Home bakers give fresh bread to food banks thanks to this non -profit organization in Seattle

A recent Saturday near Seattle, Cheryl Ewaldsen withdrew three golden breads of wheat bread from his kitchen oven.

The scented and topped oat bread was not intended not at its table, but for a local food bank, to distribute to families increasingly struggling with hunger and the high cost of the grocery store.

“I am really excited by knowing that it goes to someone and that they will do, like 10 sandwiches,” said Ewaldsen, 75, director of university human resources.

Ewaldsen is a volunteer with Community Loaves, a non-profit organization in the Seattle region who began to twin the bakers at home with pantry during the COVID-19 pandemic-and did not stop.

Since 2020, the organization led by Katherine Kehrli, the former dean of a culinary school, has donated more than 200,000 fresh breads of fresh bread and some 220,000 energy cookies in food banks. They come from a network of nearly 900 bakers in four states – Washington, Oregon, California and Idaho – and represent one of the greatest efforts of this type in the country.

Now, in the midst of federal funding discounts for food aid at the prices of poor and increasing grocery stores, the demand for donations from the group of nutritious bakery products is larger than ever, Kehrli said.

“Most of our food banks do not receive any kind of bread to whole grain sandwich,” she said. “When we ask what we could do better, they simply say:” Bring us more “.”

Ewaldsen bread goes to the nearby Edmonds food bank, where the list of customers has gone from 350 households to almost 1,000 in the past three years, according to Lester Almanza program director.

Nationally, more than 50 million people per year receive charitable food assistance, according to Feeding America, an organization of hunger rescue.

Anti-chasers say they expect the need to increase while recent federal legislation greatly reducing food aid to the poor comes into force. The Congressional Budget Office estimated that the tax and expenditure reductions of the Republicans muscular by the Congress in July mean that 3 million people would not qualify for food coupons, also known as SNAP Advantages.

Presence of the impact, however, could soon be more difficult after the American agriculture department recently declared that it would stop an annual hunger report in America, saying that it was redundant, expensive and politicized “of subjective liberal fodder”. After 30 years, the 2024 report, which will be published on October 22, will be the last, said the agency.

“The end of data collection will not end hunger, it will only make the hidden crisis which is easier to ignore and more difficult to approach,” said Crystal Fitzsimons, president of the food research & Action Center, a plea group, said in a statement.

Almanza said the federal funding of his food bank has dropped at least 10% this year, which means that each donation helps.

“This is something that many people count on,” he said.

This includes people like Chris Redfearn, 42, and his wife, Melanie Rodriguez-Redfearn, 43, who turned to a food bank in Everett, Washington, last spring after moving to the region to find work. They had to stretch their savings until she started a new position this month by teaching history in a local college. Chris Redfearn, who has been working for decades in business for decades, is still looking for.

“The pantry helps $ 40 $ 80 in savings every week,” he said. “We were able to keep ourselves afloat.”

Finding homemade bread of community breads in a pantry was a surprise, said the couple. Often, the excess bread sent by grocery stores includes white breads or very processed candies given near their expiration or sales dates.

The breads arise in three varieties – honey oats, whole wheat and sunflower rye – all made with whole grains and ingredients in a minimum way.

“They really make him healthy and fibrous,” said Chris Redfearn. “He imitates most of the breads concerned with their healthy health.”

The concept of homemade bread donation came to Kehrli, 61, during the pandemic, when she was moved from her work at the Busy Seattle Culinary Academy.

“I love to cook and just a triggered idea: would it be possible for us to help from our house and get a great precious nutrition for our food banks?” She recalled.

Many pantry do not accept or distribute donations of homemade bakery products. Nourishing America warns individual bakers against practice, saying: “Since food banks cannot confirm how your bakery products have been manufactured or their ingredients, they cannot be given.

But the rules of the Ministry of Health vary according to the State, Kehrli learned. In Washington and in the other three states where community breads now operate, bread is one of the few foods authorized to be given from home cooking via a program like theirs.

“We could not give custard pies. We would not be able to give lasagna,” said Kehrli. “But the bread is considered safe. Everything that is completely cooked and does not require refrigeration.”

However, community bread bakers must follow approved recipes for bread and two types of energy cookies. They obtain common sources flour, cook and have a shared schedule twice a month.

Bakers buy their own supplies, giving the cost of the ingredients as well as their time. Most of them make some breads per cooking session before delivering them to local “centers”, where other volunteers collect bread and transport it in food banks.

Bakers range from former professionals to beginners. A robust website with recipes and practical videos at each stage, said Kehrli.

Cooking the bread is satisfactory on several levels, said Ewaldsen, who has donated nearly 800 breads in less than two years. Part of it is to meet the physical need for food, but a part also addresses the spiritual hunger to connect with the neighbors.

“This is an opportunity for me to cook something and share something with others in the community, where they do not necessarily need to know who I am, but they know that there is a community that loves them and takes care of them,” she said.

Although these feelings are sincere and admirable, anti-scheme experts emphasize that individual donations cannot replace government services funded for Americans in difficulty.

“It’s beautiful that our communities act in this way,” said Gina Plata-Nino of food research & Action center. “But it’s a miche of bread. It will feed a person – and there are millions online.”

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