A Leeds bakery is posting free Kindness Biscuits - and you can nominate someone

Bloom Bakers, an online biscuit bakery founded in 2016 by Lisa Shepherd and Saskia Roskam, creates bespoke orders for all kinds of occasions for its private and corporate customers.

The team usually work with businesses like Harvey Nichols, Natwest and Fendi but have turned their focus to individual customers who want a novel way to keep in touch with friends and family while there are restrictions on visiting other households.

Co-founder Saskia said: "We really didn’t have to do much to facilitate this shift in business focus. There was clearly a need for people to stay connected to their friends and family.

"Our 'personalised biscuits by post' sales saw a rise of 267 per cent pretty much overnight."

Anybody in the UK can contact the baking duo with their requests to send personalised messages in biscuit form to loved ones who they cannot be with due to social distancing.

Lisa and Saskia will also include handwritten messages on behalf of senders when asked to do so.

It has meant that they now receive heartfelt messages of thanks from customers daily, including one which read: "Thank you so much Bloom Bakers, both [the recipient’s] parents are in their 80s and in hospital with Covid-19 and he has it too, so this will just let him know he’s not alone thanks again x”

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And thanks to a kind donor funding stamps and envelopes, they have been able to offer completely free Kindness Biscuits care packages to a number of customers every week.

Co-founder Lisa said the idea came about as a way to support communities and help combat isolation.

"We felt we wanted to make it easier for people to connect during this difficult time," she said. "Yes, we can very easily connect via virtual tools - but receiving a surprise biscuit through the post is something that will really put a smile on people’s faces.

"So we started giving people the opportunity to send biscuits embossed with encouraging messages to a friend or family member to any UK address absolutely free of charge.”

Bloom Bakers aim to keep sending out as many free Kindness Biscuits as they can while working at capacity due to high order numbers and limited availability of baking ingredients.

The pair also also have four children between them, making juggling work and family life a challenge at times.

Visit their blog for full details on how to request Kindness Biscuits for your loved ones.

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