Scarlet’s Bakery, a local non-profit enterprise that offers high-quality, traditional homemade baked goods and gives second-chance employment to exploited and trafficked women, will host its Grand Opening and ribbon cutting ceremony Friday, March 22, at 12:00 p.m. The first fifty customers in line at 106 Fairfax Ave. will receive one of Scarlet’s award-winning cinnamon roll, which have been featured in Taste of the South Magazine as one of the best cinnamon rolls in the South.
Scarlet’s Bakery provides their employees with valuable job training and an opportunity to make a new life for themselves. Job skills that Scarlet’s Bakery employees acquire include baked goods training, pastry training, customer service, barista skills, inventory management, scheduling and catering procedures. Led by founder and executive director, Rachelle Starr, Scarlet’s Bakery has hired and trained over 25 women in the Career Development Program, an 18-month holistic program that provides life skills and job readiness training.
All three locations (also in Shelby Park, 741 E Oak Street, and downtown Louisville, 200 S 5th Street, Scarlet’s Bakery offer muffins, cupcakes, cookies, dessert bars, macarons, and espresso and coffee beverages. They also offer lunch items such as gourmet sandwiches, homemade soups, and salads. Scarlet’s Bakery has won the award for Best Dessert three years in a row in the Girl Scouts of Kentuckiana Competition. The bakery also caters dozens of meetings, parties, and events each month. Orders can be placed at their web site.
From the beginning, the tagline Scarlet’s Bakery has adopted is, “We don’t hire people to bake cupcakes, we bake cupcakes to hire people.” That is what they plan to keep doing. In the coming year, the bakery intends to hire at least ten more women who are looking for the chance to start a new life.
Photography: Shelby Park Scarlet’s, courtesy of Scarlet’s
