SOUTHERN JORDAN – Last year, in the first week of the COVID-19 shutdown and following an earthquake in the Salt Lake Valley, local baker Steve Borg decided he wanted to help give back to a struggling community.
So he created the Free Bread Project. Anyone who enters Schmidt’s Pastry Cottage will receive two free loaves of bread – one for them and one for a neighbor. The idea was to encourage employers to check on their neighbors who may have gone home during the pandemic.
“It was to help people who are away from home and, you know, they couldn’t go out and check on their neighbors,” he explained.
Borg wasn’t sure how long the project would last, but 365 days later it’s still going strong. Since then, the bakery has offered more than 120,000 free loaves of bread.
“We kept doing it. And as we continue, we know that probably more and more people don’t need bread, but we felt like we were still in a pandemic,” Borg said. “My clients have kept me in business for 45 years and I felt that as long as I could do it, I would give it back and do it as long as I could until it was all over.”
At 68, Borg said he could not do many practical service projects, especially during a pandemic. Giving away free bread was his way of serving his community, he said. He hopes others are inspired to find creative ways to give back to their communities.
“If everyone helps and gives back, it helps us this long, long year,” he said.
It was a difficult year for the bakery business, given that events such as office parties or weddings that usually bring customers did not happen. The bakery was able to stay open and relied on its loyal customers throughout the pandemic to stay afloat, Borg said.
If even a handful of families were helped during this time, Borg said the whole free bread project would have been worth it.
In the future, Borg said he hopes to maintain the program as long as necessary and can afford it.
“I felt this offered a little happiness, a little good in life,” he said.
Correction: An earlier version said that Schmidt’s Pastry Cottage is located in western Jordan. The bakery actually has two locations: one in southern Jordan and one in Taylorsville.