These three best friends are getting to the dough — literally!

Mark Edmond, Charles Alexander, and Jamel Lewis are the brains behind the first-ever Black-owned sliced bread company in the world.

After Mark hit the grocery store with a mission to “buy Black,” he soon realized that there weren’t any Black-owned sliced bread companies and quickly reached out to Charles and Jamel. From there, The Black Bread Company (BBC) was formed.

“One of our main goals is to open the consciousness of the African American consumer,” the founders told AfroTech. “Too often, we just go into stores buying things without thinking about if that money is going back to our community. We want to change that. ”

Not only are they changing the way Black consumers shop, but they’re aiming to show why representation is indeed key.

“We aren’t profit-driven. It’s all about breaking the glass ceiling for representation,” they continued. “We want other Black people to know that it’s okay to compete in industries where we aren’t represented. We are capable of building any product that is currently on the market and making it our own. We didn’t know everything when starting over a year ago. We simply took the first step in filling the void. ”

And they’re filling that void one loaf of bread at a time!

For more on The Black Bread Company and how to get your hands on a loaf, click here.