Founder of Sister Schubert rolls hopes to inspire others with new cookbook

Patricia “Sister” Barnes remembers her father asking how much she thought she could get by selling a pan of rolls.

But Sister knew it was more about how many pans of rolls she could sell. While she didn’t wake up one day and decide to build a mega industry by baking rolls from her grandmother’s recipe, it’s exactly what she did.

“I did have that as a dream of mine from the get-go,” said Barnes, the founder and face of Sister Schubert Homemade Rolls. “Fortunately, my dream has come true.”

Sister, as she was dubbed by a sibling as a child, began baking her rolls in 1989 for catering, turning a sun porch into a mini-bakery. She donated rolls to her church’s food fair — filling 80 orders the first year, 200 the next year, then 300 the year after that. In 1992, she opened her first commercial bakery in Troy in her father’s furniture warehouse. The business quickly grew as Sister (whose last name was Schubert at the time) moved from baking a few pans at a time and selling them in small groceries to learning how manage a growing enterprise.

Today, Sister Schubert Homemade Rolls is a subsidiary of T. Marzetti Co. and is a multi-million dollar business. Sister Schubert rolls are in nearly every state — Barnes’ face on every package of frozen bread.

“I still want to be in every grocery store,” she said.

Sister and her husband, George Barnes, are still heavily involved in the business. Sister serves as vice president of product development and manufacturing, while George is vice president of operations.

Sister Barnes’ second cookbook, “Cast Your Bread Upon the Waters,” provides readers and fans of her bread with some insight into the lessons she has learned in the last 20 years of cooking, living and business. Sister will visit Dothan on Wednesday, making a stop to sign copies of her cookbook at 1 p.m. at Vino Vino Marketplace on Montgomery Highway in the Crepe Myrtle Shopping Center. Copies of the nearly 200-page hardback coffee table book, which sells for $40, will be available for purchase.

The recipe for the rolls that started it all — her grandmother’s Everlasting Rolls — can be found on page 28. There are recipes for pancakes, Mediterranean rolls, cranberry bread, and even a chicken and sausage gumbo. Snippets of advice from Sister can be found along the pages of recipes along with a her memories of growing up in a family who loved baking.

Proceeds from the book will go to Sasha’s Home — a foster care facility in Gorlovka, Ukraine, where abandoned children can live in a loving environment while they await adoption. It’s a cause near to Sister’s heart.

In 2001, the Barnes’ established the Barnes Family Foundation to help those who are less fortunate. That same year, Sister attended a Rotary Club meeting where a missionary was speaking on his experience with abandoned children in Ukraine. Moved by what she heard, Sister pledged financial support through the nonprofit foundation. In 2004, she traveled to Ukraine with the same missionary to see the Abandoned Baby Center in Gorlovka.

While there, she met a 2-year-old boy named Alexsey, who was born with clubbed feet and had little hope for adoption. Sister made arrangements for Alex to come to America for treatment. Fourteen months later, he had a new home with the Barnes’ family. He’s now 7 years old. “Sasha” is a Russian nickname for Alexsey, so Sister thought it fitting to use in the name on the foster care facility in Gorlovka her foundation helped fund.

“God places things in your path,” she said.

Last year, the mayor of Gorlovka awarded Barnes the Silver Gorlov Medal for her work with the city’s orphans. Barnes hopes her book with its story of her success and giving back will serve to inspire others.

“When you’ve been given so much, I think it’s only proper and correct that you give back,” she said.