Your daily bread hot and fresh, only from Pugad Pandesal of Don Bosco

First Published at Business Mirror (Tuesday, 05 February 2013)

Written by Leony R. Garcia 

 PAN de sal could be the most popular bread in the Philippines since this is the favorite agahan or almusal (breakfast food) of most Filipinos.

Most bakeshops and bakeries in the country sell pan de sal. At the height of the hot pan de sal craze in the 1980s, there was at least one pan de sal business in every street corner.

There was also a time that it was being sold in rolling stores (usually a honking bicycle with a big box at the back) or delivered hot in one’s doorsteps by bike-riding boys early in the morning.

Neighborhood bakeries sell hot pan de sal until 8 in the morning. Supply usually runs out after that time. But some convenience stores sell a variety of pan de sal—adobo, corned beef, egg or cheese pan de sal depending on its filling—all  day long and serve it hot.

Eaten plain or with filling, it is best to have pan de sal  while it is freshly hot from the oven.  Some like having it along with hot coffee or hot chocolate.

No matter how you eat your pan de sal or how you want it served, the good news is, it has helped a lot of young people and their families change their lives for the better.

Chevron pitches in

When the Don Bosco Pugad Center, a home for street children and migrant youth of the Salesians of Don Bosco and the Saint John Bosco Parish, decided to embark on a simple business venture to teach
livelihood skills and create employment opportunities for disadvantaged youth, it chose an entrepreneurial enterprise and a product close to the heart of ordinary Filipinos—the pan de sal.

Pugad is Filipino for “nest.”

That’s because the pan de sal venture requires low start-up capital, is easy to manage and maintain and much easier to market.

The Pugad Pandesal of Don Bosco, a joint-venture project of the Don Bosco Pugad Center and Chevron Philippines Inc., marketer of Caltex products, was born in 2003.

Its bakery training and livelihood program have indeed come a long way since it began with six young bakers and a donated oven. This Caltex Energy for Learning (EFL) program now includes a profitable bakeshop
called Manna from Heaven and showcases the ever-diversifying bread items and other products that Pugad’s youth make.

The bakeshop has a solid clientele, located as it is in the heart of Don Bosco parish offering whole wheat bread, malunggay cookies, carrot pan de sal, pan de coco done the traditional way full of fresh coconut filling, sugar-free peanut butter, homemade bagoong (shrimp paste) and garlic chips.

Business has also diversified into a coffee shop, a water refilling station and a repair shop for air-conditioners and refrigerators all being managed and run by students.

According to Don Bosco Pugad Director Fr. Dave Buenaventura, “Our bakery and bakeshop earned more than 10 times it did when we launched it seven years ago. We have been able to buy more baking equipment,
expand our facilities and even supply meals for our organization through the bakery’s profits. But, more important, we have helped more than 200 migrant youth expand their job opportunities by learning a new trade such as baking, and developing values and skills such as dealing with customers when they sell the bread. Our boys are now having a brighter future.”

Success stories

From January 2009 to June 2010, Pugad has produced 69 graduates and 57 of them are already employed. At present, it has eight migrant youth who are in college, five in high school and two in elementary school.
Albino Caballeda or Albie joined Don Bosco-Davao at age 11. At 16, he transferred to Don Bosco Pugad Center in Manila to take up a technical course and eventually became a fitter machinist. Having a small body
build, Albie was not quite happy with his course. Thus instead of practicing his skills, he chose to train at the Pugad bakeshop, Manna from Heaven,  invariably as service crew, stock custodian, marketing officer and cook. Taking keen interest as cook, he decided to take up a two-year culinary course at the Philippine Women’s University.

After graduation, he did on-the-job training at Mandarin Oriental Hotel and eventually worked at a Malate restaurant. Gaining enough experience and confidence, and now a young man of 23, Albie is set to leave for Manama in Bahrain to work as commissary chef at Alireza Group of Companies.

Leonard Glover first came to Pugad Center in 2009 after the Department of Social Welfare and Development-Mandaluyong City referred him to the center. Having experienced the hardships and dangers of  life at 12 which included his  joining a  gang of robbers to help augment his family’s meager income and having been
imprisoned for two years, Don Bosco  was more than home and refuge for Leonard, now 21.

The “no-read, no-write” boy learned everything at Pugad from value formation, education, skills and self-esteem. After having worked as baker at Pugad for three years, Leonard  is now employed as baker at SMC Franchise in Makati City and is able to help his parents send his siblings to school.

These young men have all praises for and thanks to Don Bosco and Father Bunaventura.
“I used to ask myself why did my parents let me be away from them? Why don’t they just tell me, ‘Go home to us and stay here in Davao?’ I missed my family so much especially during my birthdays and I wouldn’t
be able to go home to see them,” Albie said.

Now, the new chef added, he perfectly understands his parents—that they love him so much and they want the best for him.

Leonard, on the other hand, said that he is thankful to Pugad for having him reformed to become a responsible young man equipped with skills and work experience.

When it rains

Manna  from Heaven bakery averaged P5,000 a week profit in its first year of operation. By January 2009, profit from Pugad Pandesal had been topping P58,000 a week and seed capital was raised to start other businesses.
The water-refilling station was put up to take advantage of Pugad’s location. The center lies between a commercial center and a high-end residential neighborhood.

The  condominium residents around the vicinity offer a captive market for Pugad’s pastries, bread and the water-refilling station. During peak seasons, the water refilling station even outpaces Pugad Pandesal in sales. Pugad poured P350,000 in capital into the water station in November 2009. Now, P28,000 in revenues flows from it.

The repair shop for air-conditioners and refrigerators was opened to cater to the needs of the parish. Instead of hiring the services of outsiders for repairs of air-conditioners, trainees where instead tapped. It is a good hands-on learning experience for the trainees while at no cost to Pugad. The repair shop is just beginning to venture into external markets like the parishioners. It was started in February 2011 with P68,000 in investments.

The Coffee and Saints coffee shop, located at the other end of the church compound, was created to complement the bakery products, with patrons able to enjoy their bread and coffee al fresco. It was a perfect go-to after church services or after Yuletide midnight Mass when hot drinks are called for.  The coffee shop also paved the way for the bakery training to widen its scope to include pastries, pastas and traditional snacks like bibingka and puto bumbong.  The coffee shop was renovated in April 2011 at a cost of P85,000. Since then, it pulls P21,000 in earnings a week.

Sewing it up

Another project in the works is a sewing area for kids as part of their design shop for bags and packaging items. Pugad Center will repurpose the katsa or flour bags and sell these.

The Pugad boys make the rounds of the bakery, coffee shop and repair shop three months at a time. After completing the rotation, they are evaluated for further training or for on-the-job training.

The boys are not only prepared skill-wise, Pugad has also instilled in them values to help them succeed in life. Formerly abused, with low self-esteem and highly suspicious, Pugad’s trainees are prepared to tackle life’s challenges. This positive transformation helps them become productive workers and members of society.

Project sponsor Chevron Philippines said that it is committed to being a good partner focused on building productive, collaborative, trusting and beneficial relationships with the government, other companies, customers and communities.

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Fr. Dave Buenaventura and Albie Caballeda.