Nashville's Sweet Creations Pie Shop has announced that it will be relocating to Jefferson Street, and planned to employ people with criminal history.
Apple, pecan, peach, whichever type of pie you pick up at Sweet Creations, you're going to be pleased, because as bakery founder Barbara Toms said, her pies are like "nothing that you've ever tasted before."
Toms said Sweet Creations started as a hobby and grew into something she could never have envisioned. "I was just baking pies for friends, neighbors, dinners, things like that."
After one of Toms' pies got into the hand of a senior vice president of Mapco, that all changed. The senior vice president loved the pie, and with the support of Mapco, Toms opened her business and started delivering pies all over Middle Tennessee.
Five years later, Sweet Creations has decided to move to a bigger and better location on historic Jefferson Street. "This will be the first bakery that's coming back on Jefferson Street since the sixties," Toms explained. "That's exciting!"
As it stands, Sweet Creations' office, kitchen, and shop are all in different buildings, but with the move, all operations will be under the same roof, and with the bigger space and hopefully increased business, Toms expects to add an additional 42 jobs over the next three years, with the majority of those jobs going to people with criminal backgrounds that are unemployed and have child support judgments against them.
"We're able to put them to work," Toms explained. "It's a win-win situation for the business, for the person who is working for the household that is going to benefit now with the child support payment."
Toms said the new location will be a big improvement, and she plans to continue focusing on creating delicious pies and giving back. "We want to be very intentional about making sure that the impact of this money goes into the community to impact a whole lot of households."
The grand opening for the new location on Jefferson Street is set for June 25th.
