Our Mission
Kuluntu Bakery is a non-profit bakery that co-creates a more equitable food system and community by connecting the food industry, consumers and partners to center women and humanize all food workers.
What is Kuluntu?
“Kuluntu” means community in isiXhosa, a South African language of the amaXhosa. It reflects our belief in Ubuntu—“I am because we are.” We operate as a community-driven nonprofit bakery, growing from a cottage bakery into a brick-and-mortar space designed for women’s empowerment and collective action.
Videography by Wayfarist Media
Our Vision
Kuluntu Bakery envisions an interconnected and interdependent food system and hospitality industry with women at the center. This encompasses anyone who identifies as a woman or nonbinary person. This reimagined industry cultivates:
Shared power
Transparency
Increased access
Sustainability
Stronger communities
Social change
Kuluntu’s immediate goal is to open a brick and mortar bakery and community space that will be focused on this reimagined industry.
Photo by Kelsey Foster Photography
Our Values
- Community: We intend to cultivate spaces that encourage belonging, connection and collaboration. We want every voice to be heard and considered as we seek change.
- Radical love: Despite our individual beliefs and differences, we must center our humanity and choose to love each other. By doing so, we believe we will make better decisions and policies that consider us all.
- Transformative justice: We are committed to transitioning away from traditional, prescriptive pathways towards change and instead utiltizing community (human) centered methods to achieve justice for all.
- Transparency: We aim to invite and engage our consumers, partners and supporters in our operations to increase our mutual understanding of the food system and dismantle unjust and unsustainable practices.
- Ubuntu – Interdependence: Ubuntu means “I am because we are.” We want to create a collective ownership that requires us all to work together to create the world we want to see. The experience of one affects us all.
Sourcing & Sustainability
Sustainability and taking care of our planet is a practice that threads throughout our organization.
🌱 Zero-waste baking – We recycle, compost & use environmentally friendly packaging.
💡 Food access & community programs – Reducing food insecurity for workers.