Partner café · Antioch, California
Bakes & Brews
An Indian-American café and bakery. Its Community Shelf has numbered racks by the counter, where neighbours leave homegrown produce and others hold it or take it free.
Partners
Shelves in the community
Host spaces that run a Community Shelf for their neighbours.
Read the film’s words
- Every backyard has a story. Some trees give more than one family could ever use.
- In backyards all over town: lemons, curry leaves, mint that won’t stop growing. Too much for one family. Too often, the extra goes to waste.
- A few streets away, Meena’s family is cutting back. Rent comes first. Fresh food is the first thing to go.
- What if the two could meet?
- At Bakes & Brews in Antioch: the Community Shelf. Neighbours leave what they grow on racks in the café. Neighbours take it home.
- Monday. Meena checks the shelf. Free lemons. Curry leaves for a dollar. One tap holds them until closing, with a pickup code.
- Tuesday to Thursday. Lemon rice for dinner, and a kitchen that smells like home. At the racks, Meena meets Dolores, whose tree won’t stop giving. A neighbour, not a stranger.
- Saturday. The family gives back. Dev’s balcony mint goes on the shelf, free. From only taking, to giving too.
- Coming next: mint for tomatoes. Goods for goods. No money at all.
- Free to join. Every post reviewed. Free items: just take one. It won’t fix every problem. But fresh food, a taste of home and a friendly neighbour are now a dollar away, or free.
- Grown next door. Shared on our shelf. shelf.bakesandbrews.shop.
Your space here
Run a shelf where you are
Cafés, libraries, places of worship and community centres can all host a shelf.