
Remembering New Bedford’s Sunbeam Bread Bakery
New Bedford, not too long ago, was blessed to have the smell of fresh bread wafting through the city from the iconic Sunbeam Bread bakery.
It's been decades since Sunbeam Bakery on Coffin Ave in New Bedford closed its doors but the smell of fresh bread will never be forgotten, especially for me, a former employee of the bakery.
I want to say it was in 2002 and I merely worked in sanitation. We basically came in and cleaned all the equipment and conveyor belts after the overnight shift cooked and packaged the bread.
For someone still in high school, it was a good-paying union job. I worked two days a week, very early Saturday mornings and evening shifts on Tuesdays. Since it was my first union job, it taught me a lot about labor laws at an early age.
No, we didn't get a free taste of the product but there was plenty in the break room, and we all know about the thrift store on Acushnet Avenue. We could get a loaf of bread for less than a buck and all the Little Debbie snacks.
Not sure if you knew this or not, but Sunbeam Bread was first marketed and mostly made in New Bedford back in the 1940s and in its heyday was doing over $400 million in sales.
It was a sad day when the bakery closed and thousands lost their jobs, the city of New Bedford lost that freshly-baked bread smell, and the building housing all that equipment became vacant.

As you may have heard last year, the building has begun a transformation to be put back into use. There will retail space, batting cages and plenty more. It's 10,000 square feet, so there is plenty to be done but work began in mid-2024. Here's hoping the space will open sometime this year.
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