Community Loaves

We finished the year with 764 volunteer members supporting 44 community food banks in Washington, Oregon, Idaho & California. These volunteers donated nearly 90,000 hours of baking time, resulting in almost 36,000 loaves of bread and 66,000 Grab 'N Go Energy Cookies. The organizational support needed to keep this program growing and thriving includes website development, ongoing outreach to both existing and potential bakers and food banks, leadership development for the management of our 66 neighborhood hubs and 44 food bank partners, and supply management - securing, organizing, and delivering the flour and packaging supplies used by our volunteer bakers once a month. In 2023, we launched a second flavor, Chocolate Cherry, of our Grab 'N Go Energy Cookie. This nutritious "cookie" satisfies the growing need at our partner food banks for portable no-cook items for their clients. The cookie has proven to be a bonus to their outreach to unhoused clients and school backpack programs. For our organization, it has also been a boost to recruiting new bakers who might otherwise be disinterested due to a lack of knowledge and time for the bread-baking process. We anticipate continued growth of the Energy Cookie through the development of different formulas/flavors that will feed, nourish and delight our food bank partners. In 2023, we expanded our network by 9 new community hubs and associated food bank partners. In addition in 2023 we hired our first full time team member, giving the organization more day to day stability. We relocated our flour operations from a personal residence to a light industrial warehouse also located in Kirkland, WA. The addition of a formal space from which we can conduct our business fosters increased professionalism and productivity.

Community Kitchens Program: This program creates additional volunteer baking opportunities by developing dedicated baking spaces, aka kitchens. Having these additional spaces serves multiple objectives. One objective is to provide more shared learning opportunities. Up to six volunteers can participate, engage, and bake communally in the kitchens. Volunteers are mentored on bread techniques and socialize with other participants. Another objective is larger donations to the food bank. The combined efforts from a larger dedicated kitchen space yield significantly larger donations for the food bank. And finally, reduced barriers to participation. Hosting baking sessions in a Community Kitchen allows us to remove participation costs for the volunteer. At the Community Kitchen, all ingredients are provided, and the volunteer's contribution is their service time.