Memphis News: Lucy J's Bakery at Crosstown Concourse Offers Living-Wage Jobs and a Path Out of Homelessness in Memphis

By Dr. Layne McDonald, Founder of Memphis News with a Purpose

Beat: Faith & Community

Direct Answer First

Located inside Crosstown Concourse, Lucy J’s Bakery combines scratch-made breads, pastries, cakes, and cookies with a transformative mission: providing job training and employment intended to help parents transition out of homelessness and toward greater stability.

The bakery’s work is built around a simple idea: people need more than temporary shelter to rebuild their lives. They also need dependable employment, practical skills, healthcare access, professional references, encouragement, and the dignity that comes from contributing to their families and community.

Lucy J’s describes its mission as providing “job training and employment with living wages to parents who are working to transition out of homelessness.” The bakery partners with the Dorothy Day House, a Memphis organization focused on keeping families together while they work toward stable housing.

More Than a Bakery: A Working Classroom for Dignity

Lucy J’s Bakery is located in the West Atrium of Crosstown Concourse at 1350 Concourse Avenue, Suite 151, Memphis, Tennessee 38104. The shop offers croissants, danishes, muffins, breads, pies, cookies, cupcakes, and celebration cakes.

According to the bakery’s official website, its products are baked from scratch in the shop. That matters because the bakery is not simply using food to raise money for a cause. The bakery itself is the workplace, the training environment, and the daily setting where employees develop skills.

The name Lucy J’s comes from the Burgess family’s children. Josh Burgess serves as head baker, while Tracy Burgess has been closely connected with the Dorothy Day House and its work with families experiencing homelessness.

That family connection is part of what makes the mission distinctive. Lucy J’s was created around baking, family life, and the belief that work should support: not destroy: the relationships people are trying to preserve.

“Hope rises when work is paired with dignity.”

Why Employment Is Part of the Housing Conversation

Homelessness is often discussed as though housing is the only question. Housing is essential, but many families also face barriers involving wages, transportation, childcare, healthcare, education, mental health, employment history, and access to reliable support.

A shelter can provide safety during a crisis. A housing program can offer structure. But long-term stability often requires a dependable income and the confidence to navigate the next stage of life.

Lucy J’s model attempts to bridge that gap by connecting employment with training and support. Public reporting from MLK50: Justice Through Journalism described the bakery’s launch plan as including $15-per-hour wages and health insurance through Church Health. That report also noted that some employees would be current or former residents of the Dorothy Day House.

Because compensation and benefits can change over time, readers should confirm current employment details directly with Lucy J’s. The bakery’s continuing public mission, however, remains focused on training and employment for parents transitioning out of homelessness.

The important principle is broader than one wage number: employment should help people move toward stability rather than trap them in a cycle of working multiple jobs while remaining unable to meet basic needs.

The Dorothy Day House Connection

The Dorothy Day House works with families experiencing homelessness and seeks to keep parents and children together. That approach recognizes something easy to overlook in a crisis: family unity is not a luxury. It is part of a person’s support system and often part of the healing process.

Lucy J’s partnership with the Dorothy Day House gives the bakery a way to respond to homelessness through employment. Rather than treating people only as recipients of assistance, the model makes room for them to be workers, learners, parents, neighbors, and contributors.

That does not mean employment alone solves homelessness. It does not. A job cannot replace affordable housing, healthcare, childcare, transportation, or counseling. Nor should people be judged if illness, disability, family emergencies, or other circumstances make employment difficult.

The balanced view is this: work can be a powerful pathway for some people, but it must be paired with compassion and realistic support. Lucy J’s mission is strongest when it recognizes both truths.

What Customers Participate In When They Buy Local

A customer visiting Lucy J’s may simply be looking for a cinnamon roll, croissant, custom cake, or loaf of bread. That ordinary purchase can also support an organization trying to connect food service with economic opportunity.

This is not a promise that every purchase directly pays for a specific person’s housing. It is not a claim that buying one pastry ends homelessness. Responsible community support avoids exaggeration.

Still, consistent customer support helps mission-driven businesses pay workers, purchase supplies, maintain equipment, and continue offering training. Customers can also support the bakery by ordering celebration cakes, purchasing products for meetings, exploring wholesale relationships, or sharing accurate information about its mission.

Crosstown Concourse lists Lucy J’s among its food and drink tenants and provides information about visiting the building. Current hours and availability should be checked before traveling.

