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The Real Bread Campaign, part of Sustain: the alliance for better food and farming,
is funded by the Big Lottery's Local Food programme and the Sheepdrove Trust. |
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Therapy and food access
The Real Bread Campaign is working to help other enterprises that help more people to have access to Real Bread.
They can do this either by baking Real Bread or buying it in from a local bakery. This work also includes enterprises that use bread making to help people with difficulty intergrating into society, either by providing therapy, or skills for paid employment.
See also
- Community Supported Baking
- Real Bread on the Menu
- Training events
- BBC Food Programme 9 April 2012 (featuring bread making at The Beacon and Freedom from Torture)
Obstacles
Some people who would like to be able to enjoy Real Bread encounter restrictions that might include:
- Geography - there is no local Real Bread bakery
- Mobility - poor local public transport or even struggling to get out of the house
- Economic
Schemes that can help people overcome one or more of these obstacles may be social enterprises or co-operatives, and might operate community-owned/supported cafes and shops, veg box schemes, food hubs.
Many food access schemes help to make food more affordable, whilst maintaining higher standards of nutrition and sustainability, as well as fair payment to the producers.
What you can do to help
If you are involved in a food access project or other community food enterprise and either offer Real Bread already, or would like to, please get in touch.
Enterprises taking Real Bread to heart
The following are the enterprises we know of so far that have Real Bread at the heart of their work.
B arts
December 2011
'B arts has just started a community bread making project called, Baking BREAD, celebrating the rich cultural mix of North Staffordshire through making and sharing breads from the different communities who live in the area.
So far we are a small but dedicated group of nine aspiring community bakers, from six different countries (England, Poland, Botswana, Zimbabwe, Somalia and Mozambique). We’ve been meeting weekly to share and try out different recipes, including sourdough loaves, Vet Koeks, lardy bread and coconut milk dumplings. The project is funded by Awards for All.'
You can find out more about the project at www.bakingbread.org.uk
The Blackthorn Bakery
December 2011
'Blackthorn Trust is a charity whose aim is to help those facing physical or mental health issues. It is a work community where one can find friends, security and gain confidence to face the world at large. In such a climate illness falls into the background and the true character shows through. Some of our Co-workers will learn the creative art of bread making, so every loaf we sell helps us continue our therapeutic work with others.
Every morning the bakers of the Blackthorn Bakery make a range of artisan breads from organic flour. Within the walled garden that grows the produce for our cafe, we make traditional and seasonal breads by hand all year round. Each loaf is individually made, and we never use additives or flour enhancers. Our standard range of breads is made all year round, and our seasonal breads vary with the seasons as fresh produce is available from the garden.'
Camphill Village Trust
December 2011
'This charity supporting adults with learning disabilities, mental health problems and other special needs. We support people in their home life, work, social and cultural activities through our eleven urban and rural communities in England and Scotland.
Each of our communities provides opportunities for personal growth, fulfilling work, friendship and social interation, education and training, and cultural and spiritual inspiration. Everyone receives the support they need to participate fully in the life of our communities and their surrounding areas. Above all we value what each individual brings to the communities in which we live.'
Real Bread baking is a skill passed on in several of the CVT communities and in some cases the bakeries are run as commercial enterprises:
Clervaux Bakery
November 2011
'Clervaux Trust opened an artisan bakery, cafe and shop in Darlington in September 2010. The bakery is very close to the centre of town and is open to the public serving delicious freshly baked organic bread, light meals and lunches and fresh organic produce grown at Clow Beck. Alongside the commercial activity are a wide range of educational, work experience and work placement opportunities for students and numerous community based activities .
Over the course of the first year the project is working with 40 young people on a regular basis, with opportunities for shorter courses and training for up to 100 others. The experience will provide much improved opportunities to gain employment and contribute to the local community. In addition, they receive a much needed boost to their confidence and self esteem, which in turn is expected to impact positively on their behaviour towards others.'
For more information visit www.clervaux.org.uk or email rick.mccordall [at] clervaux.org.uk
Food Cycle
October 2011
Are you tired of throwing away perfectly good loaves of Real Bread and want to reduce the cost of this waste?
FoodCycle has the solution! The charity is a multi-award winning organisation that combines volunteers, surplus food and spare kitchen spaces to create nutritious meals for people at risk of food poverty. They have two programmes that operate across the country, cooking at least once a week, using food that would otherwise have been wasted. For more details, download this PDF.
If you are located in any of the following communities and have surplus bread that you would like to donate please get in contact with Food Cycle:
- Bath
- Birmingham
- Bristol
- Cambridge
- Clacton-on-Sea
- Durham
- Leeds
- Liverpool
- London: (Bromley-By-Bow, Camden, Haringey, Islington, South Kensington)
- Manchester
- Norwich
Email enquiries [at] foodcycle.org.uk and they will work out the logistics. Please mention the Real Bread Campaign so they know we sent you.
