We’ve Got An Oven – April Update
So, this morning was a momentous occasion in the life of Stoneham Bakehouse. We had our oven delivered! We’ve always wanted to bring an oven into the heart of the community, and now we can say we’ve achieved that. It’s still to be commissioned, so we can’t quite get baking yet, but we’re most definitely a big step closer to opening our bakery and being able to nourish the community.
Many of you will have supported our Crowdfunder campaign. Thank you. It’s because of people like yourselves that we have been able to get this oven. It’s also down to fellow members of the Real Bread Campaign, Tom Chandley Ovens, who sold us a discounted oven, and who drove all the way down from Manchester on a Sunday to get it delivered this morning.
With Easter fast approaching, we’ve decided to open for a few hours on Good Friday to sell our hot cross buns. Baked in various kitchens across Poets’ Corner, these mark the last bake we’ll do in our former state as ‘gypsy’ bakers. Come along to the Bakehouse on Friday morning from 9, pick up a hot cross bun, and whilst you’re there check out how we’re getting on with making the place into a bakery.
Over the last few months one of the things which has heartened us, and kept us motivated, has been people knocking on the door when we’ve been painting, or catching us in the street, to express their excitement for the bakehouse coming to Stoneham Road. It’s great to hear people supporting our mission. Being excited about the prospect of real bread on their doorstep, but also backing us to help nourish the community’s wellbeing. We got a nice mention from our local MP Peter Kyle the other day saying just that.
Big Plans Big Power
Today marks the real start of our big plans for the Bakehouse on StonehamRoad. Today has seen the groundwork going in for our updated electrics. With our plans for a Bakehouse which provides bread and breadmaking to the community, we need to start off right. So, over the next few days you’ll see work going on to give us the systems we need to nourish the community when we’re open. Electrics first, then the all important oven you’ve helped to fund, then the other equipment which will help us be a successful community bakery.
Two Days to Go
We’ve got just over two days to go on our Crowdfunder, and every penny we raise for the crowd from now on will go towards funding baking projects with and in the community.
Over the last few years we’ve worked with a whole host of different groups; from vulnerable pupils at the local school, to Employment Support Allowance claimants, to older people at risk of isolation. We want to give people and groups like this the chance to benefit from the therapeutic qualities of baking bread.
By pledging you’ll help us nourish the community, and you can grab a great reward too. Choose from vouchers for bread or workshops, VIP pizza night tickets, or donating your reward to people less well off. Please consider pledging and sharing.
We’ve Done It
We’ve done it! We can’t quite believe it yet, but earlier today we hit the £20000 mark. Thank you, thank you, thank you to every one of our 200+ backers so far, who have ensured we can kit out the bakehouse on Stoneham Road and further nourish the community.
Those of you who have been keeping an eye on the target will have seen that we jumped very speedily from £10000 to £20000; in fact it was one pledge. We’d applied to the Santander Changemaker Match Fund, and we’re really pleased to say that we were accepted, meaning that Santander pledged the remaining £10000 of our target.
So what next? Well, Crowdfunder give us the chance to add a stretch target. This is a great opportunity, and we want to grab it with both hands and use it to support more people with their wellbeing through working with dough. With the money we overfund, we want to run more projects with the local schools, older people’s groups, women going through times of difficulty, and be able to reach areas of the community we’ve not worked with before.
We still knead you, but so does the wider community!
