A Canadian community of companions

Launched in 2022, The Lively Loaf is L’Arche Daybreak’s project dedicated to empowering people through the collaborative art of sourdough bread making. Through crafting high-quality, artisanal bread from locally-sourced grains, our mission is to provide people with opportunities for meaningful skills development and enhance social inclusion. By integrating people of diverse abilities into every aspect of our operation, we aim to transform societal perceptions of disability and demonstrate the value of inclusive employment. 

Connection in a time of crisis

L’Arche Daybreak nestles in 14 acres of land in a country-like setting in Richmond Hill, just north of Toronto in Canada. Daybreak belongs to an international federation of communities called L’Arche. Relationships between people in our community of about 120 people, some of whom have learning disabilities, are centred around places of belonging, whether it be a home, workplace or programme. We have eight homes on the property and in neighbouring suburbs, as well as a pottery studio, retreat centre and large barn that houses our woodworking shop.

During the pandemic our homes and social impact programmes (which include pottery, a dance troupe, woodworking, and a leisure club) took a huge hit. Everything was forced to close, and community members were mandated to stay at home and isolate. It was during this challenging time that a twentysomething friend of mine taught me via Zoom how to make sourdough bread. It felt like magic. Somehow, mixing water and flour, leaving it on the kitchen counter overnight, and watching it transform into this living organism, tapped into something inside me that longed for a sign of hope during that strange time. Of course, to my European immigrant relatives, this was nothing new. When my mom tasted this bread, it brought back memories of bread she ate as a child in Malta.

It's a sourdough thing

I remember mentioning this ‘sourdough thing’ to Dave, one of the core members (a person with a developmental disability) in the house I was supporting during our time of social isolation. After hearing me go on about this new thing I was doing, Dave announced that he would like to make bread with me. It was this invitation from Dave to make bread together that planted the seed for what would become The Lively Loaf.

My breadmaking days with Dave turned into a group Zoom activity, trying to connect with some of our other community members, older people stuck at home, and young people working remotely. It became an opportunity to network, check in with each other and share how we all were coping. The word companion comes from the Latin for ‘with bread’ and came to mean the people we break bread with. During the isolation of lockdown, we became companions for each other. Making bread together was comforting and anchoring at a time when there were so many uncertainties. 

A taste of inclusion

Fast forward a couple of years and our Daybreak community began to wonder about the future of our programmes. Were there things we could learn about how we came together in meaningful ways during the pandemic? Those of us who had made bread together virtually were invited to try something in person and The Lively Loaf was born.

The project offers more than just bread, it offers a taste of inclusion. Our products are uniquely crafted in an environment that celebrates diversity, empowering our customers to contribute to a more inclusive society with every purchase. We love that our collaborative breadmaking approach, in which everyone has a hand in the process, not only provides purposeful work and skill development to our baking team; it also brings breadmaking back to our local community and connects people with the source of their food. 

The process of making bread together cultivates patience and anticipation. It requires time, commitment and perseverance, not unlike building a community. Many hands go into making our Lively Loaves. It’s a collaborative process with many little - but important - steps. From Betty weighing flour and salt, Patrick sifting flour into bannetons, to Stephen creating bread bag art, there is no job that is too small. There’s nothing like the smell of bread wafting out of the oven, while enjoying Ahmed’s dance moves to the Mamma Mia soundtrack as he wipes down the counters.

Small but mighty

In partnership with our local flour mill k² MILLING, we now run a bread subscription programme, which feeds a small circle of people in our local community. Each item is packaged in uniquely-designed bags made by our community members, adding to the charm and artisan quality of every loaf. This has been made possible by a Catholic Charities grant, which allowed us to buy a Rackmaster RM2020 bread oven (developed by bakery equipment pioneer Campbell MacFarlane in England) and a commercial mixer.

We are a small but mighty operation, inspired by our microbakery counterparts out there who inspire us every week to keep improving our process. A shoutout to Maurizio Leo, whose The Perfect Loaf website and cookbook helps us to troubleshoot all the variables of baking with sourdough. We also want to acknowledge Proof Bread in Arizona, USA, whose YouTube channel helped us believe in our dream to be a small-scale bread producer in our local community. The Rackmaster USA WhatsApp chat group has also been a source of moral and practical support on all levels of the sourdough process. 

The Lively Loaf is simply real people making Real Bread together; companions in the truest sense.

@thelivelyloaf

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Originally published in True Loaf magazine issue 61, January 2025.

See also

• The brewker’s tale
• Picture this
• Derwen College
• The Lantern Bakery

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