JetBlue Gets Cooking With Hot Bread Kitchen -- A Social Enterprise Bakery That Empowers Women to Build Economic Security - Seite 2

Hot Bread Kitchen offers two programs: a job training that helps women with barriers to employment prepare for careers in the culinary industry and HBK Incubates: a food business support program. Hot Bread Kitchen provides hands-on baking training as well as classroom-based education to seed a new generation of bakers.

To fund its programs, Hot Bread Kitchen sells a line of multi-ethnic breads inspired by the diverse group of women they serve including Persian flatbreads, Moroccan M'smen, Mexican Nixtamal Tortillas, Bangladeshi Chapati and Armenian Lavash. Hot Bread Kitchen products are made without chemical preservatives, additives, flavors or colors. The bakery sources locally grown grain and produce to make truly New York-centric bread.

"Hot Bread Kitchen is honored and excited to be selected as the first BlueBud mentor company. As a growing social enterprise, we are enthusiastic about the advising and access to market opportunities offered by this partnership," said Jessamyn Rodriguez, founder and CEO of Hot Bread Kitchen. "Our breads and programs help women leverage skill and passion in cooking to create better lives for their families. In essence, we are about family, home, and the global food community, so it is fitting and exciting to partner with the airline that inspires humanity."

Throughout the fall, Hot Bread Kitchen will participate in a mentorship initiative with JetBlue that includes:

• A tour of JetBlue's Long Island City Support Center headquarters, its largest operation at JFK's Terminal 5 (T5) and an airline catering facility to better understand how food (literally) gets onboard JetBlue.

• A speaking and taste-testing event opportunity for JetBlue's crewmembers to learn more about Hot Bread Kitchen at the airline's Long Island City Support Center.

• A tasting event for JetBlue customers at the airline's award-winning JFK T5

• Intimate access to JetBlue teams including but not limited to strategic sourcing, purchasing, corporate social responsibility, sustainability, communications, marketing, brand and onboard product.

Hot Bread Kitchen is based in New York City's East Harlem neighborhood. The fabric of the community drives the spirit of this innovative bakery. According to the City of New York, nearly 40 percent of all residents in East Harlem live below the poverty line and 20 percent of all households are linguistically isolated (vs. 12 percent in New York City overall). Despite high rates of poverty and unemployment, East Harlem has a vibrant informal economy centered on food. Its streets are lined with vendors, mostly women, selling tortas, churros and tamales made in their homes as a way to supplement family income. Hot Bread Kitchen's retail storefront, Almacen, operates inside La Marqueta, a historic public market.