I FEEL PART OF A WE

Andy’s other daughters - Debbie, whose training in BioMedical sciences and Nicki - all have memories of "standing on flour sacks at the back of the bakery doing our bit or just stealing hot and gorgeous buns out the racks". Even now Debbie knows her "Dads bread’s the best and you can never get bored of bread because you just change the fillings - one day bacon, the other sausage and so on.”

The grandkids take this long standing HU3 bakery into the fifth generation. But only Andy, who bakes from 10pm every night, remembers his granddad Dennis, his dad Peter and all their previous bakeries, be that Perth Street, South Boulevard or Stickland Street.

Andy went self-employed in 1988 and since then EofUs calculates, based on quiet day sales, that he’s clocked up over 550,000,000 breadcakes! Meaning Lynsey, who’s worked alongside her dad now for 26 years, has got some catching up to do even though she stood on a box of fruit egg washing the scones as a kid. Which makes us not surprised to see how determined, like the generations before her, that staff, wages, deliveries and orders get sorted. Helping Breadcakes Galore continue as a strong family business ready to serve even more customers. Importantly, Breadcakes Galore, prides itself not just on making delicious quality products but keeping the price low. They want customers to return and they want them to have good food. But this means that in these price rising times they know, like the rest of us, there is a fine line between keeping going and not being able to carry on. Andy says "If the rent and or the flour goes up much more that will make our dozen breadcakes £5 and we know no one can afford them at that price. We know people round here are struggling more. Orders have gone down - people are buying less sandwiches out and about, plus they have extras like uniforms, Christmas, things like Hull fair on top of bills. Those bigger firms can turn bread out cheaper and at bigger quantities. We are at the end of the day a family business working hard to keep going, serve our customers and help them afford quality food.”

Paper company G . F Smith is Hull born and bred and known as a great family business. They have developed an international reputation for making and curating the world's finest and most distinctive papers over the last 135 years. Their factory is home to a team of paper experts and an amazing selection of papers, envelopes and packaging solutions. G . F Smith support creative people to make beautiful things, including Alec Gill whose book about Hessle Road is made using paper supplied by them - see page 38 'Smiths' is a HU3 neighbour, meaning many of the staff are HU3 residents, which is how we got to know Julian. Julian has lived on

Coltman St for the past 9 years. In which time he worked zero hours contracts for different Hull organisations before getting his first job at Smiths as a dispatcher. Now he's training to become a qualified forklift driver in the VNA [Very Narrow Aisles] store and warehouse. This highly skilled job means he needs a head for heights, a sharp eye and the ability to work in a compact space with speed and efficiency.

"This job is much better than all the previous agency work which is unstable and insecure. In those you don't know what hours or how long it may last... these things made me worry. So to be in a contract is good, I feel more stable and settled. It