A Chapel Hill Former PTA member opened Starfish Bakery in January with the hopes of giving high school graduates a place to work, while offering employees guidance and a living wage.
Tammy LeMoine, the proprietor of Starfish Bakery, is currently running the bakery out of her kitchen but plans to open a brick-and-mortar retail operation in the near future.
LeMoine bakes on Tuesday nights and delivers the baked goods on Wednesday afternoons. Starfish Bakery currently delivers to the Chapel Hill-Carrboro area, as well as parts of Orange County.
“I am making deliveries the day after we bake in the kitchen right now,” she said.
LeMoine had children who graduated Chapel Hill High and was always surrounded by her kids’ friends.
“As my kids started to graduate, I started seeing some of their friends who didn’t have a plan after school,” LeMoine said. “I thought it would be fun to have some young people in the kitchen and be able to support them.”
The name Starfish Bakery comes from a parable where a woman is throwing stranded starfish back in the water. A man comes by and tells her there’s no way she can save all of them, but the woman says all she wants to do is make a difference in one starfish’s life.
LeMoine said that this is the philosophy behind her bakery: she wants to make a difference in each of her employee’s lives.
LeMoine has not yet hired any young people yet but plans to as her bakery expands.
“Our goal is to hire a young person within the first three months,” LeMoine said, “so we are looking into different avenues to find that person right now.”
LeMoine said she was also inspired to open the bakery by her involvement in the PTSA.
“I used to bake for the teacher appreciation lunches. I used to bring my whoopie pies, and the teachers would go nuts for them,” she said.
In addition to whoopie pies, Starfish Bakery sells cream puffs, cupcakes, pumpkin muffins, coconut macaroons, chocolate snaps, banana bread and sourdough bread.
“We are expanding: the bakery has only been open for two months, so I hope to continue to add more items to our menu,” she said.
Starfish Bakery included whoopie pies to welcome faculty and staff back to school on March 17, much to the delight of returning teachers.
“The whoopie pie provided by Tammy LeMoine’s bakery was delicious and a perfect cap to a tasty lunch,” English teacher Kimberly Jones Norris said.
