Neha Chollangi 

Special to the Times-Chronicle

Earlier this year in April, Meagan and Ian Young-Bibby, owners of The Lake Village Bakery, heard the news that their friend’s puppy, Jimmy, got hit by a truck and needed a surgery that would cost about $4,000.

When Jimmy’s owner needed donations to help cover the steep cost, Meagan and Ian decided to help through their bakery. They started a cupcake fundraiser — donating 100 per cent of the sales towards Jimmy’s surgery bills. Within a week, they raised close to $600.

The bakery’s community cupcake fundraiser proved to be extremely successful in raising money for locals in the community. Seeing this, the bakery owners felt like they could do a lot more. They started to have ongoing fundraisers at least once a month (sometimes more) under the phrase “community pay it forward,” where they donate a portion of the sales of a baked good towards a specific cause.

“It wasn’t a ton of work on our part to do that, and so we thought it was a good way to be able to offer something without compromising our regular menu but still be able to help in some small way,” said Meagan.

However, what started out as local community-based fundraising, soon became global. During the summer, as protests against racial injustices covered streets around the world, Meagan and Ian said they couldn’t stay silent. In a Facebook post that spoke of George Floyd’s murder and the Black Lives Matter movement, they wrote, “we don’t have all the answers, & don’t know how to fix it, but we’re going to do what we do best. We’re going to bake about it.”

And that’s exactly what they did. They baked cakes where 100 per cent of the sales went to the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP), and raised $1,400 which they matched, totalling to $2,800. Through these fundraisers, they’ve also donated to the Native Women’s Association of Canada, and the British Columbia Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to name a few.

“We thought that maybe we had a chance to kind of bring some awareness to some different issues that bother us in our daily lives and use some intention to make sure that people understand that we have to act locally but think globally because these things could be happening anywhere even in our own community,” said Meagan.

It was only two years ago that the couple became owners of the Lake Village Bakery, soon after travelling around Europe, and finding inspiration from Germany’s rich bread culture. Meagan and Ian both have extensive experience in the food service and hospitality industry, but bread making was something new to both of them.

“It’s also a good skill to have regardless of if it’s your job,” said Meagan about making bread. “it’s just really neat to be able to make something out of nothing really. And bread is just such simple ingredients, especially sourdough, but it takes a lot of time and attention to detail to hone in that craft―it’s kind of just became a passion for both of us.”

Soon after, the couple moved to Osoyoos where Meagan joined The Lake Village Bakery as an apprentice. Just eight months after, they eventually bought The Lake Village Bakery off the old owners, Sean and Shannon Peltier, in May 2018.

The couple have held on strongly to keep the bakery’s legacy of being a traditional sourdough bakery and kept up the annual fundraisers that the Peltiers took part in, including Desert Sun’s empty bowls fundraiser (happening currently), and gingerbread house raffle for the South Okanagan Women in Needs Society. However, they’ve also added significantly to the overall character of the bakery and its role in the community.

Sustainable, for one, has become integral to the bakery. While in the restaurant industry, Meagan and Ian both saw the sheer amount of plastic and food waste that happens. “That’s something that’s always bothered the both of us and we realized we had the ability to change that―at least on our small scale, and influence others to do the same and think of where they could do away with some of those single use items and cut down and make just better, more sustainable choices,” said Meagan.

Single-use plastics have been completely eliminated from daily use at the bakery, and customers are encouraged to bring their own bags or containers for their purchases. They also try to source all ingredients locally when possible, like getting maple syrup from Quebec and honey from OK Wildbrush.

“We do these things because of who we are as people, and the bakery is an extension of us as people,” said Ian, “we want to make sure that our morals and ethics shine through.”

In response, community members have been overwhelmingly positive and supportive of their efforts, according to Meagan. “It’s the locals who really do it because we donate the time and the product but really, they’re the ones ordering it.” She said that there are a few customers who always donate $100-200 or purchase that much in products and distribute it.

The only negative reaction they saw was during their fundraiser for the NAACP, when they received a message from a customer saying her family will never shop at their bakery again due to their donation. Yet Meagan said this incident was like fuel to the fire in a good way. “It gets your attention to the fact that this is a global problem, and not just something that happens somewhere else,” she said.

One of the major goals they have in doing these fundraisers is starting up a conversation in the community about issues that exist around the world, and spreading awareness of them. Meagan said she wants to show that talking about these problems “doesn’t have to be scary or sad, it can really just be a celebration of community and people everywhere.”