The Bakery Goes To Belize

Earlier this month, we were nominated and selected for the YLAI 10 year anniversary conference in Belize. YLAI (Young Leaders of the Americas Initiative) is the program we have been involved with for the last few years via Global Ties Kalamazoo.

In the past three years we have hosted Melissa Guerra from Belize, Dixie-Ann Daniel from Tobago, and have even sent one of our bakers, Rachel Meszaros, on an outbound exchange to Tobago.

Judy has long since attempted to set up an exchange program between our bakery and others across the world. Cultural exchange isn’t just a personal preference, there are tangible benefits as well. By working with people with different backgrounds and experiences, you’re exposed to new ways of doing things, creative solutions to problems, and just all around rewiring of your brain to think differently and break up the monotony of limitations and walls you may have built up over the years.

That has been precisely what we’ve experienced by participating in YLAI, both directly and indirectly. Sure, we’ve done some classic networking and have contacts we can potentially work with in Belize, Guyana, Jamaica, and Trinidad & Tobago. But we’ve also unlocked some new pathways in our thinking and how we can function and move forward as a bakery and business.

The people we’ve been able to meet and work with have been fantastic. It’s been somewhat gratifying talking to other businesses that go through the same struggles we do. Makes us feel less isolated and is a reminder that we’re all in this together, regardless of what country we’re from.

Again, a cultural work exchange like this has been something Judy has attempted for years, there were just too many roadblocks. There are many organizations that have made this dream a reality; the State Department, IREX, Global Good Amani, but most importantly, a group right here in Kalamazoo.

Global Ties Kalamazoo is an organization dedicated to creating, cultivating, and improving relations between Kalamazoo and the rest of the world. They constantly work to host leaders from all across the world right here in town to give them perspectives and share experiences with our community. Jodi Michaels, Global Ties Executive Director, reached out to us years ago and is the main reason we have been able to participate and benefit from all these cultural exchange experiences. Thank you Jodi, thank you Global Ties, and thank you to Kalamazoo for being a community that makes all of this possible.

Learn more about Global Ties Kalamazoo and how you can get involved here!