Recently we spoke with Keith and Cheryl Wyse of Bread of Life Bakery in Hebei Province. Click the "play button" to hear the audio version of the interview, or check out the transcript below. Apologies for the poor audio quality, we're still getting the kinks worked out of the system!

CW: First thing is, how is your bakery, the Bread of Life Bakery, any different from a normal bakery?
Keith: Well, it’s normal in every way like any other bakery, run by adults, managed by adults, but it employs handicapped foster children. Not mentally handicapped, but physically handicapped. The children are taught to have a normal job, to have a normal life, so that they can actually learn when the time comes to run a business.

CW: Ok, ok. And has the process of making baked goods helped the kids there to develop their personal and professional skills, just help them get ready for life out in the wider world?
Keith: Right. It does, because, number one most of the children have come from orphanages or lived in orphanages their whole life, and they were raised by nannies. The nannies literally do everything for them. Most of them have no responsibility, and they don’t know how to deal with other people. They deal only with the people inside the orphanage.

CW: So they get to adulthood, and they literally have no ability to function like a normal adult would?
Keith: Right, right. They don’t have any kind of skill, to even talk to you or me. So what this does is it gives them the ability to, number one, have a job, have an income, they learn how to weigh, measure. They learn how to be responsible. Everything they make, if all the ingredients don’t go in, then the project’s no good. So they have to be responsible for putting that together, and then they learn that they’re not serving themselves. It’s the customer who they’re serving, and if that product does not satisfy, then that customer won't be back.

CW: Ok. And how have the kids taken to this . . .you’ve been doing this for about a year, you said when we were talking before. So, how have the kids taken to this project? Have they, I mean, are they enjoying this work? Are they enjoying being, I don’t want to say independent, but, sort of, getting the chance to exercise these skills that they never knew they had?
Keith: Right. They enjoy it a lot because, number one, it gets them out of the house. It gives them someplace to go every day. They have more of a schedule. They have to be at work at a certain time. It gives them more of a sense of worth, a sense of value to know that they have a job, that they’re actually helping.

CW: What’s the most popular goodie that you guys make over there?
Cheryl: The cinnamon rolls!

CW: [laughing] Yeah, I can understand that, yeah [ed. note: Cheryl and Keith brought over a couple boxes of cinnamon rolls from the bakery before this interview took place. They were amazing.].
Cheryl: The carrot cake, and the bread. Those are our biggest sellers.

CW: Bread, as in just normal loaf of bread kind of bread?
Cheryl: Yes. White bread, wheat bread, French bread, oatmeal.

CW: And is there any sort of baked good out there that’s a particular favorite of the kids [at the bakery]?
Cheryl: Probably the cake. And the cookies. Even though they’re not listed on the menu, we will do things that if there’s a special order, we will give that a try.

CW: Ok , I was going to say. I look on the menu here, and I don’t see anything like chocolate chip cookies or sugar cookies, but if I said I wanted a thousand chocolate chip cookies, for example.
Cheryl: Yes.

CW: Oh, you could do a thousand?
Cheryl: Yeah.

CW. Oh, wow. Ok. I’m just curious, how often do you guys deliver into the city [from Hebei, where the bakery is located]?
Cheryl: Currently we’re in Beijing one day a week, but we’re hoping to do a lot more than one day. Currently we’re now at the British School and the Montessori School as delivery points, but we want to branch out to Lido, Chaoyang Park.

CW: Sort of the expat hotspots.
Cheryl: Yeah, we’re hoping to get into Jenny Lou’s or April Gourmet. That’s our next big thing to do, is to meet those people.

CW: You make these throughout the week, and then you deliver them on Thursdays, is that right? Cheryl: We make it the day before, the night before, depending on the product, and it goes out that next morning, early in the morning. Of course it’s an hour, two hour’s drive to Beijing, depending on traffic, so we have scheduled meeting points to meet people who’ve ordered. Everything’s by order.

CW: You guys make the goods on the night before and they day, of, Wednesday and Thursday. What do the kids spend the rest of the week doing? Are they just in classes and going about their regular lives, and then they help out around the bakery on Wednesday?
Cheryl: Yes, we have schooling for the children, because normal schools are not wheelchair accessible. They clean the bakery, they clean the [foster] home. They help out where they’re most needed.

CW: Is there anyplace right now in Beijing . . let’s say I just wanted to walk in someplace and grab one of your amazing cinnamon rolls, which are amazing, by the way, having tried them. Is there anyplace I can do it right now, or is it just by delivery?
Cheryl: Everything’s by delivery right now. We have a meeting scheduled after the [Spring Festival] holiday with the people from Jenny Lou’s.

CW: If you need any testimonials, just have them give me a call.
Cheryl: [laughing] Ok! Thank you!

CW: Could you deliver them to my house, if I wanted?
Cheryl: I could if the order were big enough, or if we were already in your area.

CW: What is “big enough”?
Cheryl: Usually 800RMB.

CW: So that’d be about eight trays of cinnamon rolls, or sixteen of the little carrot cakes.
Cheryl: About four orders of cinnamon rolls, maybe seven or eight carrot cakes. Like if you were having a dinner party or a brunch, that would work very well.

[pause]

Keith: Ok, I’m back.

CW: Ok, last question, and then I’ll stop bothering you.
Keith: I just want to add something real quick about the products..

CW: Oh, yeah, sure, please.
Keith: We also make a lot of Western-style pies. Pecan pies, apple pies, peach pies. There’s no place in Beijing to get those kinds of pies.

CW: Yeah, especially the pecan pies. I don’t even know where’d you get the pecans in Beijing.
Keith: The pecan pie is my mom’s family recipe. 100% calories.

CW: My mom’s dad had a few pecan trees out behind his house. [My brother and sister and I] used to get that all the time when we were little. Ok, last question, and then I will stop bugging you. Why move from the American Midwest, from Toledo, Ohio, to China, and start a bakery for foster children?
Keith: You know, we’ve never been asked this question before.

CW: [laughing] Yeah, I’m sure you never get this.
Keith: We raised two boys, we raised our sons, and when they both got older, my wife always wanted a daughter. And in the process of one daughter, we adopted four, and through each one of the adoptions we saw that there was a need, not just in China, there are needs in every orphanage in the world, but our girls are from China. We came back basically because we couldn’t adopt anymore, so the only way that we could affect anymore children was to come over here. So we came here basically to give a hand to those in need, which is what we’ve done since we’ve been here. The bakery came as an idea a year ago as a way of giving the children jobs and income, and we’re now thinking of other ways we start things that the children can take part in.