Community Supported BakingThe Real Bread Campaign is the only national organisation in the UK championing Community Supported Baking.If you're sick of industrial loaves and wondered 'how can I help to bring Real Bread back to the heart of my local community?' Community Supported Baking (CSB) might be the answer. Show Beetroot bread If you are working on starting a CSB, are wondering if what you're up to already is in fact a CSB, or have any other related questions, please get in touch.
See also
What is Community Supported Baking?A CSB isn't simply a bakery within a community, but one in which the risks and rewards of the enterprise are shared. It's true that a local bakery is supported by people in the community buying loaves, but only as and when they feel like it. For the enterprise to be considered a CSB there must be a greater level of involvement and commitment. There needs to be some blurring between the ‘me baker / you customer’ line, with each becoming what Slow Food movement would call a co-producer. See below for CSB ideas/examples. The inspiration for Community Supported Baking comes from Community Supported Agriculture (CSA), which The Soil Association describes as “A partnership between farmers and consumers where, at best, the responsibilities and rewards of farming are shared.” For more information on CSA, visit: Why set up a Community Supported Bakery?Potential benefits for the baker
Potential benefits for the consumer
CSB ideas/examplesThere is no single model for how a CSB is set up. Each runs in a way that works best for the people running and using it. There are many different possible partnership configurations between the baker and community. The most suitable in your situation depends upon the needs and offers of the parties involved. We provide more detail in Knead to Know. Community ownership Capital investment In kind investments Bread bond Bread as bread Subscription schemes In return, as well as a guaranteed supply of fresh, Real Bread, subscribers receive a discount (perhaps increasing in line with increasing level of commitment) on the CSB’s standard single loaf price. Apprenticeship/volunteering A more established CSB could enter into a relationship with the wider community of Real Bread bakers by offering an apprenticeship/internship. In this case, the exchange would be the trainee baker giving time in return for the chance to gain skills and experience. Food hubs and buying co-ops MarketingKnead to Know: the Real Bread starter contains chapters on marketing and media relations. The Soil Association has produced Community Supported Agriculture marketing advice, some of which can be translated for CSB. As part of The Soil Association's support for Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) groups, Rob Greenland from Social Business Consulting ran workshops on marketing for CSAs. Much of this information is of relevance to CSBs. Click here for notes from his presentation. CoursesSo far, we know of the following places on our courses page offer ones that focus on community baking:
NetworkingThe Real Baker-e When you join the Real Bread Campaign, you will have access to The Real Baker-e, our online forum. This mutually-supportive community of more than 500 Campaign members - many of whom are involved in Community Supported bakeries, microbakeries and other bready enterprises - ask and answer each other's questions and share ideas and advice. Social media Other places out in cyberspace in which you can make connections include:
Events Visit our events calendar to find or add details of opportunities to meet other Real Bread enthusiasts. Examples of CSBsHere are the UK CSBs we know of so far. All have said that they are happy to chat to people who want to learn more about their stories. If you see yourself as a CSB but are not on this list, please drop us a line as we’d love to learn about what your up to and help share your experience and advice with others. Bread…Actually! The enterprise's evolution ran in tandem with the restoration of Crakehall Watermill, which was followed by Keo Films and broadcast by BBC2 in December 2011 as The Big Bread Experiment. Along the way, the bakers were given expert
guidance by Campaign members Duncan Glendinning and Patrick Ryan of the Thoughtful Bread Company; Dan and Johanna McTiernan of The Handmade Bakery; and Campaign co-founder Andrew Whitley of Bread matters. Action for Market Towns case study of Bread...Actually! Breadshare
Community-Supported Bakery Breadshare Community Interest Company continues to raise funds through loans, investments and small grants to build the capacity of this sustainable Community-Supported Bakery. We supply local village markets, small businesses, box schemes and aim to increase access to real bread for many more members of our local community. Community involvement includes volunteer bakers, local people selling the bread at numerous village markets, and the innovative distribution system we call 'bread baskets', which makes use of existing neighbourhood networks and journeys. A sustainable, local supply
chain is also being developed, which will increase Breadshare's positive effect on our local, rural economy. Loaf loans, on which investors receive their interest in bread, are another means of community involvement as well as of 'raising the dough'. CamBake Dunbar Community Bakery Food 4MaccDirect Bread Club The Forest Bakehouse The Handmade Bakery See also this article on the Making Local Food Work website and another from
