Meet our Fellows

Leah Lonsbury: Just Bakery of Atlanta

Atlanta, Georgia

Working at the Crossroads of Making Change and Feeding People

The tag line for Just Bakery of Atlanta website reads “Eat well. Do good. Change lives.”  That’s the motto of founder Leah Lonsbury. “I get to do what I dreamed about for a long time, which is, make change and feed people at the same time. That’s a gift.” 

Just Bakery of Atlanta employs recently resettled refugees and offers a living wage along with paid job training and professional certification.  The bakery offers these new Americans jobs they can be proud of and a way forward in an often confusing new country. 

A graduate of Candler School of Theology at Emory University, Lonsbury felt called to create the bakery in her adopted hometown of Atlanta, Georgia after working with her church’s refugee ministry. 

Lonsbury was teaching English at an Atlanta high school with a high percentage of free/reduced lunch and immigrant students when she volunteered to help her church resettle an Afghani family. She helped the family enroll their kids in school, find grocery stores and fulfill other basic needs. “That work was very eye-opening for the work I do now.”  

“I was steeped in what they were experiencing.  While I was going to a meeting with my friend at the International Rescue Committee, I watched the job possibilities scroll across the board in the lobby. The only real option was working in a chicken plant, commuting an hour and a half one way, and working in cold, disgusting and possibly dangerous circumstances. Nobody can live on that kind of money and raise a family with that commute. “

Lonsbury saw first hand the difficulties new arrivals faced in the job market. “For job experience, it’s hard to get your foot in the door anywhere, particularly if you don’t have a lot of English. Navigating the job system here is difficult. Education from other countries is hard to prove and often not recognized by the US. So that set my wheels turning.” 

Lonsbury was ready to create change. Inspired by friends in Wisconsin who run a non-profit called Just Bakery that trains people recently released from prison, and by her own love of cooking and feeding people, Lonsbury envisioned bread-making as a possible way forward.

With her friends’ permission, she borrowed the “Just Bakery” name and applied for a grant from her church, Oakhurst Baptist in Decatur, Georgia. Her big idea was supported whole heartedly by the church.  “I got the whole pot of money - $38,000. Oakhurst is very community and justice minded.”  With a borrowed commercial kitchen in a local church and two new Americans working as part-time trainees, Lonsbury started baking. 

She launched Just Bakery of Atlanta in October of 2017. 

A mother of a 12 year old and a 17 year old, Lonsbury spent long hours getting the bakery operational. “My long-suffering spouse, Justin, made a way for me to be gone early morning every weekend, every Saturday and Sunday for about two years before we were able to grow out our staff a little bit.” Lonsbury continues to spend long hours building the bakery. 

 “I wear a lot of hats. We bake three or four days a week right now. We don't have our own retail location, which makes a lot of operational pieces difficult.”  

In November of 2021, Just Bakery purchased a high-top van to build out as a food truck. This will house a short term apprenticeship program in partnership with Georgia Piedmont Technical college. Participants will complete an ESL course and a hospitality course that will provide ServSafe certification and basic culinary training, while earning a living wage. “They’ll graduate with a certificate in hospitality from that program and we'll place them in jobs in the community,” said Lonsbury. 

Employees like Bhima Thapa, one of the bakery’s first trainees, make the work worthwhile. Bhima was born in Bhutan from a family of Nepalese descent. When Bhutan had a change of power, those with who were Nepalese in the country were stripped of their rights. As a baby, Thapa was moved to Nepal and spent 16 years in a camp there. Her stories of life in the camp include playing soccer with a bag full of trash. She was shocked to arrive in the US and discover the existence of simple things like toys for children.  Thapa completed high school after moving to the US. “When she started with us, she had no baking experience or training. But she learned quickly and was a natural leader. She quickly worked her way up to head baker. Her artwork on our cookies is legendary.” Thapa recently went on maternity leave and now has plans to open her own Bhutanese restaurant with family in Ohio. “That was both sad and hard for us and wonderful for her. But it's really our dream coming true – the New American dream coming true in the world around us.”

Another early trainee, Sisto Kalala, came to the US about five years ago from a camp in South Africa. Originally from Congo, his father was killed in a civil war there. The family moved to Uganda where his mother was killed. Kalala and his sister ended up in a refugee camp in South Africa. “When he came to the US, he had already completed high school, but the US would not recognize his diploma. So he started high school all over again and graduated two years ago. He helps raise his four nephews here. Before he comes in for an early shift at the bakery, he feeds everyone, gets them dressed and on the bus to four different schools. He recently purchased a car for himself and his family,” said Lonsbury. “His smile is unbelievable and his laugh is infectious. He’s one of the most resilient human beings I know.”  In November of 2021, Sisto passed his citizenship test and will soon become an American citizen. 

Lonsbury helps her staff with the challenges of rebuilding a life as a refugee. “We don’t just bake together or train together. We also do things like work on finances together or we connect them with the SNAP benefits coordinator or the women’s center that does sewing classes.  And while they’re doing sewing classes or baking, they’re learning how to navigate the health system or how to talk to their child’s principal.”

Just Bakery continues to raise money to build and fund the bakery. “We have $40,000 in matching gifts for this giving season. If we can match it, we will pay our off truck and fully fund our apprenticeship program for 2022. We’re working on a financial model and strategic plan to be self-sustaining through our sales within the next five years.” 

Her dream is to find a retail location and create a place to build community.  “I want it to be the place where book club happens or ESL classes take place – where important connections can be made. Something like 95% of refugees in the US will not be in the house of a native born American in the first year of living in the US. When you think about the keys that native born Americans hold in terms of wisdom and networks, savvy and resources, that is huge.  My dream is to create a place that would allow us to cross those artificial boundaries between those who were born here and those who were not and to make connections on a human level in ways we might not do in our own places. We can learn from each other and try new things together.”

The goal of Just Bakery of Atlanta is to create a more diverse, connected and compassionate community for all, while at the same time baking outstanding bread, pastries and cakes. In November of 2021, Lonsbury was awarded First Runner up for the Southeast in the World Bread Award Heroes USA.

Indeed, Lonsbury is living up to the Just Bakery motto - “Eat well, Do Good, Change Lives.”

~Profile written by Anita Flowers