This post was contributed by a community member. The views expressed here are the author's own.

Community Corner

Stow Couple Donating Bakery to Haiti

The managers of Great Harvest Bread Co. in Stow are donating a bakery to Haiti to feed locals and to train students in baking their own bread.

Rick and Debbie Sands, general managers of on Fishcreek Road in Stow, are expanding to Ouanaminthe, Haiti.

The couple decided to donate an entire bakery and a year's worth of supplies to make nutritious wheat bread to the impoverished city.

For Rick Sands, the decision to donate a bakery was something he has wanted to do since last October. His passion for hunger since he was a child and his faith are two driving forces behind this global mission.

Find out what's happening in Stowwith free, real-time updates from Patch.

“When I was a kid, I took it seriously when my parents said I needed to eat my dinner because there were starving people in the world,” he said. “I’ve always felt called to do something about hunger ... a bakery in a third world country would make a difference.”

The Sands' church, Christ Community Chapel, agreed to take on their project, called Bread 4 Haiti, as a global missions outreach. Because the church already has a relationship with the school based in Ouanaminthe (pronounced want-a-menth), they decided to build the bakery right on the compound where 2,100 students attend school every day.

Find out what's happening in Stowwith free, real-time updates from Patch.

In June, the couple visited Ouanaminthe for the first time and watched as local children came to school eating Popsicles and horse meat for breakfast.

They decided to use the bakery to feed the children and train students in nutrition and how to bake bread through a vocational education program.

Although Ouanaminthe is only a two hours plane ride from Miami, FL it may as well be a million miles away from what most Stow residents know on a daily basis, he said.

"The majority of villagers don’t own shoes and the poorest go without clothes. Locals will walk a trash-strewn road to get their water from the local river," he said.

But the people are beautiful, he said.

They are “so welcoming and so warm," he said. "I don’t think they really know how bad they have it because most of them don’t ever leave their village."

Because there is a 90 percent unemployment rate in Ouanaminthe, Rick said he does not want to hurt the business of the already existing bakeries throughout the village. Instead, they want to help them by providing high-protein white flour and teach them how to bake it properly.

“The existing bakeries currently use Spanish flour that contains only 8 percent protein,” he said. “And the clay ovens they use bake all the nutrition out of the bread. Really, the only protein the villagers are getting is from the bugs that are baked into the bread.”

Building a bakery in another country takes the help of others though, and that's where .

They have raised $47,000 in donations and supplies toward the $150,000 needed to complete the project. Construction will begin when the goal is met. 

Anyone interested in donating to the Bread 4 Haiti project can send them to Christ Community Chapel, 750 W. Streetsboro St., Hudson, OH  44236 c/o Bread 4 Haiti, Attn: Paul Wides.

Donations can also be sent to or dropped off at The Great Harvest Bread Co., 4058 Fishcreek Rd., Stow, OH 44224. Checks should be made to: Christ Community Chapel/Bread 4 Haiti.

For more information, check out Rick Sands' blog.

“I knew when we opened up our doors in February 1999, that we were going to make a difference,” he said. “We’re excited. This is going to change lives.”

Editor's Note: This article is being featured on The Huffington Post as part of its Greatest Person of the Day series.

We’ve removed the ability to reply as we work to make improvements. Learn more here

The views expressed in this post are the author's own. Want to post on Patch?

More from Stow