Ad Astra Bread Co: Turn Our Oven Back On
Donation protected
The Short Story:
Due to continuous delays regarding the building to supply our kitchen with the proper power needed to operate, we unfortunately have had to temporarily stop operations. We have been waiting for construction since we opened in October 2019. We had a final date, 9/29, and our resources finally ran out on 9/25 after 11 months of paying for a diesel generator to run our kitchen, which had meant to be a temporary solution.
We thought we'd only have to close for a week, which would have been somewhat manageable, but the day we announced our closure, we were informed that the date had been pushed to 10/24. We can't sustain a month without business, especially when this is no cause of our own.
The Details:
Ad Astra Bread Co is a small, family-owned, start-up bakery in Seaside, California. We opened in October of 2019, and are grateful to have found ourselves well-received within our community and beyond. We focus on long fermented, naturally leavened sourdough breads.
Upon opening, we had been approved to purchase our equipment and enter the building with our specs, but during construction, found the building didn’t support the electricity needed for our equipment. We had to wait for a changeover with PG&E, and agreed to the costly solution of a rented generator, knowing it had an expiration date.
During the entirety of our time as a business, we have been running our small kitchen from an industrial generator run on diesel fuel, which ran a cost of $6,000 a month, minimum. We made plans to sustain this set up through March of 2020 at the latest.
However, the date for our electric work kept being pushed further and further away. We continued to pay for this generator, far outside our means, as it became our only option to continue making bread for our community.
We once had the funds to pay for the power changeover, but since March, have spent over $40,000 on the generator alone. Our utility bills were more than 30% of our revenue. On 9/25/20, that cost finally caught up to us, and we decided it was best to close until the work was finally done.
As we announced our closure, we had expected the work to be done on 9/29, but that very day, we were told it had been pushed to 10/24. We have confidence this will be the final push.
We hoped we could stay open for the duration of this issue, and never thought we’d ask for charity, but at this time we are asking our bread loving community to help us get back to baking bread for you.
This is where these funds are going:
$29,500 for 6 weeks of pay to our employees who are not able to work due to us closing. We have an amazing team who have pushed like crazy to deliver the best product we could possibly make. We do not want them to worry about how they will pay their rent.
$18,000 for the remaining contractor/PGE work
$2,500 for re-opening inventory
$5,000 for processing fees using this forum
The best way we can say thanks is to give you a little something in return.
Check it out:
$50 donation gets you a Cardamom Bun
$100 donation gets you a Seaside sourdough loaf
$150 donation gets you an Ad Astra tote bag
$250 donation gets you a “I Saved Ad Astra” T shirt (made to order)
$300 donation gets you a pan flatbread (choice of 3 varieties)
$500 donation gets you Bread and Pastry for a month (weekly order)
$1000 donation gets you Bread and Pastry for a year (that’s going to make some great dinners)
We are confident we can make it through this together!
To the stars!
Ron, Alaina, & The Ad Astra Team
Due to continuous delays regarding the building to supply our kitchen with the proper power needed to operate, we unfortunately have had to temporarily stop operations. We have been waiting for construction since we opened in October 2019. We had a final date, 9/29, and our resources finally ran out on 9/25 after 11 months of paying for a diesel generator to run our kitchen, which had meant to be a temporary solution.
We thought we'd only have to close for a week, which would have been somewhat manageable, but the day we announced our closure, we were informed that the date had been pushed to 10/24. We can't sustain a month without business, especially when this is no cause of our own.
The Details:
Ad Astra Bread Co is a small, family-owned, start-up bakery in Seaside, California. We opened in October of 2019, and are grateful to have found ourselves well-received within our community and beyond. We focus on long fermented, naturally leavened sourdough breads.
Upon opening, we had been approved to purchase our equipment and enter the building with our specs, but during construction, found the building didn’t support the electricity needed for our equipment. We had to wait for a changeover with PG&E, and agreed to the costly solution of a rented generator, knowing it had an expiration date.
During the entirety of our time as a business, we have been running our small kitchen from an industrial generator run on diesel fuel, which ran a cost of $6,000 a month, minimum. We made plans to sustain this set up through March of 2020 at the latest.
However, the date for our electric work kept being pushed further and further away. We continued to pay for this generator, far outside our means, as it became our only option to continue making bread for our community.
We once had the funds to pay for the power changeover, but since March, have spent over $40,000 on the generator alone. Our utility bills were more than 30% of our revenue. On 9/25/20, that cost finally caught up to us, and we decided it was best to close until the work was finally done.
As we announced our closure, we had expected the work to be done on 9/29, but that very day, we were told it had been pushed to 10/24. We have confidence this will be the final push.
We hoped we could stay open for the duration of this issue, and never thought we’d ask for charity, but at this time we are asking our bread loving community to help us get back to baking bread for you.
This is where these funds are going:
$29,500 for 6 weeks of pay to our employees who are not able to work due to us closing. We have an amazing team who have pushed like crazy to deliver the best product we could possibly make. We do not want them to worry about how they will pay their rent.
$18,000 for the remaining contractor/PGE work
$2,500 for re-opening inventory
$5,000 for processing fees using this forum
The best way we can say thanks is to give you a little something in return.
Check it out:
$50 donation gets you a Cardamom Bun
$100 donation gets you a Seaside sourdough loaf
$150 donation gets you an Ad Astra tote bag
$250 donation gets you a “I Saved Ad Astra” T shirt (made to order)
$300 donation gets you a pan flatbread (choice of 3 varieties)
$500 donation gets you Bread and Pastry for a month (weekly order)
$1000 donation gets you Bread and Pastry for a year (that’s going to make some great dinners)
We are confident we can make it through this together!
To the stars!
Ron, Alaina, & The Ad Astra Team
Organizer
Ron Mendoza
Organizer
Seaside, CA