Livable Success Story: Lemmon “Pop Up” Bakery

When the Buffalo Bakery in Lemmon asked seniors in its community, “What would you like to see in our town?” it opened the door to an innovative new business and community partnership that is changing lives in Lemmon.

Many of the seniors surveyed said they would love a place with a good cup of coffee and home-baked goodies that they could visit. The Lemmon Farmers’ Market had several vendors who provided the baked goods aspect of that request, but the market season ends in September. Looking for a way to extend the season for those local vendors and fulfill the unmet need identified by local seniors, the Lemmon Pop-Up Bakery came to fruition.

The Pop-Up Bakery was located at the Lemmon Library, which was a natural choice for the project, because it serves as the community’s only truly public space to gather and serves a broad spectrum of patrons. Each weekday in the month of October, a different vendor was featured at a temporary “shop” space with tables, chairs and display equipment. The bakery gave community members a place to gather, have a cup of coffee and a homemade goodie, and visit with friends and neighbors. The pop-up shop also provided a great business opportunity for Farmers’ Market vendors to sell their wares after the regular season was over.

But in an unexpected turn of events, the project also spawned a few other community benefits, as well. Participating vendors supported each other and gave business growth and development tips to each other. Organizers also noticed that the participating vendors had some business learning needs, so a separate program, The Women’s Network, was formed by the chamber and economic development group from the nearby town of Hettinger, ND and Lemmon, SD. A gathering of women alternates between the two towns every month and focuses on networking and business/life skills.

Organizers of the project say the Pop-Up Bakery was so successful, because it was an innovative way to address both a business need and a social need in the community – the project gave people what they needed in a novel way. The success of the concept has also led to a lot of new thinking about what’s possible in Lemmon. While the main goal of the project was to ease the burden of loneliness often experienced by seniors in the community, it also was successful in bringing together people of all ages and abilities and helping grow local businesses and spur economic development.

For more information on how Lemmon made all this happen, contact Judy Larson at larson@sdplains.com.