Real Bread Week 2014-15

See the main Real Bread Week page.

Bake some joy, make some noise!

Real Bread Week is the annual celebration of supporting your local, independent Real Bread bakery and baking your own.

• What is Real Bread Week?
• Get involved!
• Make some noise!
• What's going on near me?
• Send us your doughnations
• Share your stories and photos

Join the Real Bread Campaign!

What is Real Bread Week?

Launched by the Real Bread Campaign in 2009*, this is the annual, celebration of Real Bread and its makers.

Raising awareness

The main aim of the week is to share the benefits of baking Real Bread at home and of buying it from a local, independent bakery.

• Home baking
• Why support a local Real Bread bakery

You can see highlights of media coverage we and our supporters have generated for the Real Bread Campaign here.

Raising dough to do good

The Real Bread Campaign is part of the food and farming charity Sustain.

We need to raise money so we can continue our work as the only organisation that is dedicated to championing Real Bread and its rightful place at the hearts of our local communities. This includes:

• Our Together We Rise project designed to help people living with mental health issues, or facing a range of other challenges, benefit from the therapeutic, social and employment opportunities Real Bread making offers
• Celebrating Real Bread bakeries and helping people find them locally
• Creating guidance and networking opportunities for people setting up microbakeries, Community Supported Bakeries and Real Bread social enterprises
• Campaigning for an Honest Crust Act in support of eveyone's right to be able to make better-informed choices
• Campaigning to put Real Bread in classrooms and On The Menu in schools, hospitals and other public sector canteens
• Arranging discounts on classes and ingredients to help more people bake their own Real Bread

Can we count on your support?

Good.

*We originally called it Real Bread Maker Week as it was launched it to encourage people to dig out unloved bread maker machines as a very affordable way to get more people enjoying Real Bread. We later opened it out to be a celebration of all Real Bread makers, be they at the back of kitchen cupboards, those running bakeries and the ones at the end of everyone's sleeves. We shortened the name to Real Bread Week in 2015, as that's what many people called it anyway.

See also:

• What is Real Bread?
• Our work

Raise some joy

It's time to support YOUR local Real Bread bakers!

Celebrating Real Bread

Here are three ways you can kick the additive-laden industrial loaf habit:

• On your high street: look for The Real Bread Loaf Mark at a local Real Bread bakery
• At the ends of your sleeves: learn to bake yourself or teach the kids how to make Real Bread by hand
• In the back of your kitchen cupboard: dust off that unloved bread machine to bake Real Bread, or pass it on to someone who will.

Download the Real Bread Week guide here.

Make some noise!

Whatever you do during the week, be that raising dough for the Campaign, helping to spread the word about the rise of Real Bread locally, supporting your local, independent Real Bread bakery by buying a loaf, teaching someone else to bake or simply making a loaf at home, please share what you get up to!

Out in the virtual world, you can join the conversation and share photos at any time on Facebook and Campaign supporters can chat with each other in The Real Baker-e.  The hashtag to use on Twitter is #RealBread.

What's going on near me?

You can find details of local Real Bread activities (and add details of your own) on our events calendar

When you join in the fun, please share your #realbread news and stories on Twitter

You can also post photos and tales on the Real Bread Campaign Facebook wall.

Buy Real Bread tshirts and aprons

These designs are no longer available but we might have new designs in the future. Please keep an eye on The Real Baker-e, Breadcrumbs and Twitter for updates...

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

One of the easiest things you can do is to buy one (or more…) of the great, limited edition, fundraising t-shirts and aprons being produced by our friends at Balcony Shirts. The two designs are available in a range of colours, with the tshirts offered in several sizes.

For each one sold, Balcony Shirts will donate a few quid to help our charity keep running your Real Bread Campaign. If you run a bakery, perhaps you’d like to buy a load of them to kit out your whole team....

These designs are no longer available but we might have new designs in the future. Please keep an eye on The Real Baker-e, Breadcrumbs and Twitter for updates...

balconyshirts.co.uk

Send us your doughnations

If you ran a fundraising event or activity during Real Bread Week, it would be great if you could send what you raised to us by the end of May, please. You can do this in two ways:

1. For amounts under £100, please send a cheque: made payable to Sustain (NOT the Real Bread Campaign) and sent to us at Sustain, Development House, 56 - 64 Leonard Street, London EC2A 4LT
2. For amounts over £100, please email us for our bank details: realbread [at]sustainweb.org

We'll be publishing a roll of honour of all fundraisers. If you'd prefer your name not to appear on the list, please let us know.

Donate

Unable to organise an event yourself but still want to support our charity? Well you can make a donation here.

Fun fundraising

How will YOU be helping people to celebrate Real Bread Week this year?

