Schafer's Bread: Created and Made in Michigan

Schafer's Soft n' Good bread. I remember eating bread 'n butter sandwiches on Soft n' Good bread with my next door neighbor when I was a kid. One thing I always wondered about, though.....

The picture on the bread wrapper showed a stack of bread slices with the one on top, drooping over the rest. A pat of butter was put on top, melting down the bread slice. Seeing that image again after all these years made me think...if that stack of slices is just plain bread and not toast, WHY is the butter melting? (Look at the above photo and see what I mean.) This and many other questions may not be answered.

It was darn good bread, though.

The company was owned and operated by Jack Schafer, who began his career of bread in Kalamazoo. Jack had been a yeast salesman so he knew a little bit about baking bread. He opened up his own bakery in K-Zoo and by 1936, he was ready to expand – he bought himself a new bakery location in Detroit and became incorporated on March 24 of that year.

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It was called Schafer's Detroit Bakery and for a while as Detroit Peter Pan Bakeries. With the success of his bread, Jack opened up more bakeries in Lansing and Flint.

In the 1940s Jack became more interested in hydroplane racing, owning eight such boats and hiring the best boat racers in the country to drive them. He finally retired as president of Schafer Bakeries in 1962. Seven years later on Tuesday December 2, 1969, Jack passed away due to a heart attack.

Schafer Bakeries was sold to the Perfection Biscuit Company - who later became known as 'Aunt Millie's Bakeries' - in 1964.

Schafer Bakery is no longer around, but Aunt Millie's is keeping it's legacy alive and still makes that good ol' Soft n' Good bread.