From "Baking Business.com"

Gold Level Recipients - $1,000 Scholarship
Brandy Schwalbe- Barrington NJ – Haddon Heights High School.
Frank Christy – West Depford, NJ – West Depford High School
Erin Schwartz Annadale, NJ, North Hunterton High School

Silver Level Recipients - $500 Scholarship
Kathryn Alberall Flemington, NJ- Hunterton Central High School
Emily Hall – Hackettstown, NJ -Hackettstown High School

Scholarship applications are available to high school seniors and students currently enrolled in baking or pastry arts programs in the early spring and awards are made directly to the secondary school of baking or pastry arts. Inccumbant scholarship winners must provide proof of first semester grade level before award is paid.

For information regarding the 2009 scholarships available contact Marilyn@njbbt.org.

Click Here for testimony.

Former Central Jersey NJBBT President George Amos passed away today after a long illness. Survived by his wife Barbara, daughters Cindy, Karen and son Steven, George was the owner of the Heritage Bakery in Matawan for many years. For information regarding services please contact marilyn@njbbt.org or call Joel Greenspan @732-583-9705.

From Milling and Baking
By Morton Sosland
It’s difficult for grain-based foods to see more than an infinitesimal benefit from the decision last week by the Department of Agriculture to open up the conservation reserve to cattle grazing and hay cutting. Designed specifically to expand feed supplies to offer relief to livestock producers, the program is meant to lessen pressure on corn prices, which reached records last month. Of course, an easing in corn is felt in a wheat market that already was reacting to the start of harvesting.

This program change was undertaken in the wake of vigorous debating within the U.S.D.A. over steps to respond to soaring food prices and to pleadings by various food industry sectors. No one has been more vigorous than baking. That livestock growers were singled out for relief probably speaks more to their political clout than where action appeared prudent.

Not only did Ed Schafer, the Agriculture Secretary, neglect the pleadings of food manufacturers like bakers, he once more declared that no change will be made in 2008 acreage provisions. He didn’t totally rule out the possibility of some opting out for next year, saying this decision will be made by summer’s end. This leaves room for hope — albeit limited — that acreage could be released for production in 2009. Disappointment with the steps just announced must not stand in the way of aggressive pleadings for the government to recognize what its stubbornness is costing both bakers and American consumers.

As fuel prices continue to rise and the threat of $5 and $6 per gallon fuel have folks watching their every penny; you, the corner bakery and you, the wholesale baker must compete for every consumer dollar spent.

While most shop owners are still stocking their racks and keeping their fingers crossed the product will move, you can help yourself by being diligent in the intangibles that make for a successful business.

Make sure your store is the cleanest, friendliest most convenient place for your customer to shop. Floors, shelving and showcases should be immaculate and neat at all times. The aromas should waft at them as they come through the door, even if yours is just a retail shop with no baking on premises, a small pot of vanilla and cinnamon simmering in the back brings mouth watering aromas. Now’s the time for your staff to be well manicured, clean and wholesome looking in neat, pressed uniforms or aprons and sporting an extra friendly smile and can-do attitude. Never EVER sell stale. It is not worth the “word of mouth” that will ensue.

Many shops are moving towards the smaller “petit cakes” and desserts. While a 10-12 inch cake may be an extravagance for special company, a smaller dessert for two at a smaller price may satisfy a sweet tooth and bring in some extra revenue.

If your township allows it and you can place a few inviting tables outside your door, make your shop a destination for dessert and coffee. A cool refreshing iced coffee or iced latte with a yummy dessert may make for an evening “out” that doesn’t strain your customer’s pocketbook. Again, eye appeal and diligence to detail will make or break any new idea.

Speaking of revenue, because that’s what this is all about, consider having your accountant prepare results for you at six months (end of June) to see where you stand profit wise. They can help you find additional sources to increase profits. Call your insurance agent, to negotiate a better rate or a direct billed quarterly or monthly premium payment versus a premium finance (with high finance rates, often they’re not hooked to the prime rate so are still high while the prime rate is low) Call your box supplier, your bag supplier and ask what discounts or alternatives you may have. There are options that you may not realize are there .

We’re here for you at NJBBT, our board and staff is skilled and experienced and can help you with ideas to increase your bottom line.

On April 22, the New Jersey Bakers Board of Trade presented a workshop designed to introduce new products and to share ideas to help the bakers of New Jersey survive and succeed in the current volatile economic market. The five hour event took place at Branches in West Long Branch and was attended by bakers and management of retail and wholesale bakeries, bagel shops as well as by educators from the many vocational and culinary schools in the state.
Setup began early in the morning with fresh baked products being prepared for tasting by the attendees. Vendors who represented the Allied Trades presented a table top show which invited participants to examine and sample many new products.

