Baking Brighter Futures: Cheryl Wyse of Bread Life Bakery

Nine years ago Cheryl Wyse and her husband came on a mission trip to China, and while they were here they realized their calling was to help Chinese orphans. Over the past few years they have provided not only foster care, but education, medical assistance and life training to their “kids.” Agenda met up with Wyse to learn more about her experience in China, and some of the sweet rewards of running the Bread for Life Bakery.

You’re originally from the American Midwest – how does your hometown of Toledo, Ohio, compare to China?
We always joke that our hometown in Ohio has about 500 or so people, all of whom are farmers. We were in Beijing for six months before we moved to Lanfung, where the population is about 5.5 million. We like to say we’re still in the “fiver” bracket, but just adding more zeroes.

What drew you to China, and what was your perception of this country prior to arriving?
We adopted four girls from China back when we lived in Ohio. Knowing that there were so many orphaned children in need of help – medical help mostly – made us eager to do more research. In the adoption of our twins, we learned a lot about the brittle bones disease – they both have it.

My husband had wanted to move to China right after our first adoption. I told him that I wasn’t going anywhere with a baby girl. It took about seven years for me to realize that maybe he was right. We did a mission trip to China in 2001, and realized that we had been called to help orphaned children in China. We moved here the following September, and by January the Tianjin orphanage gave us our first children. We’ve been here ever since.

What prompted you to move to Hebei?
We’re living in a housing compound in Lanfung because that’s where our foster home is located. Both the bakery and our home are located in one compound, which makes it convenient for those of our children who work at the bakery when they are older. We also feel that it’s a better atmosphere for the children, since they can go outside whenever they want to. It’s quieter, safer, and we have a nice yard.

We heard your bakery operates a little differently from others. Please explain.
Well, we run a foster home alongside the bakery. Once the children we take care of have finished their schooling and are old and mature enough, they come to work in our bakery. On average they are between 18 and 24 years old.

At the bakery, we teach them independence, how to understand and deal with the general public, how to take orders and practice new skills. We just got three more kids last month, which makes four new ones in less than five weeks. I think we’re at 22 right now; usually, we’re in the range of about 22-25 kids at a time.

We school them at home because of their disabilities – they’re mostly in wheelchairs or have walking devices. We provide them with a Chinese teacher to teach them the same curriculum they would receive in a Chinese school, because we never know if they’re going to be adopted or will be here long-term. If they’re with us long-term, they need to know what they’re going to be doing with the rest of society.

What gave you the idea to run a business this way?
It wasn’t something that was planned. A group of ladies in Shunyi invited us to attend their bi-annual bazaar, which happens every spring and fall. When they asked us to attend we brainstormed what we could do that created both awareness about orphan care and an income to fill our needs at the same time. My husband said, ‘Well, if you were trying to raise money back at home, you would have a bake sale.’ We attended the fall bazaar with our baked goods, and people started taking my phone number to get cakes for the holidays. And that’s how it started.

Where did you pick up your knowledge of baking, and how do you pass it down to the children?
I’ve just always loved to bake. My grandmother loved baking, but she passed on when I was a teenager. However, my dad always told me that baking was part of me because I had eaten all of her prize-winning cookies. It’s not something I ever received training in, unless you count raising children. As a mother you always need cake or cookies, something in the house for a treat. It’s always been one of those things that I work on. I brought back a lot of my recipes of the States and taught these kids how to do it.

What are the most rewarding and most demanding parts of your job?
The most rewarding part has been seeing the kids grow more mature and responsible and doing their jobs on their own. The most demanding part is quality control. I have to make sure that we’re using the best quality products to make our cakes and pies. Almost all of our ingredients come from the United States, Australia or New Zealand; that way we’re using high-quality butters and cheeses.

Describe a regular day in your life, from running the bakery to taking care of all the kids.
Well, the pavement is worn out between our house and the bakery because we’re always running back and forth. We don’t start really early in the mornings because I’m not a morning person. We work a normal day for the sake of the kids, starting at 8 am and working until we finish whatever orders we have. Sometimes we finish early in the afternoon and sometimes we’re not done until late in the evening – it just depends on the season. Right now we only deliver to Beijing once a week, but we’re hoping that demand will increase for the holidays.

Which one of your pastries is the most popular with your clients, and which one do your kids like the best?
The most popular items we make are our carrot cakes with real cream cheese frosting, our cinnamon rolls and our apple crumb pie. We also have popular seasonal things, like pumpkin pie and pecan pie. The kids like the hamburger buns. They’ll eat them for their breakfast, and they also really like the sugar, chocolate chip and peanut butter cookies.

We’ve changed the menu at least three times in the last four years, based on what people like, what sells, and what doesn’t sell. We’re about to change the menu again to add our own meat products, which we just started about six months ago. We do pure bratwurst, breakfast sausages, sausage patties, chicken patties, chicken sausage and beef pot pies – that means no fillers whatsoever. We also make vegetarian hot dogs and corn dogs, which are really popular. We have two big franchises buying from us, including Fatburger and Stadium Dog.

We have also started doing turkey dinners for Thanksgiving and Christmas. Those were a huge hit and we’re hoping to continue with those again. Those are definitely the two busiest times of year – we make 30 turkeys at a time, either deep-fried southern style or original roasted turkey.

Our biggest purchasers right now are the international schools. When they close for the summer, I always feel like we should take a break…and then the fourth of July hits, and apple pie orders come in.

How do you find your children, and what services do you provide for them besides schooling?
Some kids get adopted, some come short-term for medical help – we don’t have to go looking for any kids. Orphanages just talk to each other and call to see if we’ll take in a particular child. If it’s something within our range of orthopedic skills, we usually take them unless we don’t have room. Most always we’ll try to make room and help them.

Where can readers pick up your baked goods?
They can fill out orders online – everything is by order right now. We’re working on getting into some grocery stores like Jenny Lou’s; what I need is a business partner to help me do that. In the meanwhile, we deliver our items right to your door. We really want people to know what when they purchase our products, they are doing more than supporting that business – they are supporting the medical needs of a child, and they are also providing an income for the young adults working at our facility.

To learn more about the Bread of Life Bakery, please visit www.breadoflifebakery.org, email them at bread.of.life.bakery@gmail.com or call them at 137 2262 2865 or 031 6608 3407.

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