Heritage bakeshop distributes 70,000 pieces of bread in Quezon City
To pay tribute to the Filipino’s foremost baked good, World Pandesal Day — the country’s take on World Bread Day — was launched in 2015 by the heritage and artisinal Kamuning Bakery Cafe. Famous for its breads cooked in a traditional pugon or stone oven, the bakeshop has been celebrating the event annually since then by giving away thousands of pieces of pandesal to Metro Manila’s urban poor, particularly Quezon City residents, public school teachers and students.
However, a tragedy occured last February 6 when a neighboring resto bar caught fire and affected the 79-year-old bakery. Despite that, its owner Wilson Lee Flores — who brought and revived the bakery in 2014 due to his passion for history and good food — remains optimistic that the bakery can rise up from the ruins. He said he has already overcame many other crises in the past including his father’s death when he was only seven years old. He also considers his late mother’s strong faith a legacy and an inspiration to press on with life.
“I was depressed for months after our bakery got burned down. Until now I still feel sad about it, but I always think positively. Our architect said this may take about a year to be contructed again so what we did we put a temporary store in the sidewalk. The sales became abnormal, but despite that, we still want to continue this tradition for our community,” recalled Flores to The Sunday Times Magazine.
With this undying philosphy, Flores was still able to pull off for the fourth year the World Pandesal Day on October 16 at the burnt ruins of the bakery where they gave away 70,000 pieces of pandesal, Eden cheese, Mega sardines, noodles and other goodies.
Quezon City Vice Mayor Joy Belmonte, GMA Network, Inc. chairman Felipe Gozon and Congressman Neri Colmenares led the guests who assisted Flores in his passion project.
“Our inspiration for World Pandesal Day is the Bible story of a poor boy who gave five loaves of bread and two fishes, which faith in God multiplied to feed thousands,” Flores said.
“This is a unique socio-civic and cultural endeavor to highlight the importance of Philippines’ humble yet popular pandesal bread, and to underscore the importance of all of us helping solve the age-old problem of hunger,” the writer, teacher and realty entrepreneur added.
Aside from the World Pandesal Day, Flores and his bakery also hosts the tertulia-inspired and non-partisan “Pandesal Forum” for newsmakers and leaders to dialogue with media and intellectuals over meals of pandesal with other foods and coffee brewed from Benguet province arabica beans — which is part of their non-traditional civic and cultural causes
“In this liberal and informal Pandesal Forum which is part of this company’s unique CSR or corporate social responsibility, discussions focus on socio-economic, gut or ‘pandesal’ issues affecting the people, and other topics. The pandesal is unique to the Philippines, loved by the masses, middle-class and by all, it symbolizes people’s simple happiness and wish for liberation from hunger,” he said.
Kamuning Bakery Café is also the first Philippine bakery café to celebrate “World Poetry Day” every March 21, by inviting the public to send in original poems as payments for their coffee or tea.
Ever since Flores took over the bakery and cafe, it has championed diverse socio-civic, cultural, arts and other causes including the donation of four public schoolbuildings. The first public school edifice was donated in the historic seaside town of Balangiga in Eastern Samar province. This fourth-class municipality is known to be victim of cruel colonial war over a century ago from 1901 to 1902, with its stolen church bells still in the US.
Because of these agendas, on October 12 at Quezon City’s 79th anniversary celebration at Crowne Plaza Galleria Hotel, the city government led by Mayor Herbert Bautista, Vice Mayor Belmonte and City Council Majority Floor Leader Franz Pumaren gave Flores the “Manuel L. Quezon Gawad Parangal Award” for being one of the city’s most outstanding citizens. The selection board included former UP President Prof. Emerlinda Roman, former Budget Minister Manuel Alba, writer Prof. Butch Dalisay, City Administrator Aldrin Cuña and former actress, former Vice Mayor Connie Angeles.
Flores said he accepted the Manuel L. Quezon Gawad Parangal Award in behalf of his late parents who died when he was young but who inspired him, his supportive younger sister Marilou Flores So, and his loyal and hardworking staff and bakers.
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