Campaign news

The latest on Real Bread Campaign activities.

You can see more frequent updates from the campaign by following @RealBread on Twitter and more in depth pieces on our blog and in True Loaf magazine.

Real Bread for London 2012 Olympic Games
Join The Rise of Real Bread
National Baking Week
Learning to bake Real Bread is part of The Bigger Picture
No More Silly Loaf Songs
Real Bread for Camden Kids
#sillyloafsongs
Membership scheme
Local Loaves for Lammas
Real Bread Campaign Wins The Lottery!
Processing Aids

Real Bread for London 2012 Olympic Games

13 January 2010
Calling Real Bread bakers in and around London.

The 2012 Olympic Village alone will use something like 25,000 loaves - can you help to ensure that they are all Real Bread?

The organisers of the London 2012 Olympic Games have said that food supply and catering opportunities for London 2012 will start to be advertised in the next couple of weeks. It is therefore urgent for any food supplier or catering business wishing to participate in the London 2012 Games to register their business with the CompeteFor.com website to be able to benefit from these opportunities.

This site is where tender information, news and opportunities will be publicised and one of the key ways in which larger caterers can connect with a range of smaller suppliers of food and services.

Suppliers that can meet the assurance and sustainability standards listed in the London 2012 Food Vision (see link below) are particularly encouraged to register.

Business registration and links for regional opportunities
News of the key opportunities
Further information about Olympic food standards

CompeteFor now have over 100,000 businesses registered on CompeteFor, 30,000 of which are based in London. Around 74% of contracts awarded so far have been placed with SME businesses and 18% of them have gone to businesses with 10 or fewer staff.

The Rise of Real Bread: Changing Britain’s Daily Loaf

23 October 2009
Do you care about the state of bread in Britain? On Saturday 14th November, the Real Bread Campaign is joining forces with LandShare CIC and the Oxford Bread Group to invite everyone who does to join us St Anne’s College in Oxford for a day of debate, discussion and saffron buns.

The Rise of Real Bread will bring together growers, millers, bakers, educators, activists and consumers from around the country for an exploration into the murky secrets of industrial loaves and how we all can contribute to the continuing renaissance of all-natural Real Bread.

Chaired by Sheila Dillon of the Radio 4 Food Programme, speakers at this enjoyable and informative all day event include:

•    Rob Alderson - Unicorn Grocery
•    William Black – food writer, anthropologist and founder of The Natural Bread Company
•    Felicity Lawrence - special correspondent for The Guardian, author of Not on the Label and Eat Your Heart Out
•    John Letts - archeo-botanist, thatcher and founder of The Oxford Bread Group
•    Dan and Johanna McTiernan – owners of The Handmade Bakery
•    Colin Tudge - writer and biologist, author of Feeding People is Easy
•    Andrew Whitley - author of Bread Matters and co-founder of The Real Bread Campaign
•    Bee Wilson - food writer, historian and Sunday Telegraph food columnist
•    Martin Wolfe – Research Director, The Organic Research Centre

In a journey following the grain chain past, present and future from seed to sandwich, discussion titles include: wheat for the future; a history of bread making and the state of the modern loaf; what’s so good about Real Bread?; an introduction to community bakeries; and Real Bread is only for the rich and/or those with time on their hands.

After the event, everyone is invited to continue the conversation over a Real Bread feast at the nearby Freud Café.

For the full programme and to buy tickets (which include including lunch and refreshments) for the event, visit www.landshare.org/events/index.phpor call 01865 516585 for a postal application form.

National Baking Week

15th October 2009
National Baking Week runs from 19th-25th October and this year, organisers are encouraging everyone to Bake and Share. What better to Bake and Share than Real Bread? http://www.nationalbakingweek.co.uk/recipes/111/real-bread-rolls

Learning to bake Real Bread is part of The Bigger Picture

5th October 2009
On Saturday 24th October, we are offering visitors to the new economics foundation’s Festival of Interdependence the chance of free, hands-on Real Bread making lessons with an award-wining master baker.

