YOUR words in print

This is a reminder of our open invitation: We have a platform and you're welcome on it!

We're working to celebrate, inform and inspire the current and future generations of people behind the rise of Real Bread.

Sharing the mic

We reach tens of thousands of people worldwide via our website, magazine and social media accounts, and many more thanks to our ongoing media work. We can help YOU been heard and seen through these channels.

If you have Real Bread related:

• Stories to tell: Either about yourself or someone else.
• Knowledge to share: Maybe a recipe, technique or technical/scientific deep dive.
• Views to air: Something you're burining to champion or challenge.

...or fancy having a go at one of the suggested subjects below, please drop me a very brief outline (bullet point are great) of what you want to say, rather than a draft of an article, to: realbread@sustainweb.org

I'll then let get back to you with a brief, based on your pitch, to help you shape your article.

I'll also let you know the maximum word count (which ranges from 450 to 900 words) and deadline, depending on when and where I feel your piece will fit best.

You can find examples in the articles section of the Real Bread Campaign website. If you're considering telling your Real Bread bakery story, you might also find this outline helpful.

My Baker's Dozen

This Q&A article format is (hopefully) an even easier way for supporters of our charity’s work to grab the mic, step into the spotlight, or whatever other metaphor you fancy.  

Find our more and download the questions

Recipes

If you fancy sharing a Real Bread recipe you created/developed, please take a look at the text and photo format we publish.

Diversity, representation, inclusion

People of every age, nationality, colour, sex, gender identity, ethnic heritage, (dis)ability, neurological status, religion and economic background worldwide enjoy Real Bread and are involved in its rise.

We know that this is still not as well reflected as it could be in our work and network, and are always working to address this. This is an invitation and request to help us increase the diversity (in all senses) of the people we help to be heard and seen, and to improve their inclusion in what we do and how we do it.

We're especially keen to hear from and about Black people, other people of colour, and other folk currently underrepresented in our work, network and who identify as Real Bread makers generally.

We will continue to publish pieces about/by 'the usual suspects' but want to share other people's stories as well.

The Untold Stories Fund

In June 2023, we launched a fund to help us celebrate unsung Real Bread heroes. Initially, the Untold Stories Fund will pay for articles by and about people historically underrepresented in its network, activities and publications. 

Read more and make a doughnation

Volunteer writers

I'd also like to hear from people wanting to write about someone/something else.  If there’s a story you'd like to tell that you think could inform and inspire others, please email me: realbread@sustainweb.org

I fully accept that some people are unable or unwilling to volunteer because they want, need and deserve to be paid. I also know that there are many people who can and do want to volunteer their valuable time and skills in support of our charity's beliefs and aims.

I look forward to hearing from you.

Chris Young,

Real Bread Campaign coordinator, True Loaf editor and tea boy.

Subject suggestions

Last updated April 2024

If you fancy writing something but aren't sure what about, here are some ideas.

If you fancy writing an article based on one of them, please get in touch and I’ll send you a brief with key points to help guide you.

• Contribute a short entry to our A to Z of Real Bread, or write an article on your Real Bread heritage
• Real Bread is processed, the additive-laden industrial loaf is an ultra processed food (UPF). What does a growing body of evidence suggest might be wrong with eating UPFs? (Covering different ground to this article)
• Gut feeling: Fully-researched and balanced overview of evidence and theories around the concept of the microbiome. It would need to focus on research into the effect different types of bread and ways of making it might have.
• Sisters doughing it for themselves. We receive and share a steady stream of stories about women who run microbakeries, but not so many about those who own and run SME bakeries.  We'd also love to throw the spotlight to female head bakers.
• An X^th generation family bakery that has always made (or switched to making) what we call Real Bread. (We receive a steady stream of articles about newer microbakeries but far fewer about longer-established, high street bakeries.)
• I want to bake (gluten) free: articles and recipes about making Real Bread with gluten-free flours.
• Real Bread social enterprise(s) and projects with community/social benefits at their heart.
• In-depth expert guide/masterclass - eg beginner’s guide to osmotolerant yeast; using temperature, hydration and more to control acidity and other sourdough characteristics; pasta madre for sweet sourdough baking; shaping dough...
• Deep dive that goes into technical/scientific/obsessive detail about a single subject – eg  Hagberg Falling Number, osmotolerant yeast...
• Real Bread: Oh so White? People of every colour and ethnicity make bread. What are the obstacles that inhibit/prevent more Black people and other people of Colour from joining our network, or at least from choosing / being able to be seen and heard on social media and elsewhere?
• Beyond the bakers: Profiles of people other than bakers involved in the rise of Real Bread - grain growers, millers, equipment suppliers, researchers, activists etc.
• Profiles of the Real Bread Campaign ambassadors we haven't featured yet.
• What Andrew did next: An updated profile of / interview with Campaign co-founder Andrew Whitley, focussing on his current work with Scotland The Bread.
• Your local bread club.
• Regenerative agriculture - digging (or not) through the weeds of a range of defnitions and greenwash to find out what it really means and what the protential benefits are.
• Profile of a baker/bakery whose Real Bread heritage lies in a country in Africa, Asia, the Middle East, South America, or an indigenous/native/aboriginal culture somewhere colonised by Europeans.
• Forget rainbow bagels, let's talk the rainbow of Real Bread bakers! It could be a Pride tie-in celebrating LGBQTIA+ Real Bread bakers in general; a profile of an single baker whose sexual orientation and/or gender identity is important to their identity as a Real Bread baker; or a group/selection of bakers with an aspect of identity in common. 
• Holy baked goods, Batman! A look at the place bread has in the practice/traditions/beliefs of a particular religion (or subset of one). For example, the communion wafer in Catholicism; leavened bread in Easter Orthodox traditions; various types of bread in Islamic Traditional Medicine or another aspect of Islam; breads in Judaism, that covers different ground to this article on challah. 
• Roti doing the rounds. History and different types of flatbread (roti, chapati, porota etc) on the Indian subcontinent and their dough diaspora in countries in Africa, the Caribbean, South East Asia etc. (eg buss up shut, roti canai).
• What and who else is underrepresented as subjects (and writers) of the articles we publish? Please grab the mic.
• Profiles of each of the UK's non-commodity grain networks/alliances, speaking to the people involved.
• Articles clebrating wholemeal Real Bread.
• Profiles of Real Bread bakeries in Scotland, Northern Ireland and Wales.

…and we're open to your own one line pitches!

See also

• Get (more) involved
• Celebrating YOUR Real Bread heritage
• Statement on diversity, equity and inclusion