Pleasant Hill Bakery closes its doors after 63 years

Nothing but empty racks, unplugged ovens and stacks of rolling pins remained at Pleasant Hill Bakery on Saturday.

After 63 years, the longtime community staple on 20th Street is closing its doors one final time as ownership will be transfered to AIDS Saskatoon on April 1 for the purpose of opening Saskatchewan’s first safe injection site.

For owner Keith Jorgenson, the baked goods were a bonus as the back of the building housed The Community Learners High School, an independent school for youth in the neighbourhood.

“The majority of (students), you could see a change in the trajectory of their lives,” he said of the program that educated gang members and children surrounded by drug addicts, among others.

The back of the bakery (pictured here) used to house an independent school for Grade 10 to 12 students. (Keenan Sorokan/650 CKOM)

“So often it’s hard for somebody who’s outside of that bubble to sort of understand what some people’s lives are like.”

Jorgenson said around 150 students went through the program in its nearly 10-year existence, four of whom were at Pleasant Hill Bakery.

“Most of the people they know are in jail, so there’s a lot of road blocks set up to them.”

The provincial government slashed the school’s funding in a series of budget cuts before it was forced to close its doors last year.

Even though he owns nearby Nestor’s Bakery, saying goodbye to such a meaningful place in the neighbourhood for more than 60 years is difficult to accept for Jorgenson.

“It’s bittersweet. It was my dream job — I enjoyed doing it,” he said. “But it has become impossible to do that job.”

Jorgenson blames a funding shortage, not just to alternate education, but also to supports and preventative measures for drug usage in the neighbourhood.

“The government’s lack of funding for a sort of basic safety net that would protect and help people is in such disarray that it makes it impossible to be able to operate something like this,” he explained.

Jorgenson said he organized the private sale of the bakery to AIDS Saskatoon and that he wishes them all the best, calling the area’s struggle with drugs and accompanying crime “a full-blown crisis.”