Real Bread Campaign working party member, Paul Barker of Cinnamon Square in Rickmansworth, will share expert but easy tips, which you get to try for yourself. You will leave with not only your own delicious loaf of Real Bread but the skills to bake many more at home. Chris Young of the campaign will also be along chat about its aims, its work and how people can join the fight.

The Festival of Interdependence is part of The Bigger Picture, a creative series of events in response to current crises. The aim of the festival is to inspire and unite people across borders and boundaries. It brings together thinkers, artists, activists, poets and musicians for a day of learning, making, doing, celebrating and debating. As well as grappling with the daunting array of social, economic, political and environmental challenges we face, the festival will provide visitors with a glimpse of how a new economic system, which puts people and the planet first, could look and how to start the great transition to get there.

The two Real Bread sessions will start at 11am and 1pm, with each lasting about an hour. Participants can return to collect their loaves from about an hour and a half after the end of their session.

Sign up for limited places will take place on the morning of the event on a first come, first served basis.

nef Festival of Interdependence, Saturday 24th October, 11.00am – 6pm, Bargehouse Oxo Tower London SE1 9PH MAP

Nearest tube: Southwark, Blackfriars or Waterloo

www.thebiggerpicture2009.org

No More Silly Loaf Songs

2nd October 2009
Well, the Real Bread Campaign did ask the Twittersphere for bad puns and with a year’s free membership at stake, boy, did we get them.

We sliced down dozens of truly dreadful (breadful?) Silly Loaf Songs to following shortlist of a baker’s dozen:

•    Another One Bites The Crust – Queen
•    Bread Bread Wine -UB40
•    Ciabatta Out Of Hell - Malt Loaf
•    Achy Bakey Heart - Billy Ray Cyrus
•    Knead You Tonight - INXS
•    It's a Naan's World - James Brown
•    Hit Me Bagel One More Time – Britney Spears
•    Muffin Compares 2U – Sinead O’Connor
•    I put a spelt on you – Nina Simone / Screamin’ Jay Hawkins
•    Rye Do Fools Fall In Loaf? – Frankie Lymon and The Teenagers
•    Crumb Together – The Beatles
•    Crust The Way You Are - Barry White
•    Oliver's Sarnie - Hovis Costello
•    Never Baguette - Bake That

For inflicting upon the world Ciabatta Out of Hell by Malt Loaf, Mark McKellier (@McKellier) has won a year’s membership to the Real Bread Campaign. Though we had only offered one prize, in respect of going above and beyond the call of duty by unleashing a veritable torrent of farinaceous folly, Guy Snape (@BreadSecrets), has been named joint winner.

You can find the full list of entries can be found on Twitter using the hashtag #sillyloafsongs

Real Bread for Camden Kids

1st October 2009
On Saturday 10th October, kids in the London borough of Camden are invited to a FREE hands-on Real Bread workshop at Kentish Town City Farm.

Each group will have two sessions, one to make the dough and learn a bit about Real Bread and the next about an hour later to shape the dough into buns. Participants can either come back a couple of hours later to collect the baked rolls or take the dough home to bake.

Group one will start just after 11am and group two at around 11.30am. Places are limited, offered on the day on a first come-first serve basis.

In between, kids and parents can take part in other activities at this or other venues.

The event is part of a day celebrating healthy, sustainable food in the community and to help mark the launch of Good Food for Camden, the borough's food strategy.

Family Day at Kentish Town City Farm, 1 Cressfield Close off Grafton Road, NW5 4BN

For more information, visit http:www.camden.gov.uk/goodfoodday or call 0207 837 1228.

#sillyloafsongs

1st September 2009
To celebrate the launch of the Real Bread Campaign membership scheme on 14th September, we are giving you the chance to win a year’s free individual membership worth £20. Simply tweet the title of your favourite #sillyloafsongs to @RealBread on Twitter between 14th and 30th September 2009. We are after bread-related puns, so think ‘Loaf and Let Die,’ ‘Another Little Pitta my Heart,’ etc.

