Local Bakery Finds Sweet New Way to Address Homelessness

Like any non-profit leader, Corrie Corfield knows the job requires multiple hats. Still, being called on to manage a bakery came as a surprise. Under her direction, Corfield’s organization has reimagined a Vancouver Island bakery as a social enterprise that supports community members in crisis.

A recent graduate of SFU’s Non-Profit Management Certificate program, Corfield serves on the executive team of the Nanaimo-based Island Crisis Care Society, or ICCS. In 2021, the society purchased the 30-year-old Nanaimo Bakery and Café and now operates it as a way to offer much-needed work experience for its clients. At the same time, the business generates revenue to support ICCS’s housing and outreach programs for people who are at risk of or experiencing homelessness.

In a way, Corfield has come full circle. She ran her own café a decade ago, before moving on to a successful career in the non-profit sector. While she may be back behind a coffee counter these days, she’s now serving up cakes and lattes with a social purpose.

“This wasn’t something I thought I’d be doing again, but here I am,” she laughs. “It’s been exciting to take those lessons that I learned 10 years ago and apply them in this different context — and to know that it’s really making a difference in the community.”

While enrolled in the SFU program, Corfield says she was able to apply her lessons directly to challenges as they came up at work. “As I was taking the fundraising course and learning about diversified revenue,” she recalls, “we were walking down that path as an organization and looking at what options might be available.”

One of those options was the increasingly popular concept of social enterprise. A recent report by the British Council and Social Enterprise UK estimates there are now 11 million such operations around the world, noting that “social enterprises are essential in the effort to recover from the pandemic and drive more inclusive, sustainable economies and societies.”

Non-profits have been hit particularly hard by the pandemic, as they struggle to meet a rising demand for services while facing declining revenues. Corfield adds that the days of Canadian non-profits surviving on government grants alone are long gone. Often, she explains, too many organizations compete for the same pool of funds. For ICCS, it was time to get creative.

“Having a social enterprise means we have funding that’s our own, so we can self-sustain our programming,” she explains.

The SFU program also opened Corfield’s eyes to further possibilities, as she connected with peers from other non-profits doing work quite different from her own.

“It forced me to look outside the box at the way we do things as an organization,” she says. “That’s where non-profits are heading — we have to look at things differently, be innovative, and learn lessons from other sectors and other people who are doing things very differently from us.”

These days, it might be other organizations that are learning from Corfield and her work with the Nanaimo bakery.

“A lot of communities struggle with the same issues we’re supporting — homelessness, substance abuse, mental health,” she says. “I’ve heard from other non-profits who are watching us and waiting.

“If we can make this business work in the way we’re projecting it will work, it could be hugely impactful, for our organization and for our community.”

To learn more about SFU’s Non-Profit Management Certificate program, sign up for the free online info session on Wednesday, Oct. 19.