Paula Parker, a singer from Oakland, was walking up Valencia Street in search of a chocolate-chip cookie midday sweet in the Mission after visiting Horace Man’s Jazz Band. Her senses stopped her in her tracks when a familiar smell hit her into nostalgia. “It smells just like the Arizmendi Bakery back in Oakland and Berkeley,” she said to herself. She had come across the front doors of the grand opening of Arizmendi in the Mission District on 24th and Valencia Streets. Paula, who was presenting at the local middle school on her experience working with the Fillmore Jazz Heritage Center in the Fillmore, was enjoying a chocolate-chip cookie and happy at the welcoming atmosphere of a familiar bakery she loves during Arizmendi Bakery’s grand opening in the Mission on Oct. 20; the opening also allowed her to enjoy the cumbias of D.J. Lucha Grande on the turntables followed by David Ricardo, a local rock musician.
Arizmendi Panaderia & Pizzeria, open Wednesday thru Monday, has a vast array of pastries with prices you can find at your local cafe, only these are freshly put on display straight from the oven to go along with your hot coffee or specialty drink. From cookies to scones, baguettes and your own pizza pie, Arizmendi has a little of everything expected from a bakery/cafe with reasonable prices. Their grand opening seemed to be a success with a long, fast moving line out the door made up of parents with their kids, professionals and the diverse population of the community
Arizmendi: A bakery to some, but to those who have the opportunity to work here, it is a school of business where workers are eventually able to be co-owners in a co-op experience that has allowed for this bakery to become such a successful bay-area reality. Arizmendi stands for the name of a young priest from Mondragon, Spain named Jose Mari Arizmendiarrieta. In the 1940s, there was a regression in the country’s economy and an oppression of poor people without financial means to start their own business. This priest presented the idea of running and starting a business as a co-op and today the majority of all businesses in Mondragon are successfully co-op-run. This model for success has transformed into Arizmendi’s Bakery with its seventh opening in the Bay Area, including stores in Berkeley, Oakland, Lakeshore, Emeryville, Fourth Street in San Rafael, and 9th and Owen Streets in San Francisco.
According to Lulu Rodriguez, one of the new bakers, there is a six-month probationary period for all new hires in which the first two months include extensive training from scratch of all bakery products. Workers get paid $12 per hour. After six months the worker makes a commitment of a $500 investment into the company in which they are helped through either acquiring a personal loan and/or their savings. After a total of one year minimum, the workers make an investment of $5,000 at which point the sum can be a goal worked towards by contributing $20 to $50 a paycheck. “My dream is that all businesses one day in the Mission be cooperatively run,” stated Rodriguez, “and that the money is not specifically for any one person, but for us to learn to work together and for each other.” She added, “I am happy because two months ago I had a desire to work at my own cafe where my hands can make food that feeds the stomach and the soul and that pays a just living wage…so being here is very emotional for me.” When asked about any new line of baked goods Rodriguez stated that after a year, workers will be able to work on their own products that interest them, through client demand, by adding a “Latino touch” through the diverse knowledge of its staff.
There is a co-op movement growing across the country. The need for successful ownership has allowed the mere thought of being able to co-own, work and manage a business to thrive into reality. Oscar Grande, Community Organizer at People Organizing to Demand Environmental and Economic Rights (PODER), explains how Arizmendi came into the community. They were open in understanding the Mission District’s plight, history and current gentrification. Thus Arizmendi worked with PODER and Mission Economic Development Agency (MEDA) in coming up with a strategy of opportunity for the Mission by making a commitment to give the community a fair chance in hiring, thus actively diversifying their staff/co-owners. Arizmendi worked with PODER and MEDA to establish orientation workshops in English and Spanish and youth organizers from PODER helped applicants translate their applications.
PODER found out that a lot of these applicants already possessed a lot of skills Arizmendi was looking for. One woman was a baker in Antigua, Guatemala, and was able to put pictures of herself in this role in the application. Arizmendi was not necessarily looking for bakers with previous experience, though, because they go through extensive training based on their breads menu. This allowed applicants to show their other skills such as community organizing backgrounds and explain how this could bring success to the business. Out of 15 new hires, seven are Latinos, with four from the Mission District who are community members from PODER, the San Francisco Organizing Project (SFOP), and MEDA Fondo Popular.
“I am happy to be working; I am motivated and believe in co-ops for a new generation of youth and for the community,” stated Dora Paredes, 39 and a new worker at Arizmendi. “We were able to be successful amidst a process of inclusion to send a message to the whole community that it is time that we unite amongst Latinos because there are many of us that are prepared and have business and career abilities…We can start not just one co-op, but many…SI SE PUEDE!”