It’s Real Bread Week: doughing it for the kids!

The purpose of the eighth slice of the Real Bread Campaign’s annual international floury fiesta is, as ever, to celebrate additive-free loaves and the people who make them.

Campaign ambassador, and Fabulous Baker Brother, Tom Herbert of Hobbs House Bakery said: “Real Bread has the power to thrill taste buds and transform lives. Real Bread Week is the number one time of the year when bread lovers go all out, showing off delicious loaves, and winning people over.”

The theme this year is sharing the delicious delights of Real Bread with children, with supporters organising events including:

• Cucina Restaurants: after-school family bread making sessions at many of the 40 schools it caters for around England
• Bridging the Gap (an organisation that trains 15- and 16-year olds to mentor younger students): Real Bread making and storytelling class at St. Francis Primary School in Gorbals, Glasgow
• The Hearth: afternoon of drop-in pizza making sessions for children in Lewes
• Fordhall Community Land Initiative: Learn to build and use a cob (mud or clay) bread oven in Market Drayton

To help people dress for the part and raise some dough, Balcony Shirts has created limited edition On The Rise aprons and organic cotton t-shirts, making a donation to the Campaign for each one sold.

People can find full details of all this #RealBreadWeek shenanigans, many more public events, discover local Real Bread bakeries and classes, as well as learn about the Campaign and how to join it to enjoy a range of special offers at: realbreadcampaign.org

The Real Bread Campaign is part of the food and farming charity Sustain: the alliance for better food and farming, with supporters around the UK and in more than 20 other countries.

Starting from a basic definition of Real Bread as made without any artificial additives, the Campaign’s mission is to find and share ways to make bread better for us, better for our communities and better for the planet.

**ENDS**

For more information please contact Chris Young: chris [at] sustainweb.org  

Notes

Other highlights of the week include:

Saturday 14
Jo Bottrill will be serving up and talking about her Real Bread at Michelin-starred chef Bruno Loubet’s pop-up restaurant at the Parkside Farm Shop in Bedfordshire.

Sunday 15
To mark both Real Bread Week and Dying Matters Week, this workshop in Pembrokeshire will explore good bread baking and good funerals that celebrate life and the role of the community.

Sunday 15
To celebrate National Mills Weekend, the wheels of Cogglesford Mill will be turning to produce stoneground flour and Greenfield Bakers will be selling Real Bread.

Tuesday 17
Love Bread Bakery in Brighouse, West Yorkshire, is running a free family learning breadmaking class for parents and pre-school children. It will teach families the Real Bread basics, with recipes they can try together at home.

All month
On Monday 16th, Hobbs House Bakery launches its annual #KingOfTheSourdough competition runs, with a weekly winner being announced every Monday. It culminates in a final bake off at Hobbs House Cookery School during Sourdough September.

All week
Emma’s Bakery is running workshops at the Real Food Store in Exeter through the week, with a view to setting up a scheme to get more Devonshire kids into bread.  

Real Bread Campaign initiatives also include:

• The Real Bread Finder: The only online directory dedicated to helping people find where to buy Real Bread locally in now used by around 680 bakeries. Free for bakers to add, and people to seek, local places to buy Real Bread.
• The Real Bread Loaf Mark: is helping more than 160 bakers to give, and countless shoppers to get, an at-a-glance assurance that: ‘this is Real Bread!’
• Sourdough September: In light of growing evidence of the potential benefits genuine sourdough may have, and the worrying plague of industrial imitators, this is the annual awareness week with the cry: Life’s sweeter with sourdough!
• Rising Up: our report on the therapeutic, social and employment opportunities Real Bread making offers to people living with mental health issues and facing a range of other challenges.
• Together We Rise: the project based on the recommendations of Rising Up to help thousands of people to benefit.
• Knead to Know: the Real Bread starter. To date, more than 4000 people have benefitted from the Campaign’s guide to setting up a successful Community Supported Bakery or home-based microbakery, which is now published by Grub Street.