This story was originally published on pacificcommunityventures.org.
Peaches Patties is owned and operated by Shani Jones and Yeheyis Bedada. The duo bake and cater traditional Jamaican dishes and patties. The name for Peaches Patties comes from Shani’s mother, who is lovingly referred to as “Peaches” by friends and family. According to Shani, if you visited the Jones family household anytime in the late ’80s or ’90s, you might have found a Jamaican beef patty shoved in between the sofa cushions. Or under someone’s pillow. Or tucked into a bookshelf.
Peaches Patties is currently operating out of a commercial kitchen space provided by La Cocina. La Cocina is an organization that supports food businesses owned by women and people of color from underinvested communities. Prior to joining La Cocina, Shani was operating her business out of her mother’s kitchen. Since their establishment in 2012, Peaches Patties LLC has grown significantly year over year and aspires to open 8 locations throughout California as well as produce a frozen line of its products for sale in grocery stores out of state.
Shani plans to take advantage of her unique market positioning in the Bay Area, and particularly in San Francisco where Jamaican Cuisine is virtually unavailable. They have established relationships with various catering and food services such as Cater2.me, ZeroCater, Chewse, Caviar, The Market, and Woodland Market. Their growth and unique cultural offering have gained them attention in popular food publications like Sunset Magazine and Bon Appetit.
From a community and good jobs standpoint, Peaches Patties strives to be a good employer. They currently offer transportation benefits to their employees and are looking to add on health care benefits in Spring of 2020 as they continue to grow their operation. Even though Shani is running a great business with a growing customer base, they couldn’t get the funding they needed to grow from traditional lenders. The team at Pacific Community Ventures is working with Peaches Patties as they expand their business into a new production facility, with everything from a dough mixer, convection ovens, and capital to hire and train new employees.
“We’ve hired people that may not have received a chance based on their background, but they have leadership skills and a strong work ethic,” Shani says. “At Peaches Patties we believe in our employees and training them thoroughly about the catering industry and Jamaican food. Anyone that we hire we make sure that they are paid a good wage. This is important because it is expensive to live in the Bay Area and everyone should at least have a living wage. Our business has catered to the San Francisco County Jail as well, because we believe in the people — most people in jail are forgotten and they deserve a good meal too.”