Flour to the People – Join the crowdfund

My old friend Andrew Whitley (founder of the Village Bakery way back) is crowdfunding for his Flour to the People initiative – a brilliant project to connect people through flour and bread which has just won the Food Innovation category of the BBC Radio 4 Food & Farming Awards 2021.

‘We support a growing network of community organisations to bring people together and strengthen skills to grow, harvest, thresh, mill and bake with local flours. Our work empowers local stakeholders to work alongside members of their community and connect people with the local flour movement across Scotland.

As the cost of food and fuel rises, there is a risk that people on low or insecure incomes will face even greater challenges to accessing the food they and their families need to stay well.  The ‘Flour to the People’ project is a response to these concerns, and by empowering people to bake together, seeks to improve access to nutritious food and opportunities to build local and individual resilience. Alongside this, our ‘Soil to Slice’ programme provides communities with the unique chance to gain practical experience and skills to grow nutritious grains for breadmaking, a staple – but often neglected – part of our diet. 

As issues of sustainability, health and the impact of the current food system become of increasing interest to government, schools and individuals alike, we feel that the opportunities for interactive learning will only make these projects more popular.

The main focus of our crowd funding is to support project coordination and network building. Our plans include:

• community-building events providing opportunities for on-site education and interaction between communities
• match-making / skill-sharing opportunities between a network of community growers and professional bakers to increase local resilience and abilities
• developing lesson plans and toolkits for schools or groups empowering children to learn, grow and bake together
• enhancing the resources available for communities to participate in citizen science while they grow their own local crops, so that data from community growers feeds into Scotland The Bread’s wider research into better grains.

For more inforamtion – or to support the crowdfund – go here.