Students who enjoy fresh bread are in luck: Junior Tom Glass has started his own business here on campus making and selling bread. He takes orders by email ([email protected]) and even does delivery. Customers don’t have to wait long, either; it’s an overnight recipe, so he makes the bread the night before and puts it in the oven the next day. Glass offers a variety of gourmet options for potential customers, everything from plain white loaves to white roasted garlic and rosemary.

Glass has always enjoyed making bread for himself or for special occasions, but as for the business aspect, he admits he may have been inspired by an email he saw his freshman year from someone who started up a similar bread-making business.

“It’s sort of been in the back of my mind; I think it helped fuel the creation of this idea,” he said.

A friend offered to pay Glass to make a loaf of bread every week: so his own bread-making business began.

At first, his friends were his only customers, but his customer base has grown by word of mouth.   Now he gets about 15 to 20 orders a week, which can be challenging.

“Sometimes I’ll have to turn down orders or postpone them to the following day if I have a test or something like that, so that’s something I’ve been figuring out how to deal with,” he said.

He’s found that balancing schoolwork and baking is not impossible, however.

“There’s a lot of leeway as far as most of the time I spend baking is actually spent waiting for [the bread] to rise, and, you know, while it’s in the oven and everything I can do my work while that’s happening,” he said.

Despite his growing success, Glass doesn’t see himself owning a bakery after graduating from Whitman.

“I won’t completely rule it out, but it’s not a part of my plan right now,” he said.