On her first visit to Joburg City, Matlhogonolo Ledwaba, Founder and Director of The Bread Box Bakery and Studio, could not quite grasp the fact that young women like herself were selling food items in the streets. Would they still be on the streets if they were taught a skill? Matlhogonolo saw an opportunity to be of service. The core fundamentals of The Bread Box came from an idea born directly from the streets, yet it was not easy at first to train and retain these young women, but through her dedication and hard work, the company grew and became sustainable. Youth-owned with an all-youth employee team, Bread Box succeeded in surviving the start-up phases and even Covid-19 and is proud to have a cooking studio, The Bread Box Studio, in full operation.

The Bread Box started under the NonGovernmental Organisation (NGO), Sanctuary of Hope, after marketing the concept, ‘bread in a box’ in 2016 via her personal Facebook page. The bakery opened on 2 April 2018 at the Household Décor Centre in Midrand, which still stands today. Matlhogonolo is enormously passionate about creating jobs, helping disadvantaged people, and creating a space where the youth feel safe and can develop valuable skills. Matlhogonolo has experienced a lot of “digging into her own pocket”, but with the bakery’s success and the cooking studio that has taken off, the rewards are beginning to flow inwards.

The workspace is very diverse and has adopted a through-actions-we-speak attitude, ensuring that there is always inclusion, thus creating a peaceful working environment which is of great benefit to the culinary interns, ultimately leading to them adopting this attitude and taking it with them wherever they might find themselves. To date, the bakery has partnered with three culinary schools and trained 50 students, leading to the Bread Box exploring a relationship with Services SETA on solutions they want to adopt to subsidise the business.

Bread Box Studio opened its doors on 8 February 2020, a kid’s cooking club with classes catering to students from 5 years of age to teenage classes for 13-year-olds and above. Through holistic teachings, they don’t learn only to prepare delicious, healthy meals. Lecturers also focus on vocabulary development, skills development, and education. Their slogan being “Cooking is Maths + Science made edible”.

Matlhogonolo is a selfless giver who partnered with Standard bank during the lockdown phases of 2020. They cooked and delivered meals to surrounding orphanages and handed out sanitary pads to girls in need. She says there is no need to post those things on Facebook and Instagram. Generally known as “giving back to the community”, Matlhogonolo says it’s not so for her as she sees these opportunities as her duty to humankind. A firm believer of “moving in the shadows”, Matlhogonolo believes in doing something good when no one is watching and protecting those who are incapable of doing it for themselves.

Lockdown was a time of creativity for Matlhogonolo, who wonderfully surprised the public with her new premix product. She realised that most South Africans struggled with baking and that there was a gap as other premix recipes required additional ingredients to be added. Siyakhula is lending their valued assistance to ensuring that the variety of premixes is certified and packaged accordingly. A product relaunch will follow these activities to attract new and different clients. Matlhogonolo’s plans include exploring other supply chain avenues by targeting online platforms, Uber Eats and Mr D and further contributing to job creation.

THE BREAD BOX BAKERY & STUDIO
Tel: +27 10 221 1052 +27 11 029 8434
Whatsapp: +27 79 389 0075 +27 63 253 9006
Email: info@thebreadboxbakery.co.za
Website: www.thebreadboxbakery.co.za
Address: cnr Harry Gaullan & 5th Road Halfway Gardens Midrand

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