Doubling the impact of this bread

Celebrating the generosity of this community, and sharing my talk with our February nonprofit partner

This community has been a tremendous source of encouragement to me. When I started writing this newsletter several months ago, I had no idea how many people would find it. And even if I had known that there would be hundreds of you in such a short amount of time, I certainly would not have anticipated how many of you would be taking the time to reply to my weekly letters, and seek ways to join me in the labor of both making bread and spreading justice.

A few weeks ago I shared that between all of the bread that you purchased and all of the generous donations that were made in January, we were able to donate a total of $465.33 to Second Harvest Food Bank & Feeding America. These organizations were our selected nonprofit partners for January because we identified the need to invest in a radical injustice - which was the lack of access to food here in Wisconsin and across the country in the middle of a pandemic. Once I made those contributions, the organizations shared some pretty awesome feedback about our impact. Our partners shared that our donations would result in the provision of 3029 meals to families in need.

If you let that sit with you, I suspect you might share my feeling of overwhelming humility at the scale and import of that impact.

Well, I’m pleased to share with you all today that the scale of your impact continues to grow.

This past week I got a text from my friends who said that they had been talking about it for a little while, and decided that they wanted to match the donations that Bread & Justice makes each month. Wow! I really can’t express how taken aback I was at the kindness of this gesture. They started right away and have already doubled the impact of Bread & Justice for January - which brings this community’s collective impact for January to a total of 6,058 meals provided for families in need.

I want to offer a huge thank you to Gracie & Andrew Foxwell of Foxwell Digital for their generous commitment to match the contributions that Bread & Justice makes each month.

As you all know, Bread & Justice is a philanthropic enterprise that donates 100% of our profits of bread sales… but I recognize that this newsletter community spans much further than the local reach of our bread. And many of you have asked how you can contribute if you can’t buy bread. For those of you who are inclined to support this work, we’ve recently started accepting contributions directly on our website also.

This month we are donating our proceeds to The Center for Black Excellence and Culture, which will be established here in Madison. Last night, I caught up Rev. Dr. Alex Gee, who is the founder of this center, and a critical voice of leadership in action here in Madison. We discussed the vision for The Center, why it is needed, and the impact that it aspires to have. You can watch that discussion here on Instagram.

Finally, for those of you who are searching for the link to buy the last of our sourdough bread for the month of February… here is the link 🥖 😎

Cheers,

Mo Cheeks
Baker