The Daily Telegraph. Lewes Community Kitchen www.facebook.com/pages/Lewes-Community-Kitchen Loaf Social Enterprises Love Bread CIC The Oxford Bread
Group Slow Dough Bakery Example prices for a one month subscription: (prices correct January 2011)
www.slowdoughbakery.co.uk Stoneham Bakehouse May 2016 "Stoneham Bakehouse CIC is a Community Supported Bakery in the Poets' Corner area of Hove. We bake bread for the community, using community volunteers, in the community. Having been established for a year, we are baking in a residential kitchen, as well as using the local pizza takeaway oven every other weekend. We are looking to find a kitchen of our own in the local area, allowing us to bring the bread oven back to the centre of the community. Along with the bread production aspect of the bakery, the prime focus of Stoneham Bakehouse is baking for wellbeing. We work with older people, the local Junior School, and preschool children, promoting mental health and wellbeing through working with dough." stonehambakehouse.org.uk/ The Fife Diet / The Steamie Bakehouse September 2012 Matthew and Zillah have been baking organic wholegrain sourdough in their kitchen at home in Dunfermline, Fife since 2009. In early 2011 they then moved the bakehouse out into the 3m x 3m garden shed to continue baking in a woodfired rocket oven. Matthew is now baking around two hundred loaves a week, which he delivers twice weekly to a number of breadclub drop-off points in Fife and Edinburgh. These range from offices, universities, cafes, small shops and family homes. All the loaves are sold in half kilo and one kilo weights and start at two pounds a loaf. Matthew also teaches the art of Real Bread making through the local food network Food for Fife, so members of the community can bake at home. www.steamiebakehouse.com/breads and coming soon...Leeds Bread Coop This small group of bakers is planning to set up Leeds' first Community Supported Bakery in January 2013. The co-operative aim sto produce Real Bread in a socially and environmentally responsible way; make Real Bread available to a wide range of people; offer food-based
workshops that will empower people to develop their skills and improve their health. The co-op is using the peoplefund.it crowdfunding website to raise the money they need to buy an oven. Homebaked Anfield Two years ago, Homebaked Anfield and Community Land Trust, established throuigh 2Up 2Down, decided to bring honest baking back to Anfield. After the family-owned high street bakery Mitchells closed in 2010 when the owners retired, Homebaked's mission became to ‘rebuild Anfield one loaf at a time and one brick at a time’. They have been open for around a year, with a shop front forming part of an art Biennial that highlights Liverpool’s neighbourhoods that have been 'blighted in the name of regeneration.' Lynn Tolmon who is part of the baker's dozen team wants the co-operative to be 'the reason for people to come to Anfield'. They are currently open one day a week to spread the word about the bakery while fundraising, and invites people to 'pop in and say hi!' facebook.com/pages/Homebaked-Anfield Doughies East Anglia Food Link Making Local Food Work supportCould your community enterprise benefit from free specialist support? As part of the continuation of support being provided through Making Local Food Work, Plunkett Foundation has launched a new wave of specialist support to all community food enterprises. This support includes:
For more information about how we can help your community food enterprise, visit the Making Local Food Work website or contact Enterprise Officer Richard Snow by emailing richard.snow [at] plunkett.co.uk or calling 01993 814388. Please mention that you found out about this scheme from the Real Bread Campaign. Andrew Whitley is one of the scheme's mentors and, if demand is sufficient, we've agree to help the Plunkett Foundation to create more specialist Real Bread mentor and study visit opportunities.The scheme has also produced a range of local food resources. More linksCo-operativesUK The Soil Association Food Co-ops f3 Community Food Hubs SETAS Fresh Ideas Loan Finance for Social Enterprises (UK) Transition Towns Please also visit our courses , companions and events pages for other useful links. Community Supported Baking overseasCSBs beyond Blighty... The Backdoor
Bakery Indian Ridge Farm 8 Arms Community Bakery All Good Bakers Community Bread Oven Hot Bread Kitchen The Wild Oven Diva Boutique Bakery Raisin' Dough Fancy and Delicious Columbia City Bakery McGrath's Brick Oven Bakehouse What now?Our book, Knead to Know:the Real Bread starter, gives much more information on how to set up your own bread making business. For more support, why not join other bakers, millers, growers, retailers, activists and Real Bread lovers in general and become a member of the Campaign? Amongst the benefits this offers is access to The Real Baker-e, our online community (of 400 members and growing) in which members can share information, ideas and ask each other questions. Most importantly build up your experience of baking Real Bread, both in your own bakehouse, and working alongside an experienced professional - perhaps as part of our voluntary apprenticeship scheme. Real Bread Campaign: The Real Bread Campaign finds and shares ways to make bread better for us, better for our communities and better for the planet. Whether your interest is local food, community-focussed small enterprises, honest labelling, therapeutic baking, or simply tasty toast, everyone is invited to become a Campaign supporter. |