Whether you're a professional or amateur baker (or even a non-baker), there are plenty of ways to help other people in your local community enojy Real Bread and raise dough for the Campaign at the same time. Here are just a few ideas of events and activities.

You could organise a Real Bread:

• 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 pub or eatery
• beginners’ workshop
• afternoon tea or elevenses
• tea and toast breakfast
• club event to bring friends colleagues and neighbours
• together to bake
• quiz night

The more the merrier

Perhaps you could involve a community group such as your local:

• WI group
• Scouts or Guides
• Work colleagues
• School
• Farmers' market
• Country Market
• Community shop
• Sharing network
• Slow Food group

Dough raising

Here are just some of the ways people helped raise money for the Campaign in 2014:

• Artisan Foodworks: Holding an open day on 13 May including a raffle to win £50 of artisan food goodies
• Bread Ahead: Running a raffle as part of their Crumb Together in the Capital evening on 16 May
• Bread at Home: Fundraising quiz on 16 May
• Bread Matters: £1 for every copy of Andrew Whitley's new book, DO Sourdough, bought through their website during the week
• Greenfield Bakers: Offering sourdough starter in return for a donation to the Campaign dusing a milling day at Cogglesford Mill on 11 May
• Jo's Loaves: Taking donations for her Real Bread starter kit
• Manna From Devon: Running woodfired make and bake days on 15 and 16 May
• Rugby Real Bread: Donating 10% of their weekend sales on 16 and 17 May
• Thorough Bread: donating 10% of their sales on 10 May at Plymouth Local Producers' Market
• Tracebridge Sourdough: Hosting a wood-fired pizza lunch, baking competition and auction on 11 May
• The Wee Boulangerie: Trialling a new loaf made from wheat grown and milled in East Lothians and from 10-15 May are offering it in return for donations to the Campaign.

FREE Real Bread Week guide

Want more ideas for Real Bread events, activities and fundraising at any time of year?

Look no further than our FREE (though donations are very welcome!) short guide, which contains:

• Ideas for Real Bread events and activities
• Making your event/activity a success
• Practical and legal bits
• Money, money, money
• Poster templates
• Labels for collection tins

We have published two versions of this PDF guide, which you can find alongside our other publications here.

Inspiration for your event/activity

Here are just some of the things people did in previous years..

Perhaps something here will make you think 'aha - now that's something I could do, too!'

2014

• Real Bread Maker Week: A celebration at Bread Ahead with Campaign ambassador Aidan Chapman, Bread Ahead owner Matt Jones.
  Do Sourdough book launch by Campaign co-founder Andrew Whitley at The Hub King's Cross
• East Bristol Bakery, Joe’s Bakery, Hart’s Bakery, and Mark’s Bread forming the heart of Bristol Bread City as part of Bristol Food Connections
• How to Start a Microbakery course at Cocoa & Heart in Bexleyheath
• Woodfired Make and Bake at Manna From Devon in Kingswear
• Real Bread Open Day at Artisan Foodworks in Burscough
• Campaign cofounder Andrew Whitley Sharing the Power of Sour for Good and All as part of The School of Artisan Food’s Food for Thought weekend in Nottinghamshire
• Slow Food UK is running a Real Bread quiz from 14-22 May, with prizes from Campaign supporters Bread Matters, Doves Farm, Astons Bakery & Pump Street Bakery.

2013

• Cinnamon Square in Rickmansworth are running a children's bread making workshop and donating all proceeds to the Campaign.
• Bread Matters are donating £4 for every new starter kit they sell, and running a fundraising raffle at a special dinner they're holding in conjunction with Café St Honoré.
• Bread At Home will be taking Real Bread to sell at work donating 50p per loaf to the Campaign
• Leicester Born and Bread is donating 10% of all sales during Real Bread Maker Week to the Campaign.
• Joe's Bakery in Bristol is launching a new 'National Loaf' made from organic stoneground wholemeal and white flour and donating 50p from each one sold to the Campaign.
• Hopes of Longtown is holding a bread competition (#HopesBreadComp) on 11 May
• Real Slow Bread "Thanks to the campaign for all the support and advice it has provided, without which Real Slow Bread would certainly not be up and running.   I've decided to send 10% of my sales this week as a thank you."
• Artisan Foodworks Donating £5 for each class booked during Real Bread Maker Week to the Campaign.
• Love Bread's new Community Supported Bakery bakehouse will be opened officially by the Mayor of Calderdale (okay, so perhaps there won't be many of you can follow suit on this one; well, not this week, at least...)

For details of these and many, many more events throughout the year, please visit our calendar.

National Mills Weekend

As the Real Bread Campaign champions all-natural local loaves, it's no coincidence that we organise the start of Real Bread Maker Week to coincide with National Mills Weekend, which in 2014 is 10 and 11 May.

nationalmillsweekend.co.uk