently.

This also means we will be delivering and sending out those perks you have been waiting for in the next few days. To those who donated $25 or more and live outside New York City, expect a package of a dozen cookies. This, unfortunately, does not apply to those who live outside of the US. For those living in New York City, your delivery will take place next Monday and Tuesday. You will be receiving an email regarding your perk fulfillment, or you can go ahead and schedule your delivery by filling a form at this link.

We also built a new team who will be pushing this bakery forward. As Jon Kwan takes a break in Napa Valley, CA, to better equip himself inthe Culinary Institute of America, we have brought in five extremely talented and passionate people, namely Colin, Jennifer, Titi, Anna and another Jon. Over the next few weeks, they will share more about themselves on our website as well as this newsletter.

One of the biggest changes we made recently is the introduction of sandwiches into our menu. We realized our initial business model of delivering baked products had a fundamental problem - people buy baked products individually and in stores, often impulsively. We were just not seeing the orders coming in for our delicious cupcakes. So we asked our customers what they wanted. We targeted higher education institutions and the many student-led organizations on campus, as well as other nonprofits and churches. They asked for savoury products that they can order for lunch or dinner. We heard them, and decided to introduce sandwich platters into our menu. Each platter consists of three unique, delicious sandwiches and freshly baked cookies to go with them. Since then, we have made a few deliveries of different sandwiches that our chef, Colin, has creatively put together. And we have heard good reviews about them, especially for our chicken salad on ciabatta and grilled eggplant on multigrain.

Looking forward, Halloween is around the corner and we are excited to offer “Harry Potter”-inspired Cauldron Cupcakes! They are extremely adorable, and will be great for parties. Also, the cupcake of the month is pumpkin cupcakes with maple cream cheese frosting. This cupcake is so good, we at the bakery just can’t get enough of it. So if you are planning a halloween party, you know where to get some tasty pastries to make your party a hit among your guests. These cauldron cupcakes will be offered from October 24th onwards. We will post pictures of them on our website soon.

That is all we have for you this week. While you wait for the next issue of our weekly newsletter, you can always stay updated with us in real time through our facebook page as well as our twitter account. Something is always happening at the bakery so be sure to follow us. Stay warm and stay healthy!

God bless!
From Derrick and the ANC Team

Featured on IndieGoGo's blog!

ancbakery — Tue, 13 Sep 2011 16:28:32 -0400

Featured on IndieGoGo's blog!:

Read up on what Derrick, our manager, has to say about the successful campaign we had!

Thank you for your support!

ancbakery — Thu, 25 Aug 2011 11:22:30 -0400

Woohoo!!! We did it! We raised the $5000!!!

We are sooo blessed to have people from all over showing their support for this bakery. We specifically want to thank our family and friends who really rose to the occasion and showed how much they supported us in our crazy endeavors.

We recently revised our menu so please check it out and start making orders! Tell your friends and family about it. It’s time to ramp up the business!

Look what just came in the mail!

ancbakery — Thu, 28 Jul 2011 15:40:00 -0400

Our new business cards are here! We are so ready to go into business!

We secured a loan!

ancbakery — Wed, 27 Jul 2011 00:00:00 -0400

An oven is perhaps the most important equipment in the bakery, which is why we knew we had to get a good one if we wanted to produce quality products consistently. The ovens at the Love Kitchen were good, but they were not commercial standard, hence we have been scouting around for ovens and found out we needed about 3 grand to buy one oven.

3 grand is a lot of money to us right now, and we currently don’t have such a large amount of cash. Hence we have decided to fundraise for it on IndieGoGo, a crowdfunding platform.

But then, a huge order came in and we knew there is no way we could fulfill it without a commercial convection oven. And by the grace of God, he provided for us! A kind and generous supporter of ours offered to give us a short term loan to purchase the oven, so this Friday, our new oven is arriving at the Love Kitchen! This means we are going to be able to launch earlier than expected! We are very excited about this and cannot thank the person who wish to remain anonymous enough.

Currently in Beta phase

ancbakery — Tue, 19 Jul 2011 16:55:00 -0400

We are glad to announce that we are currently in beta phase. That means we have started producing baked goods and are delivering our orders, but only to a few limited customers. If you would like to be part of this beta phase, simply email us at ancbakery@gmail.com to order a product, and we will inform you whether we have the resources to fulfill that order. No promises though. We are still small and looking to improve our operations. A lesson we learnt from Google.