Trapped Houston Bakers Cook Up Plan to Help Fellow Houstonians

Thousands of people were trapped in their homes after Tropical Storm Harvey dropped record amounts of rain on Houston in recent days. But a few were trapped inside the El Bolillo bakery when the flood waters came and they decided to make lemonade out of lemons.

Or, in this case, to make tray upon tray of pan dulce to share with hungry Houstonians.

“In a gesture that was both literally and figuratively ‘sweet,’ they baked sheets and sheets of pan dulce to be handed out to people in need,” the Houston Chronicle website reported.

“For most of the time, they decided not to waste time and made as much pan dulce as they could,” Brian Alvarado, the store’s manager, told chron.com. “How they helped us today is the only reason we were able to open today.”

The bakers used more than 4,200 pounds of flour over the course of their time at the bakery, which ended on Monday when rescuers were able to get into the flooded area, according to chron.com.

The bakery was not damaged but flooding made leaving the bakery dangerous.

“The El Bolillo bakeries had been working ’round the clock since Friday to bake bread for those affected by the floods and shared videos and photos of their efforts,” chron.com reported.

“Facebook followers and panaderia loyalists posted and shared the photos and videos, making their posts go viral,” chron.com reported.

“Even when they ran out of bread Sunday morning and had to close the store, the bakery announced that their bakers were working all night to ensure a fresh batch of bread was ready for people in need.”