KANSAS CITY, MO — Hispanic Heritage Month, honored in the United States annually from September 15 – October 15, celebrates the melting pot of Spanish-speaking cultures. In turn, consumers can celebrate these unique cultures and indulge in baked goods from all kinds of cuisines by supporting Hispanic-owned bakeries.
From sweet goods like conchas to seasonal products such as pan de muerto and beyond, Hispanic bakeries cast a wide net on the products they produce for consumers. As a result, this requires a broad scope of ingredients to support day-to-day operations. operations. Dawn Foods, a global ingredient supplier, offers several resources for Hispanic bakery owners to support the creation and quality of these baked goods.
One Dawn Foods customer, Mi Pueblo Market in the Denver area, caters to a wide range of Hispanic consumers in its panaderias, or bakeries. With Mexican bread as its most popular product and other offerings covering several bakery categories, working with Dawn Foods allows the brand to better serve its consumers.
Kattyna De La Rosa, operations supervisor of Mi Pueblo, shared that the team can rely on its Dawn Foods representative to help them acquire almost any ingredient they might need.
“We manage everything we can use because Dawn offers almost everything, and it’s a matter of just asking the rep and he will find it for us or bring it to test,” Kattyna said.
Beyond the ingredients that can be used, Dawn Foods also offers product brochures and recipes on its website in English and Spanish, granting further accessibility to bakery workers to understand the products they are working with. Mi Pueblo has bakers from countries such as Columbia and El Salvador, so having these bilingual guides helps keep the business moving.
With so many types of cakes, sweet goods, and breads to create, Dawn Foods’ consistent, quality ingredients make the relationship between baker and supplier strong. Even in the case of a shortage, the supplier’s support team continues to keep panaderias in motion.
“We have a good relationship with [Dawn], and I know that if we have a problem, we have a rebate when we buy a certain amount, and our corporate office loves that,” Kattyna said, also calling out the relationships built with Dawn’s delivery drivers and bakers who have previously visited the in-store bakeries to teach employees how to work with new innovations.
The start of Q4 and the approach of a new year brings about major planning for Hispanic bakers, as consumers anticipate purchasing traditional holiday products such as rosca de reyes for Three Kings Day. In working with the Dawn Foods team before occasions like these, bakery operations such as Mi Pueblo’s panaderia can provide the products consumers expect through access to key ingredients such as the signature acitrones, candied citron, and muñequitos, the plastic babies hidden throughout the sweet good as part of the tradition.
“They always offer all of this, and that’s not something that you find everywhere,” Kattyna said. “Acitron is not easy to find, it’s something that’s unique, so we love that about Dawn.”
For more information on Hispanic baked goods that can be made with Dawn Foods ingredients and recipes, visit the Dawn Foods’ website.