Freedom From Torture
November 2011
'Our bread making group at Freedom From Torture enables clients to reveal their fears and anxiety and reflect on their past through the creative and interactive process of bread making. The group hopes to bring together twelve men and women of all ages and backgrounds. The group provides a therapeutic, supportive, sociable and safe environment for clients to meet and share their past experiences and their experience in the UK. "Bread acts as a means for connecting torture survivors, breaking their isolation and helping them to support one another in the process of healing"'
For information contact Saba Stefanos or Shamsi Mahdavi at Freedom From Torture's centre in London www.freedomfromtorture.org
Hornbeam Bakers' Collective
December 2011
'The Collective is formed by a group of bakers based in north east London and hosted by the Hornbeam Centre in Walthamstow. We provide Real Bread to a number of local organic stalls (Hornbeam Saturday Stall, Leytonstone Saturday Market, and the Growing Communities Farmers' Market in Hackney), the Hornbeam Cafe, Organiclea's box scheme and more. We also hold regular baking classes.'
For details of classes, see our courses page. For class dates and more information on the Hornbeam Collective, please visit hornbeam.org.uk or email hornbeambakers [at] googlegroups.com
Ipswich Food Coop
August 2011
On 31 July 2011, Ipswich Food Coop organised an event to help local people get their hands on delicious Real Bread for just pence a loaf - by baking their own Local Loaves for Lammas.
Activities and discussions included pizza making for the kids, baking sourdough, different ways to fit bread making into different lifestyles, tales from a local windmill, and corn dolly making.
For the full programme, click here.
For photos of the day, click here.
The Lantern Bakery
December 2011
'The Lantern Community is home for thirty residents with a learning disability, together with resident and non-resident support staff and students from around the world. The Community aims to provide a home life, fulfilling work, friendship, social interaction, opportunities for personal growth, adult education and cultural and spiritual inspiration.
There are many workshops on site in which the residents are involved, including The Lantern Bakery and a beautiful shop and café where the public interact with the life of the community. The Bakery aspires to create a range of delicious, high quality products using traditional handcrafted methods and natural, organic ingredients. It offers residents the opportunity to experience the process of creating our daily bread from beginning to end, as well as developing a good work ethos with everyone taking pride in what they have created. The atmosphere in the bakery is a positive one, where each person knows his or her role in the bread making process and is proud to be part of the team. The experience of being there each day and contributing in a positive way with such a meaningful and worthwhile outcome helps build confidence and a sense of purpose and achievement.'
LoveBread
February 2012
LoveBread is a new social enterprise in West Yorkshire, working closely with the Rastrick High School Community Hub. It is a small Community Interest Company, aiming to bring the many benefits of Real Bread to Brighouse and Calderdale communities.
LoveBread works to teach people about the nutritional values of Real Bread, its cultural history and ingredients. It offers a series of workshops, INSET training, after-school clubs and one-off events to teach children, parents and individuals to bake their own Real Bread. Alongside this, LoveBread is seeking opportunities to sell bread baked by volunteers locally. This will include Brighouse Totally Locally markets, school and charity events. Any profits from the sales will be reinvested into ingredients to run further bakes.
LoveBread would be interested in taking orders, supplying local shops and sourcing local ingredients from local suppliers.
Contact: Carole Roberts cfroberts [at] hotmail.co.uk or 01484 769083
No Bread is an Island
April 2012
Campaign member Paul Youd runs bread making sessions for children, families, people in homeless shelters, sufferers of domestic abuse, at care homes and for many other community groups. He says: "I'm happiest teaching a Family Learning group, with parents and children, none of whom have made bread before. I get a real buzz out of turning people onto breadmaking. I often run Family Learning sessions in Children's Centres, in and around Taunton, so I thought I would post all the info in this post."
You can also read about Paul's sessions at Castle Cary in March 2012, Wellington Children's Centre in February 2012, a whole number of April 2012 sessions and many more on his blog.
Veterans' Artisan Bakery
March 2012
'The bakery, based at Riverside-ECHG’s new housing and training centre, The Beacon, which is situated next to Catterick Garrison in North Yorkshire, will not only help Veterans develop employable skills within the baking and catering industries, but also uses bread-making as therapy for the men and women who will be learning skills there.
The bakery has been set up as a social enterprise by Clervaux Trust and Riverside ECHG and will provide accredited qualifications to equip those suffering from post-traumatic stress or vulnerable to homelessness with new career skills and insight into running a business.'
In May 2012 the commercial manager of The Clervaux Trust (which runs the Veterans' Artisan Bakery ) confirmed that there are no additives in the bakery's bread.
Read more about The Beacon at: www.riverside.org.uk
Virtuous Bread
March 2012
One of the many strands of this social enterprise's work is baking with residents at a residential care home run by Central and Cecil in North London.
'Virtuousbread.com bakes with the residents once a month to give them something to do, a different kind of activity around which to socialise, and to enable them to contribute to their fellow residents. We bake around 15 loaves of bread each month, providing fresh, organic, hand made, whole wheat bread which lasts for several meals and causes people to remember how enjoyable and important sharing good bread can be.'
