Female Irish Entrepreneur Launches Bakery Despite Pandemic
Washington, DC – Tuesday, November 17th, 2020
Caroline Johnston, from the beautiful town of Greenisland, was taught from a young age to bake by her mother, a home economics teacher. Caroline’s soon-to-be 100-year-old grandmother was also an inspiration while growing up in Northern Ireland.
She never thought, as a multi-lingual international business executive, who this past year established a DC metro based women-focused coaching & consulting company called Caroline Sarah Ventures, that she would have an opportunity to launch a brand new Irish & European Bakery in the middle of a global pandemic. GreenIsland Bakery (GIB), named after her hometown in Northern Ireland, has spent the past four months running a pilot test pop-up shop in partnership with Christy & Libby Hughes, owners of The Irish Inn at Glen Echo.
With the success of the pop-up and outpouring of support from DMV (DC, Maryland, Virginia) customers as well as Irish ex-pats which widely populate the area, Johnston is officially launching the bakery. This official launch is marked by an upcoming event on Wednesday, November 18th from 12:00 – 8:00 pm at The Irish Inn in their outside entertainment space. Friends and supporters are welcome to pop in at any time throughout the day to receive free cookies and celebrate this exciting time.
This event also celebrates the fourteenth day of GreenIsland Bakery’s crowdfunding campaign, which holds the goal of reaching 30k in 30 days. As of this week, GIB is on track to reach that goal, and, with the public’s support, it will be able to provide fresh, authentic Irish goods nationwide this holiday season. GIB is already shipping nationwide from the DC area to the West Coast, Midwest, and even sunny Florida. Customers have been ordering bakery gift boxes through the GreenIsland Bakery website to send to loved ones. GIB was also recently selected to be a part of an exclusive Food Business Accelerator through Union Kitchen which will allow for expansion into retail in the coming months. Supporters can watch GIB’s campaign video and check out its perks by visiting the crowdfunding site at http://igg.me/at/greenislandbakery.
Eammon Cooney, President of the British-American Business Association in DC said, “My family is from Kilkenny and Dundalk in Ireland and my Mum’s Irish soda bread was always a very special treat. So it is brilliant that one of our members and my friend Caroline is going to give Washingtonians the experience of tasting authentic Green Island bakery goodies! – they are so wonderful!”
Anyone interested in contacting GreenIsland Bakery in DC can contact Caroline via www.greenislandbakery.com or info@greenislandbakery.com, and follow GreenIsland Bakery on Facebook and Instagram @greenislandbakery and Twitter @gibirishbakery.