Anyone can sign up to learn how to make homemade bread at the Greener Village Food Bank in Fredericton. Volunteers chat around a flour-covered table as they bake about 200 loaves of bread on Monday, then leave with a fresh, golden loaf for themselves.
Farrah said kneading dough is therapeutic both physically and emotionally.
“Yes, it’s relaxing, I enjoy the feeling of my hands in the dough,” he said. “But I also like knowing that I’m doing something that will help someone else have something delicious.” The more bread I make, the better I feel.
Greener Village CEO Alex Boyd came up with the idea to teach people how to cook during the covid pandemic.
“We recorded a bread-making class and put it on Facebook to get people more interested in food,” he said. “Last January, we decided it would be a good idea to teach classes in person and bake bread for our food customers who need it.”
Bread, made from flour, water, oil, salt, sugar and yeast, is cooked in the food bank’s industrial ovens for 25 minutes, then depart for Greener Village’s 2,000 client families, along with other perishable and non-perishable foods, such as produce, peanut butter, milk and canned goods.
Boyd, 39, said the response to the program has been so great that Greener Village now offers two bread-making sessions every Monday, as well as a class on Tuesday evenings.
About ten volunteers show up each time and learn the basics from food bank chef and kitchen director Yves Dechaine, who adapted an old recipe from his grandmother for the project.
“She taught me when I was young and I now want to pass on the tradition of bread-making, like any teacher would,” explains Dechaine, 47.
“I hope they retain a sense of community,” he said. “I hope it fills their hearts, because it certainly fills mine.”
Volunteers bake more than 800 loaves each month, Boyd said, with a goal of distributing 10,000 loaves this year. Last year they gave away about 5,000. People who want to contribute but don’t have time to help with mixing, kneading and baking can donate flour and yeast to Bread Mondays , did he declare.
“The main ingredient is love,” Boyd said, noting that food insecurity is on the rise in Canada and the United States.
A U.S. Department of Agriculture report released last year found that more than 44 million Americans live in hungry households. In 2022, New Brunswick had the second highest rate of food insecurity among Canada’s 10 provinces, according to PROOF Food Insecurity Policy Research.
Boyd said he would love to see Bread Mondays take off in other communities. The New Brunswick Telegraph-Journal recently reported on the popularity of the free bread project in Fredericton, population 66,000. About 22 per cent of New Brunswick’s population suffers from food insecurity, Boyd said.
“Teaching people how to bake bread has a long-term benefit in combating the growing trend of hunger,” he said. “We offer something freshly baked, without preservatives or additives. And there’s nothing like the taste of warm, homemade bread.
Bread Mondays are also a customer favorite, said Greg Doucet, senior director of services at Greener Village.
“People who come to us are to some extent disenfranchised, either homeless or barely making ends meet,” he said. “But it’s not just about bread. People often tell us that smelling fresh bread takes them back to happier times and family memories.
That’s what happened to Dewayne Hamilton the first time he bought a loaf of bread at Greener Village a year ago. Hamilton, 52, said he was homeless when he was younger and has relied on the food bank to supplement his grocery budget for almost 20 years.
This year he decided to sign up as a volunteer and help bake bread for other people facing difficult times.
“This is my way of paying back, plus I’m relearning a skill that I should never have lost the ability to master,” Hamilton said. “My grandmother taught me how to cook and bake. In his kitchen, he had to help him. There was no escape.
His thoughts were with his grandmother as he rolled up his sleeves in the Greener Village kitchen.
“It brought me right back – it was like a refresher course,” he said. “A loaf of bread makes a difference to many people. Without these people, I don’t know what I would do.
Volunteer Amy Chenard said she was looking forward to spending cold January mornings kneading dough in a warm kitchen.
“I get out of the house, I can socialize with other people and I can cook, which I love to do,” she said. “I grew up in a house where my parents taught us that we should help when we could. »
“Knowing that this program is helping to feed so many people makes my heart happy,” she added.
For Farrah, his Monday mornings as a baker have an added benefit: He now takes his skills home, and his wife is impressed.
“You could also say she’s amused, because she never thought she’d see the day where I would do something like that,” Farrah said. “We have a bread machine at home, but since I started baking we don’t use it anymore. »
“I like to think I can cook it better,” he said.
