Mavia Bakery

Mavia Bakery Beirut

This beautiful illustration was painted for us by Brady Black, an artist working in Beirut and he has kindly let us share it to raise essential funds to rebuild our bakery and community after last weeks devastating explosion. 

As you have heard by now, we experienced a catastrophic explosion in Beirut on Tuesday, 4 August 2020. The explosion originated from a warehouse in Beirut's port where 2,750 tons of ammonium nitrate was being neglectfully stored, and resulted in a blast estimated to have been between 0.5 - 2 kilotons. The city has been plunged into despair and ruin, especially the neighborhood where our new bakery (Mavia Bakery) is located, Gemmayze. Moreover, this blast came at a time when the Lebanese economy had already reached the verge of complete collapse, with the Lebanese lira losing between 60-80% of its value since October 2019. Unemployment in Lebanon was over 30%, nearly 50% of the country was already under the poverty line, and roughly 22% of Lebanon lived in a form of extreme poverty known as food poverty. And let's not forget COVID. 

We didn't think we could possibly take any more.

The bakery itself is located just over half a kilometer from the blast site. The neighborhood, once a peaceful, hip area to go out and have coffee, eat at a restaurant or grab drinks, is now full of bombed-out apartments and businesses, debris, and glass. Our bakery too was hit by the explosion. Our steel and glass facade was cratered by the impact of the blast, showering the entire bakery with glass. We have also had structural damage to the building, as well as to the surrounding buildings, and we have some pretty serious cracks in our wood oven.  Each day we are awaiting information on whether the building next door might collapse, and waiting to have people come into our own space to assess whether it is completely safe to use.

In the meantime, we have made it our mission to move forward in getting the bakery repaired then turn the bakery into a soup kitchen to support our neighbors and community in Gemmayze, Mar Mikhael, Geitawi and Karatina - the neighborhoods most seriously damaged by the blast.

With the money raised from the sale of these bags, we plan to repair our little bakery, replace our damaged equipment, items, and furniture, and then use the remaining money to fund the soup kitchen. This money will be used to purchase ingredients, pay staff, and pay for any other things we need to get food into the bellies of the most vulnerable people from the surrounding neighborhoods. If we get to a time when we assess a soup kitchen is no longer effective in helping people, we will post updates to inform you and then pass along the remaining funds to one of the many small, local initiatives that are providing medical, housing, or mental health support to affected persons. 

We ask you to follow along on Instagram for more regular updates, including stories, live videos, photos and posts (@maviabakery). 

To see more painted reportage of life in Beirut, find him on Instagram @bradytheblack.

We dearly appreciate your thoughts, well-wishes, and monetary support. Your love is lifting our spirits and keeping us positive and motivated to help our community during this devastating time.