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Real Bread Week

BAKE Real Bread BUY Real Bread BOOST our charity

How was it for you? (Survey prize)
Limited edition t-shirts aprons and mugs
Share YOUR #WeAreRealBread photos
Please remember the charity behind the hashtag!

What is Real Bread Week?
Run a class / activity
Real Bread Buddies Day
Download poster and logos
Sample/template media release
Make some noise!
See also

Limited edition t-shirts and aprons

Each year, Balcony Shirts produces a limited run of exclusive t-shirts, aprons and mugs, making a doughnation to the Real Bread Campaign for each one sold.

Read full details and buy now

What is Real Bread Week?

Created and run by the Real Bread Campaign since 2010, #RealBreadWeek is the annual, international celebration of Real Bread and the people behind its rise.

Buy, bake, boost

We run it to focus and brighten the spotlight on our key work of encouraging and helping people to:

BUY Real Bread from local, independent bakeries
BAKE their own Real Bread

We also rattle the collection tin a bit harder for Sustain, to BOOST the charity behind Real Bread Campaign.

Each year, bakeries, baking schools, mills, schools, care homes, youth and other community groups around the world bake special loaves and run classes and other activities.

Meanwhile countless people bake at home, some with their children other family members, colleagues or friends, and take to social media with photos of themselves with loaves they've baked or bought.

Buy Real Bread

It's time to kick the additive-laden industrial loaf habit and support YOUR neighbourhood's Real Bread bakery!

Small, independent, locally-owned bakeries help to:

Support more jobs per loaf for people in your local community - skilled, fulfilling jobs at that
Keep more money circulating in your local economy, helping to keep your high street alive

Some offer additional social benefits, from being a place where older people and those at risk of isolation can see a friendly face and stop for a chat, to those that are set up to offer training and employment opportunities for people facing one of a range of challenges.

Bake Real Bread

Seize the dough to take control of the food that you (and perhaps your family) enjoy!

Not only is making Real Bread great fun, it's also a very affordable way of avoiding the cocktail of additives that turn up in industrial loaf products. Some people find it therapeutic.

We're keen to see more children learning to make Real Bread, whether at home, nursery or in the classroom. It can also be a way of steering them towards healthier food - you'd be amazed at the number of children who 'don't like wholemeal' but love it when it was lovingly made by their own mitts.

NB Real Bread Week isn't about cakes or loaves raised with baking powder / soda, or just about sourdough bread. See our definition of Real Bread

Boost

The best way to support our charity's work is to join the Real Bread Campaign

You don't have to be a baker to join us - in fact, the majority of our supporters aren't bakers.

Rates (unchanged since 2009) start from £22.50 a year, that's the equivalent of LESS THAN £2 A MONTH.

Supporter benefits you'll get to enjoy include our exclusive True Loaf magazine; and special offers on Real Bread ingredients, equipment, baking classes and more. Read more about why and how to join us.

Make a doughnation

If you'd like to make a one-off doughnation as well as / instead of joining us, you can do so here.

Help us to raise dough

Can your business make a special donation, or collect from your customers, during the week? Maybe you could send a percentage of your total sales, or just from a Real Bread Week loaf/class.

You can send what you raise to us by debit/credit card or PayPal payment via our doughnations page

NB You can't add Gift Aid to donations you collect from other people.

We'll be publishing a roll of honour of people who donate / raise over £100. If you'd prefer your name not to appear on the list, please let us know.

Make some noise!

Whatever Real Bread Week shenanigans you organise, or get involved in, please share what you do!

Tell people about it in person
Create posters using the Real Bread Week logo
Blog about it
Contact local radio, TV, websites, papers - whatever media outlets you have round your way
Post on social media. The hashtag is #RealBreadWeek and please don't forget to tag us and/or link to our website. Campaign supporters can login to download the logo.

If you appear in, publish or spot any Real Bread Week media coverage we missed, please do send us the link or (if it's not online) a PDF, pic or scan of the article: realbread@sustainweb.org

Run a class / activity

Can YOU help other people to celebrate Real Bread Week this year?

There are plenty of ways to help people in your local community enjoy Real Bread...and maybe even raise dough for the Campaign at the same time.

Whether online or face-to-face (where it's permitted, safe and appropriate to do so) you could organise a Real Bread:

beginners’ baking workshop / class / bakealong
pizza night
lunchbox masterclass to share great Real Bread alternatives to soggy factory loaf sarnies
social event, bringing together friends, colleagues or neighbours to bakealong together or compare what you've made in advance
bake it forward scheme - see below

...or maybe it's a simple as making a loaf as a Real Bread Week special or publishing a recipe on your website.

Basically, as long as it's in line with the aims of Real Bread Week, whatever works for you and your business / organisation!

Add the details to our calendar

Campaign supporters can login to download the Real Bread Week logo and an example/template media release

The more the merrier

Perhaps you could involve a local community group such as a: school or nursery, youth club, retirement home, Scouts, Guides or other youth organisation, WI, farmers' market, grain network, Slow Food group, religious group.

Real Bread Buddies Day

The first ever #RealBreadBuddiesDay is on Sunday 27 February 2022.

Real Bread Buddies Day is about you making connections and building relationships with other people within and beyond your family and wider community.

Whether you’re a relative newbie, occasional homebaker, or seasoned pro, we want YOU to share your knowledge, skills and traditions to get more people making Real Bread.

Perhaps you can pass on a family flatbread recipe to a grandchild at home, host a beginners’ bread club for half a dozen neighbours, convene a challah bakealong in a care home, or run a baker exchange with another bakery.

Promote your event

If you're planning a public class/event/activity, please make your plans of whatever works for you as soon as you can and add the details to the Real Bread calendar - click on the + symbol.

Campaign supporters can login to download the Real Bread Buddies Day logo, poster and example/template media release.

Share your #WeAreRealBread photo

We launched #WeAreRealBread in 2019 to help encourage greater diversity and inclusion in the world of Real Bread. Social media is awash with photos of bread, so this hashtag is to celebrate the people behind the rise of Real Bread.

Buy or bake Real Bread
Post a photo on social media of yourself making, or with, it using #WeAreRealBread alongside other relevant hashtags

If you run a class or bakery team, see if they'd like to be in the photo, too. We also love to see cereal farmers and millers in action.

Remember, this hashtag is for use with pictures of people, not just bread!

Send us your photos

We'll be publishing a selection of #WeAreRealBread photos on our site, magazine and social media. If the copyright holder (often the photographer) and person/people pictured are happy for us to do so, please email it to realbread@sustainweb.org

Please remember the charity behind the hashtag!

It's great to see the worldwide popularity of Real Bread Week but the purpose and charity behind it often get left out.

Everyone is very welcome to join in but whenever you refer to Real Bread Week or use our hashtag (in print, social media or elsewhere), PLEASE do one or more of the following:

> Mention that it is run by the Real Bread Campaign
> Link to www.realbreadcampaign.org
> Tag us on social media
> Say how people can support our charity's work

We're @RealBreadCampaign on Instagram and Facebook, and @RealBread on Twitter.

***This especially applies to businesses / PRs using Real Bread Week in the social media / marketing of spreads, kitchen appliances or totally unrelated products/services. Give us props or keep yer hands off our hashtag!***

How was it for you?

As a charity, we need to demonstrate that our work is wanted, needed and of benefit.

After Real Bread Week (or you've run / taken part in at least one activity) please give used your feedback about what you did and how we could make improvements for the future.

Complete the short survey

This survey ends on Sunday 6 March 2022.

WIN

Our friends Toast Ale are offering one Companion Case of 26 beers to give away to one survey respondent. Read details and T&Cs