The Pink Bakery, a vegan bakery in Collierville, Tennessee, recently received some great news when pop superstar Beyoncé granted the business $10,000 from the Black-Owned Small Business Impact Fund, created earlier this year by Beyoncé’s nonprofit BeyGood in partnership with the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP).
The grant was given to Black-owned small business owners who were hit hard by the coronavirus pandemic. The Pink Bakery, known for its famous No Frownie Brownies, had been subjected to the effects of the economic downturn which have been especially severe for Black-owned businesses— many of which entered this crisis undercapitalized.
“I’m still on a high from [the] announcement and I cannot believe that my company is sitting on Beyonce’s website right now with the other recipients from Round 2,” The Pink Bakery founder Nubian Simmons tells VegNews.
According to Simmons, the grant money will be used to purchase ingredients, pay off business debt and improve the company’s product packaging. Her business specializes in custom bakery orders, which were ceased when the coronavirus hit.
The Pink Bakery looks to provide customers with desserts that free of the top eight allergens (milk, eggs, fish, shellfish, tree nuts, peanuts, wheat, and soy). In recent months, the bakery has pivoted to creating and selling at-home baking mixes to be in line with no-contact rules.