Founder Sister Schubert’s Homemade Rolls – today she serves as vice president of product development & manufacturing
Founder of The Barnes Family Foundation
Awarded the Silver Gorlov medal by the City of Gorlovka, Ukraine for establishing Sasha’s Home, a foster care facility that provides temporary families for abandoned Ukrainian children awaiting adoption
GUEST
In the Kitchen with Sister Schubert
CBN.com
– A Long Line of Great Cooks
Sister Schubert (dubbed "Sister" by a sibling who couldn't pronounce her given name, Patricia) says from the time she could hold a spoon, she has always loved to cook. “One of my fondest early memories is of standing on a kitchen stool to help my mother and our family cook prepare meals and baked goods,” recalls Sister.
The wonderful cooks in her family were happy to share their experience and love of good food with Sister. Her grandmother Leona Henderson Wood (also known as Gommey) was a superlative cook and a savvy businesswoman. When Sister’s father went off to serve in the Army Air Corps during World War II, Gommey and her sisters kept the family furniture business alive. Even after he returned safely, Gommey kept an active hand in the business. Sister’s fondest memories of her grandmother were in the kitchen. She taught Sister how to bake. “I cherished the time in the kitchen with her,” shares Sister. Gommey taught Sister how to make Parker House style rolls which Gommey called Everlasting Rolls.
A Passion Becomes a Business Idea
As an adult, cooking and baking remained Sister’s greatest passions. “I was never happier than when preparing food for family and friends,” says Sister. By 1989, the single mother of two was running a small catering business that she called The Sliver Spoon. Everyone raved about the Parker House style rolls that she baked using the old family recipe inherited from Gommey. That year a friend asked her to donate a few pans of rolls to the church holiday frozen food fair. The first year she filled 80 orders; the next year, 200; and the following year, 300. After the third holiday fair she realized that if the people in Troy, Alabama liked her rolls, maybe other folks would too — and not just at the holidays. Sister Schubert’s Homemade Rolls was founded in Troy, Alabama in 1991. “As with every important decision in my life, I prayed about it and asked God to guide me,” recalls Sister.
Homemade Rolls, Homegrown Marketing
In the beginning, Sister Schubert's Homemade Rolls really were homemade — in her home. She bought a large double residential oven that was too big to fit in her kitchen so she set it up on her sun porch. Her mother gave her a chest freezer as a gift, which they placed next to the oven. They made the dough in her little Sunbeam mixer and cut out the rolls by hand. The sun porch became a mini-bakery. The dining room table served as a cooling and packaging area. “With help from my daughters Charlotte and Chrissie, other enthusiastic family members and three coworkers, I began my little business. It was very hard work at first, but immensely satisfying,” shares Sister.
After operating out of her home for almost a year, she decided to set up a commercial bakery. Her father had a furniture warehouse in downtown Troy, and they set up the bakery in 1,000 square feet there. Within six months, they had to evict the furniture and take over the whole warehouse.
Sister remembers it didn't take long before she could no longer call on new markets, supervise production and manage delivery all by herself. She turned to Mr. George Barnes, a food broker. He expanded the distribution from a few local groceries to major grocery chains throughout the South. George also became the other half of the Sister Schubert management team, and her better half when they married in 1995.
In 1994, they opened a new, state-of-the-art facility in Luverne, Alabama. Sister says it was a huge risk, but it was an affirmation of her faith and her vision for the company. With 25,000 square feet, she thought the Luverne bakery provided all the space they needed. But by 1998 they had completed two expansions and were making more than 1 million rolls a day. By that time, her rolls had attracted the attention of really big corporations, who approached her about buying the company. Although she wasn't interested at first they eventually sold their stock to Lancaster Colony Corp., a specialty foods company based in Columbus, Ohio. “We did it for two reasons. First, they had all the resources to propel Sister Schubert to a national brand. But more importantly, they had a history of purchasing family-run companies and then keeping the families on board to run the company,” says Sister.
Today, Sister Schubert's Homemade Rolls is part of Lancaster Colony’s specialty foods division. Both Sister and her husband, George, are still active in running the business. She is the Founder and Vice President of Product Development and Manufacturing and George is Vice President of Operations.
Sister’s rolls can be found in the freezer section of grocery stores all across the United States. “Through the years, we have stayed true to our roots. Our rolls have the same home-baked quality and taste as my grandmother's. We use simple, wholesome ingredients like fresh milk, butter and whole eggs — never any preservatives! And every single roll is still placed in the pan by hand,” says Sister.
Barnes Family Foundation
Sister and George remain at the helm of Sister Schubert's, which is part of Lancaster Colony's T. Marzetti Company specialty foods division. “We feel very fortunate, every day, that we can take care of our family by performing work that we truly love,” shares Sister. After Sister and George sold their stock, they decided there was a greater purpose for their financial abundance. In 2001, they set up the Barnes Family Foundation, a charitable organization dedicated to improving the lives of the less fortunate and enhancing the community through education, historical preservation and compassion.
In 2001, Sister attended a Rotary Club meeting. A missionary named Kenny Payne spoke about his experience with abandoned children in the Ukraine. She immediately got involved by pledging financial assistance from the Barnes Family Foundation as well as sending flour, beans and rice. A few years later in 2004, Sister went on a trip to the Ukraine to visit the Abandoned Baby Center. While they were there they equipped a wing of the hospital with beds, toys, and caregivers for the children in need. They also restored and renovated an abandoned kindergarten center, which became the newly formed foster care center named “Sasha’s Home.” The home provides a warm and loving temporary home for 40 abandoned children while they await adoption. Sister and George chose to name the facility in honor of their adopted Ukrainian born son, Alexsey who was born with two clubbed feet. Today Alexsey can play baseball. In 2008, the Mayor of Gorlovka awarded Sister Schubert the Silver Gorlov Medal for her work with the city’s orphans.
Cast Your Bread
A portion of the proceeds from her new book, Cast Your Bread Upon the Waters, will go to the Barnes Family Foundation, to continue Sister’s mission to feed the hungry. Sister will be making the following recipes on the show:
- Biscuits (p. 87)
- George's chili(p.66)
- Angel corn sticks (p.86)
- Lemon Blueberry Trifle (p. 133)
- Everlasting rolls (they’ll be shown in the store bag called Parker House rolls) (p.28)
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