Step and Stone
Bristol-based Step and Stone is a social enterprise bakery where award-winning lavosh flatbreads and other baked treats are handmade by young people with learning disabilities.
Only around 6% of people with a learning disability in the UK are in paid employment. Step and Stone is helping close this employment gap, offering a space where young people can develop their career confidence and learn new skills.
As well as getting involved in making and packaging the lavosh, Step and Stone trainees get support with things like writing CVs, interview skills and sourcing job opportunities.
Since young people with learning disabilities can often be socially isolated, the community element of Step and Stone is just as important as the work experience. The team encourages friendships and organises social activities outside the bakery too.
Lavosh is a thin and crispy Middle Eastern flatbread, which makes a perfect match for cheese, pickles, dips or soups. Step and Stone makes theirs using organic ingredients, sourced locally wherever possible.
Take a pack on your picnics, serve them as pre-dinner nibbles at your dinner parties or snack away on them whenever you’re hungry.
As mothers of children with Down Syndrome themselves, Jane Kippax and Jane Chong were aware of how few opportunities are out there for people with disabilities once they finish education. A determination to change this and a shared love of food inspired the two friends to set up Step and Stone.
At the bakery, they break down barriers for young people with learning disabilities. But they also hope to challenge other people’s perceptions, getting the wider world to see the ability of their trainees – not just their disability.
Founded By
Jane Kippax and Jane Chong