Sour Flour Goals

Sometimes I get so caught up in the day to day things to do, that I forget about the larger picture. So today we spent a few hours talking about Sour Flour’s identity, purpose, and long range intention, and then stated our goals to help us get where we’d like to go.

The first goal of Sour Flour was to bake and give away 1000 loaves of bread. It took 6 months to achieve this goal, and to celebrate, we had a party at the Monkey Club. The second stated goal of Sour Flour was to have 100 Blarf Babies, which effectively meant 100 home bakers using the Sour Flour methods and philosophy. Although we made some progress on that goal, it hasn’t been a focus so far. We have now refined this goal a bit, and added two more:

Goal: Open Bakery
Deadline: 1/1/2011

The basic requirements are to have a bread oven, and a location to place it. The ideal location will be somewhere in the Mission, but there are other possibilities that could work. The vision for the bakery is that it would have a Communal Oven, and we would also conduct Bread Education out of our facilities.

Goal: Mentor 100 SF Bakers
Deadline: 9/23/2010

This goal is the continuation of the 100 Blarf Babies idea. An SF Baker is someone who has completed the initial phases of the Bread Education Program. They will understand each phase in the bread baking process, know how to care for their starter, and be committed to sharing some of the bread they bake with their community and the hungry. SF Bakers will continue to learn about bread, and share their bread knowledge with others.

Goal: Sell 1000 loaves of bread
Deadline: 6/23/2010

In order to sustain operations, we need to finally start selling bread. By completing this goal, we will show that there is indeed a demand for the bread we are producing. We’d like to sell each loaf for $4, which was part of the initial projections of being able to generate $1,000,000 per year (1000 loaves a day, 250 days a year, $4 per loaf). We will begin selling our bread at United Market, and adjust our strategy based on how things go. We will continue to also provide free bread, but realize that affordable delicious bread can be part of our overall strategy.