Although students often dread signing up for general education courses, a boring class was just what one student needed to realize her calling.
“I was taking notes, and somewhere between the Cold War and universalism, I stopped and I started sketching out this, you know, this idea,” said Allison Norman, a graduate student studying social work.
Two and a half years later, Norman is one step closer to realizing her life dream: opening Made with Love Bakery, a transitional employment opportunity for homeless individuals to receive job training — with a little added southern hospitality.
“It was a dream that was just kind of placed on my heart,” Norman said. “At first I laughed it off. I thought it was crazy, but within the week, I was like, ‘This is what I’m doing with my life.’”
Although Norman at first felt unprepared, she said she persisted with the mentality that she would learn the skills she needed as she worked.
She said she received help from friends, family and similar transitional employment bakeries. Norman has had to find ways around her limited experience in business, social work and even cooking itself.
“Before the idea of the bakery, the most I had ever baked was like, box brownies,” Norman said.
She first went to her Charlotte home, where her mother passed on family recipes, like the dish now known on the menu as “Mama Norman’s Homemade Bread.” From there, Norman began developing her own recipes.
Although Made with Love’s menu now includes brownies, cookies, cakes and breads, it had small beginnings. Norman said she began with baking communion bread for the church Love Chapel Hill without having an oven of her own.
