Bondurant business owner continues to bake with love after racist incident

By Macey Shofroth, Fearless staff writer

Mary Harris had only been selling her food at Home Slice for two weeks before her signature cinnamon rolls became the talk of the region. 

Harris owns Taste of Comfort, through which she sells home-baked goods and meals. She’s become a staple of farmers markets across Central Iowa, including Bondurant, since she and her family moved to Iowa at the end of 2022. Laura Lacina, owner of Home Slice Handmade Pies in Bondurant, asked her if she’d like to serve breakfast at the store before it opened on Saturdays. 

“I did it the first week, and it was a little slow, but giving up isn’t an option,” Harris said. “So then we came in for week two, and look where we are now.” 

At the second pop-up on Nov. 9, a customer purchased breakfast and then made a racist comment to Harris, who is Black, telling her to “get down, turn around and pick a bale of cotton,” before leaving the building. 

“In my 43 years on this earth, I have never had someone look me in my eyes and say something with the intention of demeaning me and feeling like it was OK for them to do so,” she said. 

The incident coincided with a nationwide rise in racist text messages sent to Black people across the country. Harris decided to post about the incident on Facebook in hopes Bondurant residents might consider the types of behavior they tolerate in their community. 

“They know me by now. I’ve been here for 27 markets. I can tell them, and they can talk to each other,” she said. “I just wanted to know that I was being heard and that I was going to be safe. And they did more than that.” 

At the time of writing, Harris’ Facebook post had received over 2,300 reactions and been shared over 1,300 times. She’s received more than 600 comments, which have been overwhelmingly positive. 

“The 3,000 engagements I have had with my post have said, ‘We’re sorry this happened,’ ‘I’m glad you’re making people talk about it because we knew it was here,’ or ‘This is not what we’re about,’” she said. 

Baked with love

Harris was working in the hospitality industry when she began to rethink her relationship with work. 

“I had two memories of my mom. One of them was [that] she worked all the time, and the other is she taught me to cook,” she said. “So as I was commuting sometimes three hours each way to my job in Silicon Valley, I was like, ‘What will my kids remember?’” 

That element of love and connection formed the foundation of Harris’ business. She calls herself a relationship person. When you approach her tent at a farmers market in Bondurant, Baxter or Ankeny, you’ll see her chatting and laughing with each person in line. She intentionally goes to smaller markets, where she’s able to form connections with her customers. 

“Food is a language that anybody can speak. It’s a neutralizer and an equalizer. I’m not a super huggy, affectionate person, but I’ll feed you,” Harris said. “Food is a feeling, and if I can give people a feeling of comfort, then they are more receptive of me.”

She bakes everything from strawberry rhubarb bars to molasses cookies to caramel apple bars. She’s especially known for her cinnamon rolls, which she describes as less traditional and “soft, silky and not too sweet.” 

She believes food is a powerful force in bringing people together. 

Baking has allowed her to connect with folks from across Central Iowa. She felt bolstered by those relationships she built through her business as she took to Facebook to share her experience.

“I wasn’t nervous. It was just me having a conversation with the people that have been eating my cinnamon rolls,” she said. 

Just keep baking

A few days after her post gained attention, Harris noticed an interesting coincidence of timing. The interaction with the customer occurred the day before her father’s birthday.

“My biological dad was a part of the Civil Rights Movement and he desegregated the University of Alabama,” Harris said. “Standing in the schoolhouse door, Governor Wallace, President Kennedy sending in the National Guard. All of that is in my bloodline.”

Harris was no stranger to the existence of the racism she experienced from the customer. She’s particular about which markets she goes to. She has had to ask a market organizer to move her tent away from a vendor who made her feel unsafe. 

Even with those anxieties, she finds great joy when her food becomes an experience for a community. She describes her baking as her love language, explaining that everything she bakes is a memory meant to evoke something special from the recipient’s past. 

And while she doesn’t expect the type of racism she has experienced to disappear, she’s hopeful that the ensuing conversation is indicative of the way her community will continue to welcome her and her culinary talents. 

“I hope to be able to figure out how to get a space of my own to be able to bake long term,” Harris said. “Hopefully,  I can do that as a part of the Bondurant community. They definitely received me with open arms and rallied behind me when I shared this story and showed their heart. And their heart is good.”