Category: Ave News

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Flying Bird Botanicals is a Bellingham based tea, match, and honey manufacturer that delivers quality and ethically sourced products. Come try them at any of our cafés.

All of our hot tea at Avenue Bread cafes comes from Flying Bird Botanicals. Flying Bird produces organic tea right here is town. Their teas are ethically crafted from farmers across the US and from Fair Trade certified farms overseas. Flying Bird prioritizes developing a meaningful relationship with suppliers for wholesome and personal operations. They are a great company which we are proud to do business with.

Our relationship with Flying Bird has blossomed and strengthened year after year because they share our commitment to quality, ethically sourced ingredients. Just like us, Flying Bird looks to the local community first for ingredients and values transparency and responsibility throughout their supply chain. By working with companies like Flying Bird we know we can proudly back every product we sell.

Check their website here

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This is Torre. Torre is our cafés delivery driver. This extremely important daily role keeps our cafes stocked and ready to serve from our bakery and the kitchen at James St. Torre brings a great positive and easy going attitude to the job. Some might struggle with that as early in the a.m. he has to be at work.

Originally from Seattle Torre has lived in this region for 35 years. A little over a year ago he and his wife built a new home here in town. They have two high school-aged boys.

Outside of work Torre enjoys the “outside”…as rare it that is in this area (wink). And his favorite food at Avenue Bread is not the easiest to get and doesn’t have bread. It’s the breakfast burrito served occasionally at our Railroad Ave location.

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We at Avenue Bread have been thinking about what growth will look like in 2020. With a focus on environmental and social responsibility, here are Avenue’s four 2020 New Year’s resolutions!

1. Creating a meaningful relationship with suppliers

This means knowing where our food is coming from and how it is being brought to your plate! 

1. Reducing our carbon footprint 

The climate crisis is one of the most pressing environmental issues of our time. Avenue Bread is going to spend 2020 assessing how we can reduce carbon emissions from our close to home operations, as well as land use changes in our supply chain.

1. Cutting back single use plastic packaging. 

Using less plastic has been a focus of Avenue Bread’s environmental efforts for over a decade. In the next year we are going to focus on reducing plastic waste in the packaging of our products, as well as plastic bottles in cafes. 

1.  Recycled paper products. 

Paper is a big part of doing business, but producing paper takes a significant toll on the environment. Deforestation contributes to climate change and habitat loss. In 2020 we want to use 100% recycled paper products in Avenue Bread cafes!

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Whether it be from cows or nuts, we take our milk seriously.

Other than traditional dairy, we carry hemp, oat, soy, almond, and coconut milk. Whether for environmental, dietary, or ethical choices, we want to support people’s decisions to go with unconventional alternatives. We proudly support local dairy and low carbon, animal free plant based milks.

As part of our effort to continuously provide ethically sourced goods, we also offer a variety of ethically sourced traditional dairy products alongside alternative plant-based dairy products. We get a lot of our milk from different local dairy farms like Edaleen Dairy and Twin Brooks Creamery, both of which we source through Bellingham’s local dairy distribution company, Dairy Distributing Inc,. By sourcing our dairy products locally we know how the cows are being raised, and we minimize the carbon footprint associated with transportation. Sourcing our milk locally also puts more money back into the community that we love.

Every few months we have a new espresso special on which we remove the additional charge for alternative milk. As long as alternative milks remain on the fringes of consumption they will come at an extra cost, but by providing the option to you we hope we can help you discover a new delicious dairy alternative for your daily coffee routine.

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We are so fortunate to be surrounded by such incredible beer, ale, cider and, now, kombucha breweries. Kombucha Town is certainly the best that this writer has tried. All 4 of our Avenue Bread cafés have Kombucha town chilled and ready for sippin’. 

From Their Site: Kombucha Town is your source for all-natural, craft kombucha. We maximize health benefits and retain the freshest flavor of kombucha possible by brewing with USDA Organic and Non-GMO certified ingredients to ensure the highest-quality kombucha. We package our kombucha in reusable growlers and recycle-friendly aluminum cans.  Our operations strive to produce maximum community involvement and minimal environmental impact.

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At Avenue Bread we strive to do good through businesses; good for our community, good for our employees, and good for our planet. What that means for us is minimizing our environmental impact, inspiring community pride, and providing Whatcom County’s best sandwiches. Explore below for more details on our values and how we uphold them. 

Reducing – Reusing – Recycling

It is important for us to limit our use of single use plastic. In our cafes: 

• 100% of to go items are compostable
• We repurpose as much as possible. 
• We recycle and compost whatever we can’t reuse 
• No longer wrapping day old pastries in plastic wrap 

Starting this fall, we are serving new house-made jam by Sara, made with local berries from Boxx Berry Farms. All jams are served in compostable containers! As of now this is only at our James St. location, but we are working on expanding this to all cafes. Read More Here

By making this transition, Avenue Bread as cut down on plastic waste by 120 pounds per year.

At Avenue Bread, we believe that quality food means it’s delicious, healthy, and made with ethically sourced ingredients. This is in an effort to support our local economy, and have a lesser impact on the environment.

Products we source locally from Whatcom, Skagit, and San Juan counties: 

• Berries for our pastries – Barbies Berries 
• Berries for our house-made jam – Boxx Berry Farms 
• Sprouts from – Happy Valley Sprouts
• Chai tea from Harmony Chai 
• Tea from Flying Bird botanicals 
• Whole grain flour for our Craft line from Cairnspring
• Produce from Ralph’s Greenhouse

We participate in Sustainable Connections Eat Local First Campaign! 

RALPH’S GREENHOUSE (photo from Ralph’s Sept ’19)

Finding all organic, high quality, and large quantity produce at a moments notice can be difficult. Luckily we have bountiful resources throughout Western Washington including Ralph’s Greenhouse in Mount Vernon where we sourced carrots, beets, cabbage, and leeks for two new specials.

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Starting fall 2019, we are serving new house-made jam by Sara Warberg-Dolan, made with local berries from Barbie’s Berries. All of our jams are served in compostable containers.  As of now, this is only at our James St location. We are working towards expanding this to all of our Bellingham Cafés! By making this transition, Avenue Bread has cut down on plastic waste by 120 pounds per year. It may not seem like much, but this is one of many steps in our effort to reduce plastic.