The Business Challenge: Mission Must Be Sustainable

A nonprofit or mission-driven business still has to pay rent, purchase ingredients, maintain ovens, meet payroll, follow food-safety rules, and attract enough customers to remain open.

That creates a real tension. A bakery may want to provide higher wages and expanded support while also facing rising costs for butter, flour, utilities, insurance, labor, packaging, and repairs. If a mission-driven business closes, the community loses both a food provider and a source of employment.

This is why the public should evaluate Lucy J’s with both compassion and realism. Supporters can celebrate its purpose while also asking practical questions:

• Is the business financially sustainable?

• Are workers receiving clear information about wages and benefits?

• Does training prepare employees for advancement?

• Are customers and donors given accurate expectations?

• Can the model be expanded without losing personal support?

These are not hostile questions. They are stewardship questions.

Jesus taught His followers to count the cost before beginning a major undertaking. In Luke 14:28, He asked who would begin construction without first estimating the expense. A ministry-minded business needs both a compassionate heart and a sound plan.

Christian Takeaway

Jesus said, “I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full” (John 10:10).

That abundant life is not merely spiritual language detached from daily needs. It includes dignity, family, meaningful responsibility, restoration, and the opportunity to move forward.

Scripture repeatedly calls God’s people to care about work, wages, justice, and the vulnerable. Isaiah 1:17 says, “Seek justice. Defend the oppressed.” James 2:15–16 warns against offering kind words to someone in need without providing practical help.

Lucy J’s Bakery offers Memphis a picture of compassion with structure. It reminds us that helping people does not mean lowering expectations or ignoring responsibility. It means creating conditions in which people can work, learn, heal, and pursue stability with support.

How to Pray/Engage

For more purpose-driven Memphis reporting, visit the Memphis News with a Purpose blog. Readers may also appreciate our coverage of the Goodwill Excel Center’s Memphis expansion, another example of education and opportunity working together.

Peacemaker’s Perspective

A peacemaker does not pretend homelessness is simple. A peacemaker also refuses to believe that the problem is hopeless.

The most constructive response holds several truths together:

• People experiencing homelessness deserve safety and dignity.

• Families need practical pathways to stability.

• Employers need sustainable business models.

• Nonprofits need accountability and adequate support.

• Customers and donors need truthful information.

• Communities need both compassion and wise stewardship.

Lucy J’s Bakery cannot solve Memphis homelessness by itself. But it can demonstrate how a local business, a nonprofit partner, and ordinary customers can participate in a larger network of restoration.

The question for each of us is not only, “What is the government doing?” or “What is the church doing?” It is also, “What responsibility has God placed in my hands?”

Galatians 6:2 gives a clear direction: “Carry each other’s burdens, and in this way you will fulfill the law of Christ.”

Frequently Asked Questions

Where is Lucy J’s Bakery located?

Lucy J’s Bakery is inside Crosstown Concourse, in the West Atrium at 1350 Concourse Avenue, Suite 151, Memphis, Tennessee 38104.

What does Lucy J’s Bakery sell?

The bakery offers scratch-made croissants, danishes, muffins, breads, pies, cookies, cupcakes, and custom celebration cakes. Customers should check the official Lucy J’s website for current ordering information.

What is Lucy J’s Bakery’s mission?

The bakery states that its mission is to provide job training and employment with living wages to parents who are working to transition out of homelessness.

How is the bakery connected to the Dorothy Day House?

Lucy J’s partners with the Dorothy Day House, a Memphis organization that supports families experiencing homelessness and seeks to keep families together while they work toward stability.

Does every purchase directly fund housing?

Not necessarily. Lucy J’s is a mission-driven bakery, but customers should not assume that a specific purchase directly pays for a specific housing service. Purchases help sustain the bakery’s operations, and the bakery’s employment mission is part of a broader community response.

How can Memphians help?

Memphians can purchase from Lucy J’s, order custom products, share accurate information, support the Dorothy Day House and other reputable organizations, and advocate for practical solutions involving housing, wages, healthcare, transportation, and job training.

Call to Action

This week, take one concrete step: visit or order from Lucy J’s Bakery, then share its mission with one Memphis family, church, business, or community leader who can help strengthen pathways from homelessness to stability.

Read more Memphis good news at www.laynemcdonald.com/blog.