Do Good Donuts bakes up sweet success thanks to East End Food Hub and other supporters

By WINNIE CZULINSKI 

What’s cookin’ at the East End Food Hub on Gerrard Street East? Some irresistible baking! 

And with flavours like Toasted Coconut and Watermelon Blueberry, these colourful doughnuts – fresh, yeasty, cakey, eye-candy comfort food – dazzle the eye and delight the tastebuds at Leslieville Farmers’ Market on Sundays in Greenwood Park.

Melanie Côté’s Do Good Donuts is a sweet success on several counts.

Her initiative reflects the production and marketing help Côté has had through the LFM Basecamp program for food-preneurs, at the Hub, in the East End United Regional Ministry Church building (1470 Gerrard St. E.).

Côté’s mission is to not only go to market with delicious baked treats (cookies too), but to help provide opportunity and employment for disabled young adults.            

“Our program is twofold. We are both a working food business and an inclusive paid on-the-job training program, which means we are learning how to do both simultaneously, as we’re doing it,” said Côté. “I like to think of it as glazing the doughnut while we’re frying it.” 

During Côté s first pilot in 2021, the initiative hired and trained “three fantastic young adults who exceeded all expectations. We sold more than 5,000 doughnuts and nearly 3,000 cookies.”

In early days, Do Good Donuts also gained a supportive fan in former federal NDP leader Jagmeet Singh. “Hey friends! I wanted to share ‘one of my favourite spots in Toronto’…and their donuts are absolutely delicious! Give them a follow – they’re doing amazing things,” wrote Singh on his social media.

For Côté, a copywriter/creative director/strategist, it all started with her daughter Alma’s diagnosis of Williams Syndrome – a rare genetic disorder characterized by physical, developmental and intellectual delay, alongside unique verbal capabilities and an affinity for music.

It made Côté – who became actively involved with families of the condition – suddenly very aware of young adults around her with developmental challenges, and what the future for them might be. And she suspected that the 70 per cent of the people brought through her program who had never had a paying job until now “had more to do with how other people see them and less about their ability to get the job done.”

Do Good Donuts is “baking up futures,” as its slogan says.

Cote’s employees with disabilities work side by side with other employees, measuring and mixing, scooping cookies, rolling, cutting and glazing doughuts.

At the Leslieville Farmers’ Market tents, the trainees greet customers, take orders using a digital POS system, package the baked goods, and make change. Learning on the job, trainees leave the paid work-based training program prepared for the job, with support for the transition.

“You know it’s about employment but it’s also about belonging and inclusion, a meaningful place and community and work friends, and having your own money and living up to responsibilities,” said Côté.

Nanor Boghossian, the East End Food Hub’s Director of Programs and Partnerships, also supporting operations at the Leslieville Farmers’ Market, supports the mission of Do Good Donuts.

“Do Good Donuts has been part of our market community for years, and we’ve always admired (Melanie’s) mission – bringing together great food and meaningful social impact.”

Boghossian said the Hub’s LFM Basecamp program came from years of seeing talented food vendors at the market struggle to find affordable, flexible kitchen space to scale up. “We wanted to build a ‘launchpad’ for these entrepreneurs, a place where production, storage, retail, and community all intersect.”

The goal was to give small food businesses the space, resources, and support they need to launch and grow, from kitchen to customer, “in a way that’s sustainable, community-driven, and financially accessible.”

For membership fees, there’s a certified fully-equipped commercial kitchen for small-batch production, recipe development, and catering prep; a microgreens/small scale growing area; cold and dry secure storage; professional office and programming/event space for workshops/tastings; mentorship; retail opportunities, and connections to a vibrant market community.

Côté began at Toronto Enterprise Fund with a business team and supportive board of directors, to establish a business structure. in 2021, Do Good Donuts was accepted into its first farmers’ market, Leslieville, then had a successful pitch to join the Ryerson Social Ventures Zone.

From LFM Basecamp, multiple vendors have been able to move from idea to thriving market presence, and in some cases, beyond. Basecamp offers pathways for both current LFM Vendors, and an Emerging Entrepreneurs Program.

​​The Magpie Cakery Incubator, at 1125 Gerrard St. E., (with the slogan “Helping bakers rise to the occasion”) also offers an impressive range of diverse commercial kitchen rentals and resources, pop-up opportunities, and extensive business support, in various packages, for bakers and food entrepreneurs.

Founder Maggie Frith, a mom of three and passionate business owner, is a former lawyer who left the profession for more time with her family and her love of baking. Frith was semifinalist from Season 4 of the Great Canadian Baking Show on CBC.  

Not ready for the Cakery’s full Incubator program? Those keen to test new recipes, fulfill a large order, prepare for a special event, or try out a pro space before committing, can do a one-off or short-term rental of the DineSafe-certified kitchen.

Many local venues, such as Beach and Kingston Road United churches, have a focal kitchen, for catering and events. The Riverdale Hub, at 1326 Gerrard S. E., has featured programming to help new immigrants and other residents get into the culinary industry. Its venue cafe features food enhanced by herbs grown on its rooftop garden, and sells the herbs too.

Boghossian said that besides its LFM Basecamp program, the East End Food Hub offers several programs bringing people together through food, art and culture.

“The same values that drive the market – community connection, accessibility, and creativity – are woven into everything we do at the Hub.”

As are the aromas of those Do Good donuts and cookies, baking in the Hub’s kitchen, and heading for Sunday’s Leslieville Farmers’ market in Greenwood Park.

This Sunday’s (Aug. 31) Leslieville Farmers’ Market takes place from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. Greenwood Park is located at 150 Greenwood Ave.

For more information on Do Good Donuts, please go to https://www.dogooddonuts.org/ 

For more information on the East End Food Hub, please go to https://www.eastendfoodhub.org/  

For more information on The Magpie Cakery, please go to https://www.themagpiecakery.com/