Many people, myself included, have fond childhood memories of learning to cook or bake with the female figures in their lives. For Kristen, memories like these with her grandmother were the foundation and fuel of her passion for baking.
Kristen has had many experiences within the culinary industry, and she now curates freshly baked goods and pastries at her Millersville shop. In addition to her Millersville storefront, you can find her bakes as part of the menu at local restaurants and cafes around the area.
Front Porch Baking Co. strives to not only feed the community, but to foster connections and education opportunities. Kristen works to emphasize the importance of eating/buying locally sourced foods, and has a portion of her company’s website dedicated to “Bread Talk”. Bread Talk ranges in topic from how her loaves are sourced, the process behind the bakes, and even a “Bread Care 101” section to help you do her beautiful loaves justice once you get them home.
Kristen’s dedication to serving her community and her ability to weave her values into her business, has skyrocketed Front Porch Baking Co. into success. Since October of 2020, she has been featured in several articles, podcasts and other social media promotions.
I am not the first person to take an interest in Kristen’s success, and I certainly won’t be the last. Her story showcases elements that every small business owner (or supporter!) would admire, and I have the pleasure of sharing it with you now.
Question 1: Starting with the basics, what is your background and the business’s background? How did you end up where you are now?
“Baking / Cooking was always my hobby growing up and I quickly realized I wanted to pursue a career in the food service industry when I took my first job at 15 working in a local bagel shop/cafe (shoutout to Grand Central Bagel) and have been in this industry since. Around 2019 after attending a baking conference in Maine, I knew I wanted to work on opening my own business as a part time venture. By the time I opened in October of 2020, Covid had changed many directions of my business and life so I decided to give it a shot full time. I first opened a stand at the Lancaster Marketplace where I was able to bake and sell from. I was there for just shy of six months and then moved to our bakery storefront in Millersville, which I built out with my husband, Brenton. This April will be our third year in Millersville and we also now have a production space in downtown Lancaster.”
Question 2: Can you talk more about your experience as a woman in business / female entrepreneur?
“I have been fortunate to have had a lot of female leadership influence throughout my career that continues to shape my outlook on what it means to be a woman in business and be a boss/leader in my own right. Working in kitchens is never easy, but I learned a lot of hard lessons that taught me how important it is to maintain softness through it all while recognizing your value.
As a woman with my own business now, I’m constantly thinking about how I can impact my employee’s lives and the lives of our customers. It’s important to me to foster a healthy work environment where we are all allowed to have fun, work hard, and bake nice breads and pastries for people in our community.”
Question 3: What are the most important things you would like the community to know about you or your business?
“Our focus is on making naturally leavened breads and European inspired pastries with as many locally sourced ingredients as possible. Since I began Front Porch I knew that I would be committed to using 100% PA grown and milled grains for all of our baking, as well as using local dairy, eggs, produce, meat, etc. We are so fortunate to live on such beautiful land here that is rich in agriculture, it’s important to me to make sure we can help support local farms and shine a light on the important hard work being done by them. I think it makes a difference for our customers as well – they know they are supporting not just our business, but many other small local businesses through shopping with us.”
Question 4: Can you talk more about your work within the community? Do you have any plans for new projects?
“I enjoy organizing bake sales to help raise funds for local organizations. Many years ago I organized a Makers Market to support Planned Parenthood Keystone and then a few years ago a group of bakers and I organized a number of bake sales for Domestic Violence Services as well as the Crispus Attucks Center through Community Action Partnership. It has turned into a evolving collective of bakers which we refer to as, “Bakers Uprising”. I am hoping to plan one or two bake sales in 2024.”
Question 5: Do you have a favorite female owned business (or multiple) you would like to shout out or that you admire?
“There are so many wonderful women owned businesses in Lancaster!
I absolutely love Lemon Street Market and the business Trish Haverstick has built, along with Inna Kondramashin from Inna’s Pierogi, Elisabeth Weaver with Lancaster Farmacy, I don’t know her personally but Melissa Watro who has On Orange is someone I have admired from a distance for many years! Erin Schram who owns Amaranth Bakery! Mary Bigham of Dish Works/PA Eats. It goes on and on!”
Please check out Front Porch Baking Co. on Instagram to see what Kristen is baking this week!
https://www.instagram.com/frontporchbakingco?igsh=NTc4MTIwNjQ2YQ==
Femme Foodie - Lancaster, PA 
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