Community Loaves

Mission

Nurture strong communities through the connection, training, and empowerment of home-based bakers to reduce hunger and promote wellness at local food pantries through the donation of freshly baked, nutritious bread.

Description

Community Loaves is a dedicated network composed of home based volunteer bakers who deliver freshly baked whole grain sandwich loaves and energy cookies to 44 food bank partners. These twice a month donations provide an increasingly needed and critical source of nutritious calories to our food bank partners and their food security work.

To date, our over 900 active home-based baking volunteers have donated over 150,000 loaves and 115,000 energy cookies to 44 food pantries. Each month we receive new requests for partnership from neighborhood food banks who are struggling to keep up with the demand for nutritious foods for their clients. For many food banks, Community Loaves whole grain sandwich loaves and Energy Cookies are the only freshly baked items they receive. Without our support, they're limited to what they receive through grocery rescue. Clients of our partnered food banks appreciate the quality of our donations and plan their visit to match with our delivery.

We are mission driven as a non-profit organization and seek every opportunity to deepen our support of the incredible food security work being done by our partnered food banks. For Community Loaves, this involves recruiting and training more volunteer bakers. With each new baker we onboard, we inch closer to baking the world a better place. Through our program, volunteer bakers acquire valuable bread baking skills, strengthen connections within their local community, and foster practices that promote wellness for people and the planet. Training includes, foundational elements that highlight the importance of regional grain economies, artisan bread practices, and the value of using nutritious freshly milled whole grain flour. Volunteers gain affordable access to these flours that are typically sold at a higher premium at local grocery stores. Annual tours at their neighborhood food bank maintains a strong connection between our donations and the recipient.

This impressive community-based non-profit is fueled by time and talent - volunteer bakers, flour packers, drivers, hub organizers, advisors, bread mentors, communications teams, and developers who all give generously in support of our mission. Donating your hours provides valuable dollars that support our expanding work. These funds will be used to increase our impact, improve our operational efficiency, develop enhanced training programs for our bakers, and new partnerships with other non-profits. We will also be vigilant in our efforts to secure grant funding to help us meet our specific non-profit objectives.

We are beyond grateful for the gift of time and treasure from all those who’ve been inspired by the work we are doing. Thank you for helping us make a difference, one loaf at a time!

We are truly Breader Together.

Katherine Kehrli
CEO & Chief Bread Officer