As the Sun Rises, So Does the Dough

Solar-powered oven is headed to Angola bakery

Chicago Tribune, Sunday April 13, 2003

With a funnel-shaped metallic reflector that makes it look like something from outer space, a solar-powered oven that can bake 1,000 meals a day soon will be on it's way to Angola, thanks to an Evanston humanitarian group.

Members of SHAREcircle said they hope the $10,500 oven will anchor a bakery run by refugees and war orphans. The African nation of 12 million is emerging from a 27-year civil war that ended last year.

The group is also sending six smaller solar ovens designed for families.

"Our final goal with this project is not only to have a bakery project there, but to have an assembly plant of these small ovens," says Guerra Freitas, president of SHAREcircle, who is from Angola.

Freitas, 32, said he left Angola in 1998 to become a student in the United States. He lives in Evanston, but he said Angola is never far from his thoughts.

"Being here gives me a way to do something meaningful with my life," Freitas said.

The large oven can bake up to 28 loaves of bread an hour and reach 600 degrees Fahrenheit, said Paul Munsen, president of Sun Ovens International Inc., based in Elburn, which makes the ovens.

A trailer filled with 150 pots and pans, flour containers and wire whisks, hot pads and other supplies come with the oven. A propane gas system provides energy when the sun isn't out.

SHAREcircle has raised about $14,000 for the project, organizers said.