Home Free Bagels helps the homeless bring in dough.

by Joanne O’Sullivan . photo by Matt Rose

It’s hard to find a good locally-made bagel in this town. It’s even harder to find a job when you’re homeless. These two seemingly unrelated facts coalesced into an “a-ha” moment for Chris Sullivan last December when she started Home Free Bagels, a social enterprise aimed at ending homelessness by giving people jobs making bagels.

Sullivan says that while she grew up privileged, experiencing homelessness herself for a brief time in Portland, Maine, fueled her lifelong interest in helping those who experience it long-term. While volunteering at A Hope (a day shelter run by Homeward Bound of Asheville), Sullivan, 30, organized a clothing drive at Greenlife that resulted in a donation of 17 bags of winter clothing for the shelter.

She started looking for ways to combine her organizing skills with her business background. She noticed that there didn’t seem to be a source for locally made bagels. With Asheville’s strong support for locally made products and so many homeless people in need of employment, it seemed like an opportunity for social entrepreneurship.

With connections she made through the Asheville Homeless Network, Sullivan and two homeless volunteers starting making bagels in her mother’s kitchen. Now operating out of Blue Ridge Ventures at A-B Tech’s Enka campus, Home Free has a kitchen manager with a culinary background so that Sullivan can focus on other aspects of the business, such as trying to turn a profit.

As word has spread about Home Free, it has grown to include community volunteers who do everything from cooking to helping with distribution and social media. “I’m getting two to three calls a day from people who know people we can help,” says Sullivan. “And we’re not even in full production yet.”

For more information, call Sullivan at 828-545-1258 or go to www.facebook.com/HomeFreeBagels.