The Giving Loaf
To celebrate her 35th birthday, Kala Hembree turned the oven in her home micro-bakery to 450 degrees and slid in the first batch of sourdough bread.
By day’s end, 35 freshly baked loaves are ready – cooled, bagged and tagged “The Giving Loaf.” They’re delivered to Hembree Heating & Air Conditioning, the family business where husband Josh is general manager. Volunteers are already on their way, ready to grab a free loaf and deliver it to someone they know who needs a blessing.
The Heart Behind The Giving Loaf
Kala’s post on her Facebook page, The Bread House with Kala, explains the mission:
“The Giving Loaf is a free sourdough loaf, one that I need you to help me gift to someone who needs it. It could be for someone you know going through financial difficulty who could use some healthy bread to stretch the groceries out for the week. It could be someone going through a hard time emotionally, whether they’re experiencing loss or change or struggle. It could be someone who has blessed you in some way and whom you want to bless in return. I don’t have to know who or why – I just want you to come grab it and gift it. I’ll be the hands; you be the feet!”
A Shift in Plans, A Step in Faith
As students in the Honors Program at the University of Mobile, Kala and Josh had their career plans mapped out. Kala planned to be an English teacher or professor, and Josh prepared to practice law.
Each fulfilled those early dreams – Kala earned a master’s degree and recreated her memorable UM Honors class experiences as a teacher in her own classroom at Bayshore Christian School, while Josh earned his juris doctor and practiced as an attorney in Montgomery.
Then came the opportunity for Josh to take over the family business in Mobile. The careers they had planned out and relentlessly pursued suddenly changed. That’s when they discovered:
“Having a plan is good, but trusting our good God is better.”
Business as Ministry
While Josh excelled at law, he thrived in business. Hembree Heating & Air Conditioning quintupled in size over the next five years, all while prioritizing people over profits and maintaining its close work-family atmosphere.
Since he was a young boy, Josh had been told he would go into ministry – he even earned a ministry certificate a few years ago. But he discovered that ministry isn’t confined to working alongside a church; it can happen anywhere.
“God can and does move in the hearts of people at their desks or on the field working their daily jobs,” he says.
Josh also deeply cares about using his business to serve and enrich his community. He’s the vice chairman for the non-profit organization Baldwin Youth Services,
actively involved in multiple business networking groups and the Chamber of Commerce, uses his HVAC company to support various charities, and leads the Legacy Team at his church – a group of people whose spiritual gift is giving – many of whom are business leaders in the area.
A Calling to Teach – And Bake
Kala has known since childhood that God placed the gift of teaching in her heart, and she puts it to use in her family and in her business.
“My ultimate calling in this season is to teach the two most precious souls – our children, Eva and Brenton – about Jesus and to raise them as His disciples,” she says.
Both Kala and Josh were homeschooled for most of their education, and her home micro-bakery, The Bread House, gives her the freedom to set her own schedule and prioritize her children’s learning.
What started out as a side hobby selling bread at farmer’s markets quickly grew into something bigger. As demand increased, Kala began taking weekly orders. In February 2022, she taught her first bread class in a friend’s home. The response was overwhelming.
“I wasn’t sure where I could host people with a large enough space to accommodate everyone wanting to learn. Then Josh suggested the company training room at his office, and I gave it a shot,” she says.
Since then, Kala has taught 2,048 people, in person, how to bake 25 different kinds of breads. She’s taught classes on both sides of Mobile Bay and her students have come from as far away as Mississippi and Florida. Each Wednesday, she preps 25 to 50 loaves of sourdough and bakes them on Friday mornings, then holds weekly pickups at the Hembree office and stocks her local neighborhood market. She also participates each month in the Tanner Williams farmer’s market and teaches a Bake Around the World Club, where each lesson features a new bread from a different culture.
Bread as a Blessing
Kala picked up the idea for The Giving Loaf from a fellow micro-baker and has watched it grow into a ministry as God moves within a community of people who want to bake – and give.
“Jesus is the Bread of Life. My ultimate desire is for The Bread House to point people to Him,” Kala says.
Kathy Dean uses her passion for storytelling and “playing with words” to share the stories of people, place and purpose that make the University of Mobile unique. As associate vice president for university communications, she manages media relations, edits the TorchLight alumni magazine, and oversees university communications. A former award-winning journalist, she is a two-time recipient of the Baptist Communicators Association grand prize for feature writing. Kathy and her husband, Chuck, live with three extremely loud miniature schnauzers.
