Our church, the Iglesia del Espiritu Santo, is located in the municipality of Santa Rita (Copán), Honduras. We serve the community in Santa Rita and 36 small mission churches in the surrounding mountains. With the help of the Episcopal Diocese of Honduras and several Episcopal churches in the United States of America (including Church of the Holy Comforter in Vienna, VA; Holy Trinity Episcopal Church in Staunton, VA; and Holy Trinity Episcopal Church in Baton Rouge, LA), we have nearly completed construction of our church.
One of the primary visions of the Episcopal Diocese of Honduras is to encourage its churches to become self-sustainable through a variety of activities, including the creation of profitable micro-enterprises that can channel funds into efforts to maintain and expand church facilities and develop social service programs to support the needs of parishioners and others.
Consistent with the sustainability vision, our church proposes the development of a bread bakery in Santa Rita. The bakery would produce a variety of breads for sandwiches and sweet breads, pastries and cookies. Our goods would complement the region’s love of coffee drinking. The Copán region is produces Honduras’ best coffee and particularly some of the finest organic coffee in the world.
The bread bakery would be constructed behind the Iglesia del Espiritu Santo in Santa Rita on church property. It would primarily serve the town of Santa Rita, which has an estimated population of 2,750 people. Santa Rita is only five miles from the municipality of Copán Ruinas, which has a population estimated at 6,500. While Santa Rita is a hub of local commercial activity, Copán Ruinas is tourist town that caters to foreign travelers who come to visit the nearby Mayan ruins, the Macaw Bird Park & Nature Reserve, and stay at scenic hotels such as the Hacienda San Lucas mountain lodge.
There are no bakeries in either Santa Rita or Copán Ruinas. The closest bakery is located in the town of La Entrada, which is an hour’s drive from Santa Rita. There is another bakery in the town of Santa Rosa, which is about one and half hours from Santa Rita.
There have been at least three separate attempts to establish a bakery in Copán Ruinas. They have not succeeded due either to poor management or the fact that the local population mostly eats tortillas. The tourist market is cyclical, and so it by itself is unable to sustain sufficient demand for baked goods. The fact that property costs are extremely expensive in Copán Ruinas adds to the risk of starting any business in that town.
The situation in Santa Rita is different. Santa Rita is not a tourist town, although it benefits from its proximity to Copán Ruinas. It is a commercial town that serves the needs of the local Honduran population and many villages in the mountains. This segment of the market is more constant and predictable.
Given the demand for baked goods produced in La Entrada and Santa Rosa, we believe that a bakery in Santa Rita could compete successfully for this business, certainly in terms of price, and even expand the market. Our geographic proximity to the consumers would give us a strategic advantage, as would our personal relationships of members of our community to government representatives, businesses leaders and families in our area.
An example of the kind of market opportunities that exist for our bakery is the annual Conference on Honduras that attracts more than 250 people to Copán Ruinas in October. This is a four-day event, and we have now secured a promise from the conference organizer, projecthonduras.com, to purchase all their baked goods from our bakery.
We intend to work through the projecthonduras.com network to help us develop business contacts and market opportunities in Copán Ruinas, including numerous hotels, restaurants and shops in town.
Sumary of Objectives
1. Establish a bread bakery micro-enterprise in Santa Rita in order to help make the Iglesia del Espiritu Santo self-sustainable.
2. Develop a consumer market for the bakery based on the local Honduran population and the growing tourist market of Copán Ruinas.
3. Create economic benefits for the parishioners involved in the bakery and help establish social service programs for the parish and other parishes served by our church.
4. Target niche markets not served by the bakeries in La Entrada and Santa Rosa.
Action Items
1. Gain approval from the Episcopal Diocese of Honduras to proceed with the project and develop a general plan to coordinate activities.
2. Develop a budget for construction of the building and purchase of the oven(s) and initial materials/supplies.
3. Obtain the necessary funding for the project.
4. Proceed with construction of a building and purchase of equipment.
Proposal Prepared by Francisco Villela and Olman Santos of Iglesia del Espiritu Santo, Santa Rosa, Honduras in partnership with Marco Cáceres, Church of the Holy Comforter, Vienna, VA
1 comment:
where is this bakery
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