Customers gather at Beginning Bread Bakery Cafe in northeastern Seoul's Gongneung-dong, April 24. Korea Times photo by Jon Dunbar

This is the second in a series of four articles about Gongneung-dong. -ED.

Beginning Bread Bakery Cafe in northeastern Seoul's Gongneung-dong neighborhood, is not your average cafe. Run by a multicultural family, it is helping expand the neighborhood's multicultural character — not through offering rare foreign delicacies on menu or decorating the shop with knickknacks from distant countries, but by being actively present in the local community.

"We operate with the mindset of being a neighborhood anchor rather than just a business," said Ronald Munkoah, a Cameroonian resident of the area whose Korean wife, Baek Su-min, owns the business.

"Each day, we bake fresh bread and pastries for local residents, students and office workers, and we provide part of our production to the city council’s food bank so that homeless people and low‑income neighbors can eat with dignity," Munkoah said.

"This means that even on difficult days, the oven at Beginning Bread Bakery Cafe is on not only for sales but also for social responsibility, because we see ourselves as part of the local safety net, not just the local market."

He added that the bakery employs local residents and sources as many ingredients as possible from nearby suppliers, aiming to circulate profits back into the neighborhood's economy.

"Decisions about whether we can hire one more part‑timer or whether we can continue daily contributions to the food bank are not abstract — they directly affect neighbors, students and friends we see on the street every day," he said.

Baek Su-min, left, and Ronald Munkoah / Courtesy of Beginning Bread Bakery Cafe

Munkoah arrived in Korea in 2018 as an exchange student and met his wife in 2019. Over the years, he has built a life, a family and a career here, while watching Gongneung-dong slowly transform from a quiet residential area around a derelict rail line into a vibrant urban village.

Source: Korea Times News