Real Bread Maker Week: Raising dough to do good!

From 11-17 May, local loaf lovers across the land are uniting to help everyone celebrate Real Bread and its makers.

As Britain’s only national Real Bread charity, the Campaign is also encouraging professional and homebakers to help raise money for its work. Campaign coordinator Chris Young said: ‘We have fantastic new plans to help some of the people in Britain who have a tougher time than most of us to enjoy the social, therapeutic and employment opportunities of Real Bread making, but we need the dough to do it!’

In addition to locally-organised activities, the Campaign is running a week-long bready online auction. Lots include bread making classes with Campaign ambassadors Aidan Chapman at The Phoenix Bakery, Emmanuel Hadjiandreou at The School of Artisan Food, Tom Herbert at the Hobbs House Cookery School, and Andrew Whitley at Bread Matters. Other lots include a tour of Shipton Mill with boss John Lister, and sacks of flour from fellow independent miller Marriage’s.

To help supporters dress for the occasion, Balcony Shirts has created a limited edition I ‘Loaf’ Real Bread t-shirt. For each shirt sold (£12.50 + p&p), the company will donate £4 to the Campaign.

For anyone who has not yet made their Real Bread Maker Week plans, an activity and fundraising guide is still available from the Campaign website. Ideas for professional and homebakers include organising one of the following with friends, family, neighbours or colleagues, perhaps in association with a local bakery, café or restaurant, pub, WI, village hall, community group, farmers’ market, school, or workplace:

• lunchbox masterclass to share all the great Real Bread alternatives to soggy factory loaf sarnies with parents at a local school.
• tasting dinner or pizza night – perhaps in association with a local bakery, pub or eatery.
• beginners’ workshop.
• baking club event to bring friends, colleagues and neighbours together to bake.

The Campaign also invites homebakers to see how much they save in May by not buying industrial loaves or shop-made sandwiches, and donate the difference to the charity.  Even affirmed non-bakers can get involved by digging out unloved bread machines or supporting local events and participating Real Bread bakeries.

People can find and add details of Real Bread classes and other events, discounts, the auction and the guide at realbreadcampaign.org

ENDS

For more information please contact Chris Young: chris [at] sustainweb.org or 0203 5596 777
www.realbreadcampaign.org       twitter.com/realbread     facebook.com/realbreadcampaign

Notes

Part of Sustain: the alliance for better food and farming, and funded by the Big Lottery Fund’s Local Food programme, the Real Bread Campaign champions locally-produced, 100% additive-free loaves, and finds ways to make bread better for us, better for our communities and better for the planet.   Membership of the Real Bread Campaign is open to everyone who cares about the state of bread in Britain.

Key Campaign initiatives

• The Real Bread Loaf Mark: helping bakers to show, and shoppers to see, ‘this is 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, local places to buy Real Bread.
• Lessons in Loaf: A guide for teachers on planning hands-on Real Bread making sessions for any age, plus lesson plans to tie the topic of bread in with a range of curriculum subjects at Key Stage 2.
• Knead to Know: the Real Bread starter: the guide to starting a Real Bread enterprise for your local community, republished by Grub Street in May 2013.
• Membership: the Campaign’s mutually-supportive national network helps bakers and everyone else who cares about the state of bread in Britain to connect with each other to ask for and share ideas and information to help the rise of Real Bread. Membership fees, at four accessible levels from individuals to large companies, help to fund the Campaign’s work.

Read an outline of the Campaign’s success to date and future plans here.

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.

The Campaign further relies upon membership fees and public donations to continue its work leading the rise of Real Bread in Britain.