Swinton microbakery Our Dough is two weeks into its new bike delivery scheme and is thriving as a local business by supplying freshly baked bread to the community in a greener way.
Lifelong friends and bakers Sophie Mcnamara and Rachel Gill decided to open Our Dough during the first UK lockdown after receiving interest from family and friends for their sourdough bread.
At the beginning of their journey, Sophie and Rachel used to do drop-off deliveries by car however, as their bakes started to gain popularity, they knew they wanted to reduce their carbon footprint and eliminate car deliveries completely.
Sophie and Rachel then focused on creating a green approach with a local pick-up point where customers could collect their sourdough loaves.
Mum-of-three Sophie explained: “We created a pickup point with a local florist called Wholeheartedflorist in Swinton and they were really kind and supportive. People collected it by foot as well so they weren’t getting in their cars to get it.”
But they began to miss interacting with their customers through their deliveries.
Sophie said: “We felt conscious that a lot of people were contacting us in the community asking if they could buy bread and we were missing selling the bread directly to the customer, missing the happy faces at the front door.
“We started to think how we could start deliveries again but not be driving around and that’s where Bread by Bike came into the equation.”
Sophie continued: “Every Wednesday is going to be green delivery day which means we can deliver directly to customers and get back that interaction with them that we were missing.”
Sophie will follow a route around Swinton and Worsley making socially-distanced deliveries by customers leaving containers outside their doors for the bread to be safely dropped off.
There are plans to increase the radius but the current route is shown below.
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This is very much a team effort as Sophie and Rachel both run the bakery part time, but they are passionate to prep and bake bread and other treats ready to be delivered every Wednesday in an eco-friendly way.
And just by being two weeks into the delivery scheme, Our Dough has achieved a huge amount of support from the local community.
Sophie said: “Everyone’s come to say they’re so happy to support local businesses especially through lockdown.
“The sun was shining, it was really good to see people at their front doors again, I get the impression from what people are saying is that they are going to continue buying this way post lockdown.”
“It’s kind of a new way of living really, it’s keeping everything within your community green and keeping everything local.”
Sophie and Rachel are proud to own and run a local business in the community and want to ensure they look after the local area.
Sophie said: “We’ve always wanted to look after the environment, I do it for my children, the next generation and for myself. It feels good knowing that you’re helping a bigger cause.
“We want to create bread and we want to get that bread out to everybody, but it needs to be in a green way for it to feel right.”
Sophie urged other households and local businesses to incorporate sustainable changes where they can.
“Just make one small change, you don’t have to make 100 changes to be green,” she said.
“If we all do that together within the community then we can make a bigger change.”
To book a Wednesday delivery slot email Our Dough at ourdoughbakery@gmail.com or check out their Instagram for menu updates and support their business here Our Dough
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