“Give us this day our daily bread.” Matthew 6:11
“Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding;” Proverbs 3:5 (NIV)
First an exciting announcement, then the “why?” and “so what?” behind it…
The ladies at Bellafina Chocolates are now baking fresh homemade bread and offering loaves for sale through our no-contact drive-up window, along with a wide selection of delicious chocolate treats. And as always, 100% of profits from all sales every day benefit threatened children and help employ struggling women. How cool is that??
But why bake bread and why now?
First and foremost, we are baking bread in order to keep the women we employ working. They depend on their Bellafina Chocolates paycheck to support themselves and their children, and generally do not have other means of support. Two weeks ago, massive college campus closures and large event cancellations across the country resulted in the cancellation of essentially every order we had on our books for March and April delivery. Yikes! And social distancing and shelter-at-home eliminated about 90% of our walkup traffic. Double yikes! We are extremely grateful for our remaining corporate clients who are helping us cover basic costs and keep our doors open (you know who you are and bless you!!).
Secondly, all the empty bread shelves around town made us think…we can help this situation in some small way! We have talented bakers and we have a baking kitchen that is unused most days. And besides really good chocolate, life has few pleasures better than homemade bread, still warm from the oven!
But ultimately, this is our way of living out the two verses that head up this blog post. These are uncertain times to say the least. Will our family and friends be OK? Will our community and our economy stay strong? Can our small businesses stay open and will they recover? And when will life return to normal? We just can’t know. Times like these demand only one course of action (in my humble opinion):
- Trust in the Lord for our daily bread and for protection in His gentle embrace.
- Do what we can do each day to help those around us.
- And trust in the Lord for our future. He has carried His people through countless trials and troubles throughout history and will do so now.
So for our part, we will stay open making chocolate, baking bread (or whatever else we dream up!), and keeping our staff employed as long as it is safe to do so and as long as we have customers and access to ingredients.
We thank you for your continued support of our mission to help threatened women and children. Stay healthy. Support your local small businesses…they are struggling. Be kind and look out for one another!
Blessings to you and your families,
Brenda