Sharing Bread with Neighbours
Just sharing a loaf of bread seems like such an unassuming and simple event, not worthy of much mention. That is, until about 5 months ago when Deltassist received a call from a new bakery that had just moved to Delta.
Monte Cristo Bakery was looking to partner with a community service agency that could distribute their weekly bread overages; they wanted to make sure it would get to those who needed it. They found out that Deltassist was the go to social service agency in Delta so it sounded like we could help each other out. As we are involved in the Delta Food Coalition as well as a gleaning program it sounded like a good match for us as well.
The first time we went to pick up bread at Monte Cristo Bakery, they gave us 12 cases of artesian breads and cakes. Each case has at least 20 loaves of bread that needed to be put into individual freezer bags. We called a few of our trusty volunteers to help and got started. Every time we went for our weekly bread pick up, Monte Cristo gave us more cases of bread.
Monte Cristo’s generosity was overwhelming, and we quickly reached the point where we had more bread than clients that where coming in to our offices could use. We contacted 3 local senior’s apartments and made arrangements with the apartment managers to pick up bread for the tenants on a weekly basis.
We still had more bread, so we contacted the local libraries and they take a few cases each week.
We still had more bread, so we contacted a local church that has a monthly community dinner and offered them some.
By this time the word was spreading about Deltassist’s bread program and now we were getting requests from local agencies that work with low income residents about receiving bread. At last count we are distributing over 35 cases of bread per week.
This simple sharing in a loaf of bread has now grown to the point where we need more volunteers to help package and distribute the bread. A call goes out for volunteers and the very next week we have a room full of people to help with our new bread program.
We are looking at ways to share bread with Tsawwassen in the near future; volunteers to transport the bread are needed.
Deltassist would like to thank Monte Cristo Bakery for their generosity and community spirit as well as the caring volunteers that help us share this bread with the community.
