Hampstead's Karma Bread thanks Royal Free staff with baked goods

Tami Isaacs Pearce, who runs Karma Bread in South End Green, says her raison d’être this year is to offer a different ward a box of fresh treats every day.

“It was really early in the morning and I watched the night staff coming back from their shift at the beginning of the pandemic, blinking in the sunlight, looking traumatised,” Tami told the Ham&High.

“It was a no-brainer that this is what I was going to do during lockdown.

“I would go in three times a week and bake for one ward, then another ward, but still on a small scale.

Some of the buns made by Karma Bread (Image: Karma Bread)

“But now I’ve made it a raison d’être that every single day we will bake for a different ward there because the whole hospital is impacted by what’s that’s going on.

“There are times when you feel helpless, but you’ve just got to do something that feels positive and create some value in what you’re doing. We can, and we will.

“For as long as we’re baking, we will continue to support them.”

Karma Bread, whose story began in 2015, has been one of the Royal Free’s neighbours for more than five years.

It is one of several businesses in the community offering food and support to NHS workers during the pandemic.

The shop closed for six weeks at the beginning of the first lockdown but has since stayed open to serve its regular customers and locals, many of whom are hospital staff.

“We have the luxury of being open as an essential service and therefore, we need to show some gratitude,” Tami said.

“Every single staff member is impacted by the enormity of the suffering and deaths.

“They’re treating our customers and our customers’ parents, so if they can get out, take of their scrubs, come into Karma Bread and pick up their box of freshly baked donuts, then that’s what we’ll do.

“It’s such a pleasure to do that for them.”

READ MORE: Hampstead families aim to raise £50,000 to feed Royal Free medics