How this teen’s plea to strangers helped save her family’s bakery

Who said nothing good comes of social media?

When the Houston-based bakery owned by 18-year-old Jackie Garza’s father was in danger of closing due to declining sales after Hurricane Harvey’s devastation, the enterprising teen decided to take to Twitter to drum up new customers in hopes of keeping her family’s business afloat. On Dec. 6, alongside a video of her dad, Trinidad Garza, making pan dulce pastries, Jackie Garza tweeted her plea:

https://twitter.com/basicjackz/status/938490808860364801

“Hey y’all my dad has a little panaderia/restaurant. He makes all of the pan dulce himself. He been thinking about closing but I can’t let that happen. Spread the word. 1 RT could bring in a potential customer! La Casa Bakery and Cafe 1002 Hogan Street 77009!!” the teen wrote.

The tweet eventually caught the eye of Mexican singer Paulina Rubio, who retweeted Garza’s message to her 11.5 million followers. That amount of star power certainly paid off for the bakery. Within two days, La Casa Bakery and Cafe was almost sold out of bread!

Garza later posted a photo of herself with a couple who had traveled nearly an hour to patronize her father’s bakery. She said she cried over the generosity of the people who saw her message and took action.

https://www.instagram.com/p/BcnBCNAho0D/?taken-by=basicjackz

Garza has since set up a separate Instagram and website to help promote the bakery, as she can now personally attest to the power of social media and the internet! Although Trinidad Garza wasn’t familiar with Twitter before his daughter utilized it to save his business, he’s since said he’s grateful for his daughter’s skills, which helped give his bakery a second chance.

“I know all the hard work my parents put into this. They work from early in the morning until late at night, even though we close at 5 p.m,” Jackie told Houston’s KTRK-TV of her family’s business. “The quality of the food and the authenticity of it is amazing.”

When she heads off to college, Garza said she plans to major in business and restaurant management. She also hopes to take over the family business one day. She currently works at the cafe on weekends alongside her mom and three brothers.

What a resourceful young woman!