An open-to all celebration of Black bakers and Real Bread business owners to help inform and inspire more people to join the movement.

Do you work in, run or own a Real Bread (micro)bakery? If you do, or are thinking of doing one of these things, then this Real Bread Campaign webinar is for you!

Over a couple of hours you’ll have the chance to hear from Black owners of Real Bread businesses. The event will also include a Q&A session and an opportunity for members of the online audience to share their own knowledge and experience of setting up, running or working in a Real Bread (micro)bakery. Issues to be explored include barriers to, and opportunities for, becoming a business owner

We will also consider what the Real Bread Campaign (and wider Real Bread movement) can do to help more Black people feel welcome in our networks, and empowerment of those who want to be more active, visible and vocal within and beyond the movement.

The event is run by the Real Bread Campaign in association with Sustain’s good food jobs site, Roots to Work.

Tickets

Booking is essential. Tickets are FREE, with a suggested doughnation of £5 or more per person to Sustain, the charity that runs the Real Bread Campaign.

The conversation

People of every colour and ethnic heritage around the world make and enjoy eating Real Bread.

Why is this diversity not as well reflected as it should be in the Real Bread Campaign’s supporter network and the UK’s wider Real Bread movement? What opportunities are there for more Black people to start and run Real Bread businesses and what extra challenges do they face?

The panel

Nzinga Foster-Brown With her sister, Zakiya Andrews, Nzinga began her bakery career making celebration cakes, before they went on to run a café in Birmingham. The sisters served bread bought from a local bakery but trying bread from bakeries further afield gave them a taste for making their own. Their desire not only to create delicious, nutritious food but also to run a business with a positive social impact led to them setting up Blackbirds’ Micro Bakery and Four and Twenty Blackbirds CIC. (NB Though pictured above, Zak is unable to join us for this webinar) www.blackbirdsmicrobakery.com @blackbirdsmicrobakery

Leo Maxlhaieie Locked down in January 2021, Leo started sharing his Mozambican-inspired Real Bread with his neighbours in Sevenoaks, Kent. News (and the aroma) travelled fast and Leo The Baker quickly became inundated with requests and orders. After 9 months, Leo quit his day job to run his microbakery fulltime. In early 2022, Leo successfully crowdfunded equipment for his new commercial bakehouse to scale up production of baguettes, sourdough loaves, cinnamon buns and more. www.facebook.com/leo.thebakersevenoaks @leo.thebaker

Jackie Mckinson Founder and head baker of Aries Bakehouse at the heart of her local community in Brixton. Jackie started a cake making business from home in around 2001, at first supplying events before setting up a market school. In 2015, she moved her microbakery to a converted garage before relocating to a retail park. In 2019, Jackie moved back to where she had grown up, opening the bakery on the street where her mum ran a sweetshop in the 1980s. Using and selling many ingredients from local and other small producers, the bakery’s range includes sourdough breads, challah on a Friday, and jerk chicken sausage rolls. aries-bakehouse.square.site @brixtonpastrychef @ariesbakehouse

This webinar is hosted by two Real Bread Campaign ambassadors:

Aba Edwards-Idun While she always loved baking bread, it was during lockdown that Aba really developed a passion for sourdough. A self-taught hobbyist baker, Aba enjoys learning more about Real Bread from different cultures around the world. When she’s not baking, Aba is a lawyer in the City of London. @quansi

Marcia Harris A former professional baker who specialises in natural leavens, Marcia now teaches children about baking, food growing and cooking as part of pastoral care at a primary school in Islington. She is also a chef tutor, teaching sustainable food practice for the National Food Service London’s, Community Cooks program, and runs her own community-based bread making workshops. www.theflourunion.com @theflourunion

You can read articles by each of the panellists and hosts at www.realbreadcampaign.org

Notes

The event picks up a theme of Black History Month 2022: celebrating the continued achievements and contributions of Black people to the UK and around the world.

If you’re planning, running or expanding a micro/small bakery, you might be interested in Knead to Know…more, our microbakery handbook: www.sustainweb.org/realbread/knead_to_know

• A recording of the event will be made available afterwards on the Sustain website.
• Panellists are donating their time and the line-up is subject to change without notification.
• By attending, you understand and agree that any questions/comments you make during the event will be included in the recording and may be published.
• Please join the event waiting room around five minutes before the published start time.
• We can’t guarantee that all questions can be taken and answered.
• The organiser reserves the right to block any attendee who is abusive, or otherwise disrupts the event.
• Your details will be held securely and used in accordance with Sustain’s privacy policy.
• If you make a doughnation and can’t attend, you can claim a refund but please consider letting us keeping that contribution to our charity’s work. Evenbrite will only refund their fee if we cancel the event, though.

This event is part of an ongoing process of exploring and improving diversity (in all senses), equity and inclusion in our work. If you would like to work with us on continuing to address these issues in relation to any aspect of self-identity, please email realbread@sustainweb.org