Bakery expands to help disadvantaged young people

A bakery is expanding to be able to offer support to more disadvantaged young people.

Bakerman in Darlington opened in 2020 with the hope of mentoring young adults with learning and behavioural difficulties and create employment opportunities.

Co-founder and head baker Dan Booth said due to the popularity of the bakery they have been unable to offer as much support as they would have liked.

To address this, Bakerman has acquired the premises next door to the current site to allow them to create a dedicated baking and training facility.

Mr Booth said the plan was to expand the bakery, get bigger equipment and switch to daytime baking hours to "actually get these disadvantaged young adults through the door".

"The bakery just became such a huge success from day one that we were so busy and quickly ran out of space," he said.

"Baking through the night doesn't help either."

Mr Booth said there is a "real need for" helping disadvantaged young people gain skills in Darlington.

He used to work for the charity Clervaux Trust before being made redundant in 2020 and previously told the BBC he had seen how breadmaking can be "transformative".

"We've since proved a need for it by working with Darlington College and Darlington Borough Council," Mr Booth said.

"Hopefully we'll have people baking with us every day that we're open, once we get the expansion going."

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