London Fields bakery shares the loaf with bread-making project for refugees

The Just Bread team at e5 Bakehouse.

A subscription-based bread-making project delivering fresh loaves made by London refugees is rising in popularity.

London Fields bakery e5 Bakehouse and the Refugee Council have teamed up with Just Bread trainees, a small group of eight refugee women currently learning to become artisan bakers while gaining vital skills to help them access the British job market.

The trainees come from a range of countries and backgrounds but were all forced to leave their home countries and seek safety in Britain.

Reza, 45, a refugee from Iran, is just one of the women to have benefited from Just Bread. After completing the training course, she landed a job working on e5 Bakehouse’s stall at Secret Cinema.

Reza said: “I did not expect it would have such a huge impact on me. It even helped to tackle anxiety from which I’ve been suffering for a long time.

“I feel great respect for our tutors who guided us step by step, paying attention to all our needs. We were discovering things about ourselves we didn’t know, hidden talents and skills.

“I created some new recipes by adding Iranian spices and herbs. Some were really good, some needed more work but I enjoyed the process so much that I continued doing it at home. I made many different types of focaccia, for my family, friends – I even had some orders!”

Director of e5 Bakehouse Ben Mackinnon told the Hackney Citizen: “We’re delighted to share expertise and enthusiasm for making real bread with people from different cultures, in order to equip them with different skills and also so we can learn about their culture.”

Subscribers will pay a one off subscription fee of £35 and in return will receive seven weeks of bread from Tuesday 1 September – Tuesday 13 October 2015.

The breads can be collected from Hackney Downs or Haggerston Food Assembly, and e5 Bakehouse on Tuesday evenings between 17:00-19:00.

For more information or to subscribe click here.