3x this time

Are we entering a new season? Is your generosity limitless?

Goodmorning & welcome to another #Gratituesday.

I’m sincerely grateful for the warmth of the sun this week. Yesterday, as I sat in my basement working at the computer my wife sent me a text message. Melissa was texting from the front yard to say that it was warm outside. And to clarify that she wasn’t just taking delight in the temperature rising above freezing again in the first week of spring in Wisconsin, she clarified, “actually warm. no coats. You should come check it out.”

As is very often the case, I was glad that I took her advice. Coming outside and laying down to let the sun beam on my face was the highlight of my day yesterday. I’m reminded that spring is coming, and things will be changing. The sun was a delight all on its own, but the changing weather also gives way to my hope that as a society we are making real progress to tackle COVID. Especially with the rising vaccination rates, I’m beginning to think that we’re turning the corner into a new season. I deeply look forward to regaining some semblance of what we once called normal in-person social interactions. Oh how a hug will feel like a beam of warm sunshine.

Donations? Let’s go for three!

There are a good number of new folks to the newsletter since last week. First, thank you for joining this community. Bread and Justice is a community for folks that care deeply about real bread, and real justice. I write here about both, and this newsletter is the engine that powers a philanthropic bakery that I run out of my home. Each week, I sell sourdough bread here in Madison, WI and 100% of the profits from the sale of bread are donated to organizations working towards a more just society. For the month of February, this community came together in recognition of Black History Month to support The Center for Black Excellence & Culture. I mentioned last week that after all of the bread that you purchased, and all of the generous donations that were made directly to Bread & Justice on our website, we are able to donate a total of $770 to The Center. Well, this community really outdid itself after hearing about the amount that we raised, because you came back and more than tripled that donation. So some thank yous are in order. Thank you to Brit and Adam Ryan for very generously matching our $770 donation. Thank you to Gracie & Andrew Foxwell for their ongoing generous support and matching this month’s donation also. And thank you to the donor that wishes to remain anonymous, but wanted to add to our efforts to raise money for The Center and donated $200 this past week. All told, this community has contributed $2,510 for our February nonprofit partner. All in the spirit of celebrating real bread and real justice. Very very cool.

For the record, since we tripled our impact, I intended to use a gif of Steph Curry (the best 3 point shooter in the history of basketball), but then I came across this photo of Giannis Antetokounmpo (Milwaukee Bucks superstar) playing basketball with his kid. My wife watched some of the NBA All-Star game with me this weekend, and when she saw this scene on TV she remarked that there really should be more content like this during All-Star weeekend. Therefore I decided you’d probably enjoy this too.

Anyway… I hope everyone gets a chance to enjoy the beautiful weather this week. Thanks to those of you who sent in names last week of sheroes that have been influential for you. I’ve enjoyed reading about these amazing women. Please do keep them coming.

Also, I’m not sure if everyone celebrates Pi Day with as much enthusiasm as I do, but this Sunday is 3/14 and it is a good occasion to challenge yourself to see how many digits of pi you can memorize. Or how much pie you can eat. Or both. I haven’t figured out how to celebrate pi day with my bread, but if you have any ideas, do let me know :)

Love you all!
Mo

P.S. This was a shorter email. I buried the link to buy bread in the body of the email… but since I’m in a good mood, it is also here 🤗 If you scrolled straight down here for the link, please reply to this email to confess.