The education committee of NJBBT, chaired by Chef Vincent Tursi, CMB, presented a demonstration by Chef Frank Cordi of techniques using transfer sheets for decorations using designer chocolate.

Lunch was served during which a “round table” type discussion was kicked off by Dawn Food’s Joe Soboti. Soboti presented a power point demonstration which centered on what is affecting today’s global wheat, dairy and egg markets, and which offered suggestions for examining formulas and costing ingredients to determine consumer pricing.

A presentation by Puratos Foods highlighted the health benefits of adding Flax Seed to formulas and which suggested retail marketing and promotion ideas to the attendees.

The day afforded many opportunities for networking and the sharing of ideas, the voicing of concerns and offering of solutions.

Plans are underway by NJBBT to present this workshop format again in the spring of 2009

Click this link to view the segment which appeared on the CBS evening news on March 12.

March 12 RBA (Retail Bakers of America) and ABA (American Bakers Association) meet in Washington with goverment officials including the Secretary of Agriculture to discuss the CRISIS occuring inour industry.New Jersey Bakers Board of Trade is an affiliate of the Retail Bakers of America.

From Bakingbusiness.com, Milling and Baking News:

(Bakingbusiness.com, March 11, 2008)
by Josh Sosland
Morton Sosland

Regardless of what this week’s "March on Washington" by the "Band of Bakers" accomplishes, and there’s every reason to hope for success, the day of March 12, 2008, will mark a great and unforgettable moment in American baking history. That six industry organizations have been sparked by the initiative of the American Bakers Association to join in this unprecedented effort should not only quickly persuade Washington of the nightmarish situation baking faces, but might turn out to be striking enough to convince the Bush administration of the need for actions that so far have been resisted. By making Washington aware of the terrible consequences of the tipping of the supply-demand balance in wheat toward unimaginably high prices and the threat of actual scarcity, the March of bakers may produce steps to relieve the current situation and to prevent recurrence any time soon.

For anyone familiar with the rivalries that have existed between various industry organizations, the makeup of the March participants is itself remarkable. The A.B.A. is credited with launching the idea in response to its members’ bitter complaints about the disastrous consequences of soaring wheat and ingredient prices. Joining are the Independent Bakers Association, which is noted for its independence about Washington affairs, the Snack Foods Association, the National Pasta Association and the Retail Bakers of America, along with BEMA, as the main allied group.

In choosing the name, Band of Bakers, the instigators behind the March 12 March could not have made a better choice. In this context, "band," as stated in the Oxford English Dictionary, is, "A uniting or cementing force or influence by which a union of any kind is maintained." Like other marches on Washington that have addressed everything from veterans’ needs to peace, from women’s suffrage to desegregation, this March by the Band of Bakers reflects passionate dismay with the government’s failure to do anything that would offer relief. Baking, the industry that is the major user of American wheat, feels disregarded if not neglected. Millions of consumers who rely on wheat foods as essential and health-giving have been forgotten.

Because of the unbelievable volatility of wheat markets in recent weeks and months, there is the prospect, albeit remote, that the March could be sufficient to reverse the market’s course. Just like financial markets that respond swiftly in interpreting every word of the chairman of the Federal Reserve Board, who knows how wheat prices that swung recently more in a single day than in most past years or longer will react to news coverage of this bakers’ protest? Similarly, while it may be unrealistic to expect Washington to react immediately to the calls of the baker-marchers for releasing good wheat land tied up in the Conservation Reserve Program, to revise incentives to grain use in making ethanol, to look at foreign food relief or to address speculative trading in futures, making the case for these approaches might well signal that the government has taken note of what is occurring and will carefully examine the alternatives presented.

In this highly charged political year, with its presidential election, a March on Washington, even when participant numbers pale in comparison to something like the Million-Man March of 1995, has a good chance of winning the attention of one of the major candidates. Soaring wheat prices are at the core of rising food costs. The calamitous impact this is having on the teetering national economy and on the well-being of millions of people is a huge issue. Surprisingly, wheat’s role has drawn almost no attention in the debates that have colored primary campaigns. If the March on Washington by the Band of Bakers does nothing more than elevate this matter to a central position in the looming debate about how best to improve the national economy, it has the likelihood of doing more to ease the current wheat market dilemma than almost anything that has been suggested as a remedy by government.