Harry George, founder of SEND coffee and Polly Moody, a pastry chef and one of SEND coffee’s mentors

A NEW bakery helping to train young people with special educational needs and disabilities will soon open in Islington.

SEND coffee, a special needs charity, will use the space to teach young people the art of baking to equip them for careers in hospitality.

“We’re incredibly excited to be launching Hidden Bakery. It’s a big step for us, especially as we’re actively fundraising for the first time,” said Harry George, founder of SEND coffee.

Freshly baked bread and pastries will be available at the neighbouring café on St Paul’s Road, which reopened last Monday after the charity acquired it from ARC foodbank. The charity will also supply home-baked goods to the food bank and distribute them to its three other cafés in Fitzrovia, Hackney, and the City.

The charity, which is funded solely through sales made from coffee, was founded in 2020 by Mr George.

Suffering from dyspraxia, he found it difficult to hold down a job as a chef and a barista, as he often lacked feeling in his fingers.

This led him to set up SEND, which offers a two-year training programme for young people with special education needs and disabilities, teaching them skills including hospitality, finances, and transport.

The Hidden Bakery is set to open in the coming months, once they have secured funding for baking equipment and ingredients, allowing the charity to add a baking course to their curriculum.

“Our goal is to strengthen the cooking training we provide to our learners, grow our social enterprise, and prove that people with disabilities can absolutely thrive as bakers,” said Mr George.

He also highlighted the added value of the bakery course, as café jobs are the roles most often held onto by graduates of their programme.

In five years the charity has provided mentorship to 66 people, many of whom have gone on to secure jobs in the hospitality sector.

Polly Moody, a pastry chef and one of SEND coffee’s mentors, told the Tribune how the charity’s programmes have a “very human element”.

“It’s all about identity and empathy. What you are and who you are,” she said. She described how they ask people what their favourite food is, allowing them to start to understand that different views are held.

“Some say pasta, and they can’t understand why someone else’s favourite is beans on toast,” she said.
But SEND’s message is that the young people they train are just like the rest of us.

“Their disability is rarely the challenge,” Mr George said.

“They are young adults just like anyone else. We teach them how to enter the adult world.”