Community Baking Program To Provide Home-Baked Breads To East End Food Pantries

Did you spend the early days of the pandemic perfecting loaf after loaf of bread? Use your newfound expertise by joining Slow Food East End’s (SFEE) Flour Power, which provides tasty home-baked loaves of bread to local food pantries.

“There is no better way to make someone feel loved than a delicious home-baked bread!” said Pennie Schwartz, Slow Food East End Chair. “Flour Power is an opportunity for Slow Food East End to nourish bellies and souls in our community.”

The program launched in late April, with the first donations dropped off at the North Fork Spanish Apostolate in Riverhead.

Flour Power is open to bakers of all levels. After signing up for the program, SFEE will send a recipe developed by David Chaffin, board member and experienced baker, and the ingredients list. Slow Food East End even created a brief video that covers how to make the bread, where Chaffin goes through each phase of the baking process.

“This is a volunteer-based project… it is a way for people to get their hands dirty baking bread and be part of something big,” Schwartz added.

Chaffin’s healthy recipe – which is easily mastered, makes four loaves, one of which the baker is invited to keep for themself. The other three can be dropped off at one of the designated spots on the North and South Forks. Drop off locations will be revealed after registration.

After Slow Food East End got their school gardens project – which now includes more than 30 gardens on the East End – ready to grow delicious, nutritious bounty, members began to think about how else they could further aid food insecure East Enders.

In 2020, Slow Food East End’s efforts included giving grants to food producers affected by the pandemic -which it will do again this year – and donations to food pantries spanning from Riverhead to Greenport and Montauk. So for 2021, SFEE decided to establish Feed the Forks, a way to actively involve the community in Slow Food East End programs, while aiding those in need. Thus, Flour Power, the organization’s first community project, was born. After learning about Community Loaves, a successful program in Seattle, Schwartz decided to create a similar initiative here on the East End. Flour Power’s goal is simple: “to nourish and bring joy to people through a personal touch.”

For more information, or register, visit slowfoodeastend.org.