π Bread Club signup for February
Donations for January & announcing February's donor partner
Good morning bread friends π€
Bread Club is back for February!
Iβm so grateful to our loyal Bread Club members, and Iβm excited to share that by popular demand Iβve added a few additional spots this month :)
Bread Club is a subscription for sourdough bread every Saturday for the month. This subscription is perfect for anyone who knows that they'll want to get bread every week and wants to avoid the risk of pre-orders selling out before they get around to placing an order.
This is a 4-week commitment and a refund can't be issued for any missed pick up, so please make sure to sign up only if you can pick up for each Saturday this month.
You can click here to signup now
Two notes about Bread Club:
1) There are a limited number of spots for Bread Club.
2) We donβt yet offer auto renewing subscriptions, so for now youβll want to make sure to re-order each month.
As most of you already know, Bread & Justice is a philanthropic enterprise where we donate 100% of our profits to a different nonprofit each month. As you may know, For the month of January we were donating to Everytown for Gun Safety. This donation was inspired by the extremely tragic school shooting that happened in my community at Abundant Life Christian School here in Madison. I was proud to partner with you all to support Everytownβs proactive work to change federal and state laws. After all of the profits from each loaf of bread that you bought, we were able to donate $376 to support Everytownβs work. It was exciting to see they already issued this press release acknowledging that Governor Tony Evers has established a new Wisconsin Office of Violence Prevention and immediately allocate $10 million dollars to supporting the office.
Coming into this month, I thought Iβd write a letter about the insane statistics of gun violence in our countryβ¦ and about the big pile of nothing that Senator Ron Johnson has done to make our kids safer. But sadly those things are both well understood, and upsetting. Thats why I was so grateful for Melissaβs letter this month which was both grounding and up lifting. If you missed that letter, Iβd recommend you do yourself a favor and read it.
Iβll also remind you that if you feel called to donate to the ALCS community directly, The United Way has established the Abundant Life Christian School Emergency Recovery Fund.
I hope this letter can be an encouragement to you today. But firstβ¦ can I be honest with you all about whatβs going on in my head lately?
Last night I sat down to reflect, and think about what organization to donate to this month, I went into a bit of a spiral of thoughts. Iβm afraid that Donald Trumpβs swift attack on immigrant workers, federal employees, basically the whole nonprofit community, the LGBTQ+ community, the entire public and private DEI initiative, and so many others β left me feeling a bit overwhelmed. There is so much intentional damage happening to our society right now I canβt figure out where to focus my concern. This sense of mass chaos and overwhelm is surely part of the strategy.
When this sort of thing happens, I choose to turn inward and refocus on what I can do locally.
People in power right now seem to be promoting a strong culture of finger pointing. If they have their way, weβll all slowly develop fear and anger about some βotherβ community that we can blame as the source of our problems in society.
Instead of giving in to fear, Iβm going to start by reminding myself of my own agency to be able to directly help vulnerable people in my own community.
Trump lied when he made a promise to bring down food prices on day one of his Presidency. Iβm sure plenty of people voted for him because they wanted to believe that he would have the power (or the interest) to do that.
I want people in my community to have access to food, and we have tens of thousands of families right here who are food insecure. Without regard for who people voted for, I know that peopleβs lives (and our collective community) are not going to get better if they canβt afford to feed their families.
Iβve decided that weβre going start locally, and focus on supporting people with something highly tangible. For the month of February weβll be donating 100% of our profits to the River Food Pantry.
The River is South Central Wisconsinβs busiest food pantry. They serve over 3,000 people every week in pursuit of its vision: a fully nourished community.
In 2024, The River served 18,777 people facing food insecurity.
On a more joyful noteβ¦ there are a few tickets left for tonightβs Bread Party that Iβm cohosting with Mad Agriculture at Giant Jones Brewery. Click here to reserve a ticket if youβre planning on stopping by. Theyβll be giving out copies of this beautiful magazine to those in attendance.
πΎ You're invited to this party which will be an evening of bread tasting, meeting new friends, and hearing conversation about the ways in which a bread maker, a seed breeder, and a beer brewer are all doing work to affect change in our society.
When: TODAY - Jan 30th
6:00-8:30 PMWhere: Giant Jones Brewing
931 E. Main St. Suite 9
Madison, WIFeatured Speakers:
- Mo Cheeks (Bread & Justice) on sourdough as a movement for justice
- Emily Haga, seed breeder, discussing the stories of seeds and plants
- Jessica Jones (Giant Jones Brewing) on beer's role in community resilienceYouβll also get a copy of Issue 12 of Mad! Agriculture Journal which features your very own neighborhood baker ππ
Hope to see you soon π€
your friendly neighborhood baker
Mo Cheeks