Oheas Bakery:

23/03/2020 to 18/06/2020 

“The Coburg community and our surrounding suburbs have really come together to support our small business and have shown the strength in numbers”. 

Interview with: Monica Arena, granddaughter of the original owner of O’heas Bakery

Engagement within Moreland  

Coburg based business. 

Can you tell me a little bit about yourself and O’heas Bakery?

So I am the granddaughter to Bruno Arena who started this bakery many many years ago. I'm the daughter of Joe who works here with his brothers every day. Myself and my cousins are also workers here. Bruno is the barista who is known quite well by our Coburg community. So O’heas Bakery started 60 plus years ago. So originally it started off as purely just a bread shop, just a bakery. Bruno Arena and his wife just running it for the Coburg community. And then as time went on, he started to ask the community what they wanted to see in store, so that he would be able to provide them with more produce. So he asked his community and then started to put that sort of stuff into the shop. And over time it has progressed into a deli cafe. We've got lots of Italian groceries, specialty food, and we still remain a bakery, baking our fresh bread and cakes on premises daily. So it's progressed and changed quite a lot over the past 60 years.

Can you explain the surrounding communities relationship with the O’heas bakery?

So the good thing is we're very lucky that we still have a lot of the elder Italian community that was here right at the start. Still coming in to buy their pasta dura and fresh bread most days. And all the other people that come in and tell me, “I met your granddad when he started this place”, and they still come in for their fresh bread and cold meats. We've also been lucky enough to extend right around Coburg so that we've got people coming in from Morland’s surrounding suburbs for bread and for coffee and cakes, I guess, because we've been in the same spot for so many years it's been constant. So people have been able to continue coming in and receiving the service we provide

Before the pandemic, how was the physical space in the bakery utilized? 

So on the actual shop front, we had tables and chairs out the front, and then we also had tables and chairs inside the shop. We had a little courtyard area that had tables and chairs as well as in our actual shop outside where our coffee machine and sandwich bar is. We could hold a good amount of people before this pandemic. And we would offer full kitchen meals, coffee cakes, for people to dine in with us. 

Were there any types of projects that you were working towards before the pandemic?

We are always ongoing and asking the community what they want to see from us, what we can do. We had started our burger nights, which were happening some week nights and on the weekends as well, they had just started taking off. We were building that up to our community as a dining and takeaway service. So that was fairly new at the time before the pandemic.

On the 23rd of March Stage One restrictions were first implemented in Australia. When did you start making changes to the space?

Straight away and pretty quickly. We're lucky that we were considered essential because of being a bakery and a grocery store. We decided to make that shift so we could stay on and still provide for the community during a really scary time. So we just got rid of our tables fairly quickly and made the adjustments so that people still felt safe and comfortable coming in to get what they needed. And especially because all the big grocery stores, things were a bit chaotic there. We wanted to make sure our space was quite safe and controlled so that people felt comfortable coming here. We've set up the shop and moved the furniture so that everyone can be socially distanced while in aisles or waiting for the coffees. We placed markings on the ground inside and outside of our store to indicate 1.5 meter distance. We started making people wait at the front to make sure our store capacity is where it should be, so that it's safe. Also When pasta and flour seemed to be scarce elsewhere, we brought in even more. 

How did the lockdown and isolation impact the O’Heas Bakery team? 

At the start, it was a little bit difficult because we hadn't had the cafe side open. So some shifts were shorter for some staff members. We're lucky in that no one lost their job or shifts weren’t vut  completely. Because being an essential service, we had the need for our staff to stay on with us originally. Some were shorter while we were adjusting to how we were going to shift it all. But now everyone's absolutely fine, back to our normal shifts. We're lucky in that no one actually lost their job because of the demand to stay open.

In what ways did O'heas bakery shift their service to help support the local community during this time?

The community had to adjust to the new rules and everyone in themselves, I think had things they did and didn't want to do. So while it was safe for people to come out for essential shopping, keeping their distance, a lot of people still didn't want to, which is completely understandable. So then as a team, we had to think, how are we going to help the people that still didn't want to come out? So that's when we decided that we were going to build a website to be able to offer online ordering and delivery, with a click and collect options, so that the people that wanted to reduce the amount of time outside of their house, still had a way to get some groceries without having to stress too much.

Did o'heas bakery deliver the products themselves? 

It started off with Joe driving. I'm pretty sure the community of Coburg has seen his Baker Van. He drove that around delivering everyone's orders. And then between the owners and some other staff members, we've been offering delivery services since then. The boys would drive out the deliveries to not just Coburg, but we've got the surrounding suburbs as well. Customers didn't have to have any contact with the store.

How did these restrictions affect the staff? 

Being in hospitality, we have always had to be really clean because it's part of what we do. So everyone already knew that we had to keep doing what we were doing in terms of the rules of washing your hands. That's just things that we did on the regular anyway. But as a team we've had to kind of up the anti a bit. We've got our plastic screen protectors around the registers in the store now. So we had routine cleaning of those. Then our bench tops and all surfaces are cleaned and constantly disinfecting the door and anything that anyone could come into contact with. So, the owners just told us all what our new routine was going to be. So we've all just been on top of that, working together to make sure it's always clean and safe in store. Staff were always supported if they ever felt uncomfortable or unsure when working during this period of time.

Can you describe a particularly great experience that has happened during this time?

It's nice to see that when all of this stuff started happening initially, the community could come together to support a small business. It's been nice because I know a lot of the regulars that would come in when I was working. I've been able to meet more of the community, more so now than ever because more people are supporting small businesses. So I think that's a real positive that's come out of this. The Coburg community and our surrounding suburbs have really come together to support a small business and show the strength in numbers. Also being able to hear how families have come together and bonded during this time has also been a positive outcome. We’ve loved seeing more families around and hearing about how in amongst these times of unease, families have become closer. These stories have been great to hear and are something we appreciate and respect.

Where is O’Heas Bakery at now?

Now we are still adjusting. I think it's going to take some time to adjust to what has happened. We're just trying to listen to what the community would love from us and respond to their feedback. We're still operating as takeaway only at the moment. So we've got all our cafe, restaurant, deli, bakery, cakes, all of that's open as takeaway. And we're just going to take it day by day and see where that takes us.

Do you have a future vision for O’Heas Bakery as restrictions ease?

I think we want to just maintain the sense of community and that feeling that we've got going with the store. We want to keep providing all of these services as an ongoing service. So even once restrictions ease, I think we're still hoping we will still be providing delivery services and opening up in as many ways as possible for the community. Still get what they need from us.