Notes and rules

The winning entry will be picked from those received between 14th and 30th September, inclusive
Entries accepted via Twitter only
Entries must contain #sillyloafsongs and @RealBread in the tweet
Competition open to UK residents only
The winner will receive free individual Real Bread Campaign membership for 1 year
There is no cash or other alternative prize
The judges' decision is final
The winner's name will be announced by @RealBread on Twitter, on this website and on the Real Bread Campaign group on Facebook
Entries may be used in future Real Bread Campaign communications to make journalists and others groan

Membership scheme

27th August 2009
On 14th September, the Real Bread Campaign launches a new membership scheme for everyone who cares about the state of bread in Britain.

This is the chance for you to join professional and home bakers, millers, farmers, shopkeepers, educators, researchers, campaigners and passionate punters around the country and add your voices to the unified cry for Real Bread that is better for us, better for our communities and better for the planet.

In addition to the knowledge that you are playing a part in this essential cause, as a Real Bread Campaign member you will receive benefits including:

•    Four issues of True Loaf, the exclusive quarterly magazine
•    A membership card offering a wide range of discounts
•    Access to the members’ area of the Real Bread Campaign website, packed with additional extras
•    The Real Baker-e, an online community where you can find and share supportive advice, ideas and information
•    Invitations to Real Bread networking events, including The Rise of Real Bread on 14th November

Exclusive member offers secured around the country so far include a free eco bag entitling holders to 20% off two people booking a course at Bordeaux Quay; 10% off Real Bread from GAIL’s London bakeries; baker’s dozen loyalty cards for free loaves at The Old Farmhouse Bakery and Tigh Fuine; 10% off a course at Wild Yeast bakery; 10% off the mail order baker’s box from Artisan Bread Organic; half price membership of Local Action on Food or London Food Link and discounts on Real Bread from bakeries such as Cinnamon Square and Cotton's Craft Bakery.

For details of how to join, sign up to Breadcrumbs, the Real Bread Campaign monthly email newsletter.

Local Loaves for Lammas

4 August 2009
On 1st August, Real Bread Campaign supporters across the land enjoyed a Local Loaf for Lammas.

You can share pictures and news from your own Lammas activities in the Real Bread Campaign group on Flickr, at our Facebook group and with @realbreadon Twitter.

Find out more at the Local Loaf for Lammas page

Real Bread Campaign Wins The Lottery!

16 June 2009
The Real Bread Campaign is celebrating securing funding from the Big Lottery Fund's Local Food Scheme. To find out more read our press release

Processing Aids

19 May 2009
Click here to read a statement from the Real Bread Campaign on the possible use of unlabelled processing aids in some factory bread

Older news

New Real Bread Campaign says: "Use your loaf! Buy Real Bread"

26 November 2008
The Real Bread Campaign is being launched today with an appeal to consumers to use their loaf and buy Real Bread. A coalition of consumers, bakers and campaigners is joining together to launch the Real Bread Campaign and challenge the giant industrial baking companies that dominate the modern bread market. Read the press release to find out more

Real Bread championed at Schumacher College

September 2008
Real Bread advocate Andrew Whitley will be teaching a residential course at Schumacher College in Devon - alongside the founder of the Slow Food movement, Carlo Petrini. The course, entitled Real Food, Slow Food: Championing sustainable food, takes place from November 17 to 21, 2008. Participants will focus on the art of baking real bread and link this with a discussion on the ways our food system needs to be changed. Andrew Whitley will teach bread-making skills and explore with participants the ways in which a return to small-scale production would be beneficial. With Carlo Petrini, participants will look at broader food production issues within the context of the aims of the Slow Food movement.

The Real Bread Campaign is coming!

August 2008
The Real Bread Campaign had a successful second meeting in July, and has secured funding from the Sheepdrove Trust for a launch event to be held this autumn (date to be confirmed). The Real Bread Campaign would like to thank the Sheepdrove Trust for its generous support for this work.

Bread enthusiasts meet to plan Real Bread Campaign

November 2007
In November 2007, 25 bread enthusiasts, industry representatives and seasoned campaigners met to discuss the issues, need and aims of a Real Bread Campaign. It was agreed that Sustain (www.sustainweb.org) should recruit volunteer help to take the campaign to its next stage.