Located on 540 East State Street in Knox, the Knox Bakery has devoted many years to supplying baked goods to the Keystone community. I was fortunate enough to speak with the bakery's owner Lee Stewart, and hear her views on how her business interacts with the community.

     When I first entered the Knox Bakery, the smell and sight of all the baked goods made me very hungry, but also very interested in how this business was operated and managed. When I began the interview with Ms. Stewart, I started off by asking general questions about the business and then gradually moving into questions about how the bakery interacted in the Keystone community.

      The Knox Bakery has been located in Knox since 1921 which is evident by the old stone hearth oven in the kitchen that she uses everyday to make her baked goods. Stewart’s business is a full-line bakery producing breads, pies, pastries, cakes, cookies, doughnuts and many other delectable foods-all which are made by hand and from scratch. There have been many owners of the bakery and Lee has been one of them for 12 ½ years now. She has been interested in baking since she was young and was often found in the home economics room creating different dishes. It was a dream of hers to open a bakery, although she thought her dream would never come true. But it did and is now a flourishing business. Despite Stewart not enjoying getting up at 1 am to start baking, she loves her job and takes pride in providing good quality products to the members of the Keystone community.

     The Knox Bakery relates to the community in many ways, and when I asked her how the bakery was involved with the members of the community, she told me that she helped support the various sports teams, the high school, and local charities. She also said that she assisted other businesses; for example she provides the Pizza Shop with the homemade buns for their hoagies. When asked what she believed the bakery supplied for the community, she replied that she hoped she provided a good quality product for the community. Her opening at 5 am enables many civilians on their way to work the opportunity to grab some breakfast on the go, early in the morning. Stewart told me that she believed the Keystone community provided her with all the aspects needed to make her business successful. She quoted that, "the local support means a lot." The last question I asked Lee was what she thought the future held for her business in Knox. She said that she hoped to stay at the bakery for another 15 or 20 years and that she enjoyed having her business in a nice small town where everyone knew her and knew what her business had to offer. She ended the interview by saying that she just wanted to continue providing products to the community and continue to do what they have been doing for decades. Since they have been in business for such a long period of time and have been selling the same products for years, she said, "we must be doing something right." From tasting the doughnut she gave me, I agree with her 100% and wish her nothing but luck in the years to follow.

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