Real Bread Campaign co-founder Andrew Whitley wins BBC Food and Farming Award

Today Real Bread Campaign co-founder Andrew Whitley of Bread Matters was presented with the special judges’ prize at the BBC Food and Farming Awards.

Real Bread Campaign member the True Food Co-operative in Reading also picked up an award, being named best retail initiative during the ceremony, which will be broadcast in a special edition of The Food Programme at 12pm on Friday 25 November.

Chris Young of The Real Bread Campaign said: ‘It’s fantastic that Real Bread has featured strongly in the awards again, with the work of people from our movement being recognised with a double win for the second year running.’

Andrew’s Real Bread journey began in earnest in 1976, when he quit his job at the BBC World Service to set up The Village Bakery in Melmerby, Cumbria.  He moved on in 2002, having proved that organic, long-fermented sourdough Real Bread can be produced on a scale large enough to become a national brand without cutting corners.  Since then, he has run Bread Matters, to pass on to the next generation of Real Bread bakers some of the skills and experience he has built up over the past 35 years.

Whitley’s call in his 2006 book Bread Matters for a campaign to improve the state of the British loaf generated such interest that he was compelled to find an organisation up to the task of co-ordinating it. This path led him to Sustain: the alliance for better food and farming, with which he launched the Real Bread Campaign in November 2008. Now joined by nearly 700 full Campaign members in a wider supporter network of over 4000 people around the UK, Andrew continues to find ways to make bread better for us, better for our communities and better for the planet.

In 2010 winners included Campaign ambassador Richard Bertinet being crowned BBC Food Champion and Campaign member Alex Gooch named best food producer.

Today also saw Campaign member Jane Mason, founder of virtuousbread.com, winning the Community Award at Red's Hot Women Awards. At a pre-awards reception at 10 Downing Street earlier in the day, she had given some of her Real Bread to the Prime Minister’s wife, Samantha Cameron.

**ENDS***

For more information on the Real Bread Campaign please contact Chris Young: chris@sustainweb.org or 0203 5596 777 www.realbreadcampaign.org       twitter.com/realbread     facebook.com/rea

Notes to editors

Other current initiatives from the Real Bread Campaign include:

• Real Bread on The Menu: the Campaign’s scheme to encourage more public sector institutions (such as schools, care homes and hospitals) and food access projects (e.g. co-operative buying groups, community cafes, box schemes) around Britain to make Real Bread available.
• Bake Your Lawn: A FREE grassroots guide to support teachers and parents helping children around Britain to sow a square metre of soil with a handful of wheat in the spring and grow it, mill it, bake it, eat it, to follow the Real Bread journey from seed to sandwich on their own doorsteps.
• Knead to Know: the Real Bread starter: the Campaign’s 140 page introductory guide to success in bringing Real Bread back to the heart of your local community, available as a limited edition book or PDF download. 
• The Real Bread Loaf Mark: Want to find Real Bread? Then Look for The Loaf Mark! This is the at-a-glance assurance from a baker that a loaf is what the Campaign calls Real Bread.
• The Real Bread Finder: the only online directory dedicated to helping people find where to buy Real Bread locally. Free for bakers to add, and people to search for, places to buy Real Bread locally.

Local Food has been developed by a consortium of 15 national environmental organisations, and is managed on their behalf by the Royal Society of Wildlife Trusts (RSWT). Supported by the Big Lottery Fund's Changing Spaces programme, Local Food has distributed grants to a variety of food related projects to make locally grown food more accessible. www.localfoodgrants.org

The Royal Society of Wildlife Trusts (RSWT) is a registered charity, incorporated by Royal Charter, to promote conservation and manage environmental programmes throughout the whole of the UK. It has established management systems for holding and distributing funds totalling more than £20 million annually to environmental projects across the UK.

The Big Lottery Fund’s Changing Spaces programme was launched in November 2005 to help communities enjoy and improve their local environments. The programme funds a range of activities from local food schemes and farmers markets, to education projects teaching people about the local environment.

The Big Lottery Fund, the largest of the National Lottery good cause distributors, has been rolling out £2 million in Lottery good cause money every 24 hours to health, education, environment and charitable causes across the UK. www.biglotteryfund.org.uk.

The Sheepdrove Trust also provides generous annual funding to the Campaign.