Bakers without Borders

Rossi spent summer 2014 interning at the Bread House in Gabrovo, Bulgaria and plans to use the experience she gained to begin a Bread House program at her university in North Carolina to unite various groups throughout the community and inspire the use of bread as a tool for social development.

Roswitha has traveled across the globe, from Europe to Africa, to bake with local people and help communities develop their own local baking programs, such as a community oven operated by women in a small village in Madagascar.

His research is currently concerned with making varieties in wheat and oats resistant to fungi producing mycotoxins, and participatory methods of involving Ethiopian farmers as partners in selection of new barley varieties.

Eva created the “The Companion Festival of Bread” in Devon, baked her MA thesis into a loaf of bread and has held many workshops and baking events in the UK, Norway, Bulgaria and beyond. Eva has made several films about the aesthetics of baking bread that have won awards and been shown worldwide including MoMa, New York.

Albert’s bakery is called Ubuntu Handmade Bread. It was started as a means to help him recover from a serious depressive illness. He loves sharing bread making with others and use bread to work with children, adults and many people with special needs. He enjoys the freedom and creativity bread baking gives him,

Molly has been baking, Illustrating and living New Zealand for the last few years. She has a great joy in working with children and hopes to learn more about how the making of bread can be used as a creative means for social and community change through volunteering at the bread house Sofia.

Ian studied deforestation and food security in Q’eqchi’ Maya communities for his M.S. thesis, and coordinated with Community Cloud Forest Conservation. Having always loved baking desserts, Ian decided to expand his interest into bread, and he currently works as a pastry cook and baker.

Central to Simon’s practice over 25 years is a creative, collaborative and inclusive approach. The input from participants is crucial to the work and provides opportunities for them to explore their creativity to strengthen community and resilience. This idea will continue in his latest project ‘Bread Makers of Porirua, Unite!’.

As coaches and life artists, Helga found out, that bread baking “touches” everybody and gives new inspiration and happiness. “With our bread” they get in touch with people by exchanging goods – our bread for fish, honey, wood for the heating, etc.

Cherry is keen on art and crafts with warmth of hands – sketching, buildings, making models and baking. She is active in participatory projects in Hong Kong and Cambodia. She believes creating art is the most primitive way of communication and aspire to explore different practices with new medium.

Sue have worked in bread and dough for several years as a cathartic means of self-expression. She is presently doing an MA at Dundee Art College. She would love to establish bread dough play as a type of art therapy and is currently exploring this working with community groups and one to one sessions.

Philipp is Co-Founder of an Association for sustainable lifestyle in Germany (Bewusst-Sinn e.V.). He is Member of “Kornkreis” (~Crop circles) = german team of “BakersWithoutBorders”. Philipp is “theBakePacker” + Travelling with a mission: permaculture all over the world.

Hannah is a recent Sustainable Development MA graduate who loves the creativity and inclusivity of Baker without Borders. From her travels and studies she is interested in the stories that the food we eat tell and exploring ways of making them more sustainable.

Torsten is an enthusiastic amateur baker from Dresden. He studies Permaculture Design, works as an educator for sustainability and is co-founder of the association “BewusstSinn e.V.”. His current project “Kornkreise Dresden” is an entrepreneurial initiative for “Bakers without Borders” in Germany.

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Hi I’m Adam, I’m a Pastry Chef at the Wedge Co-op and owner of Majestic Chef Bakery based here in Minneapolis, MN USA. I started baking at 9-years old when my Godmother introduced me to food as an extracurricular activity, and I’ve been hooked since. Growing up here in Minneapolis, in a family where great stock is put into the belief, if you have the means necessary to help those in need, you in turn have the obligation to help those in need without expectation of reward in return. This belief is what drives most of my baking, for the Betterment of humanity both locally and globally, which has brought me to Bakers Without Borders to be an active force for positivity social change. I’m now working to bring Bakers Without Borders to the Twin Cities/Minneapolis area, by using baking and bringing its many artisans, I hope to help encourage positive community and social changes which builds and strengthens communities, instead of weakening and breaking them down.

Yana spent the summer of 2014 as an intern for the Bread Houses Network and the summer of 2015 as a researcher at the Bread house in Sofia, writing her dissertation in sustainable development. She recognizes bread baking as a very strong tool for social inclusion, social sustainability and community building in a diversity of contexts. Having researched it on an academic level and putting it into practice she is an enthusiastic ambassador of the bread kneading movement.

Barbara is a passionate baker and psychologist from Vienna, Austria. Convinced that artisan baking brings people together and has nutritious advantages, she spent some month in Kenya to bake in communities near Kisumu. She wanted to give the locals the possibility to produce their own healthy breads and cakes as well as economic opportunities. In June 2017 she visited the Bread House in Sofia to participate in a training on the Bread House methods. Barbara has already baked with youth groups and is now including these methods. Always open for new recipes and projects, she is curious to bake with different people to give them a way to express themselves, come together, communicate, learn how to bake or simply have fun. To get in touch with her, feel free to contact her at: barbara.werteker@gmail.com

L’udmila Horňáková is an artist, mentor and dramatist working with communities from different backgrounds, social statuses, and countries. She utilizes elements of trust, creativity, art, baking, and elements of food in order to show, enjoy, and explore the power of creative art as a strong tool for change in society. She is currently working toward the development and empowerment of the communities of Slovakia and Košice.

Jaqueline Imbriani, is a psychologist and an enthusiast baker, falling in love for the natural fermentation method since 2016. Learned by herself and now bakes for her community in her house, offering bread weekly to the customers that pre ordered the product. She plans to travel through Europe, Middle East and join Bread Houses Network for some time in 2018, so she learn our methods and improve social initiatives in Brazil when she will open the school-bakery in 2019. She also runs a blog, where she talks about the synergies between slow fermentation and life.

Dr. Lin Carson’s love affair with baking started when she was a young girl. With a PhD from the department of Grain Science at Kansas State University, Dr. Carson considers herself a bakery scientist. Dr. Carson launched BAKERpedia with the ultimate aim of strengthening the entire baking ecosystem. Today, BAKERpedia is the go-to platform for baking information.

My name is Martin Kalamkovic. I live in Novi Sad, Serbia. I work as a professor and multimedia manager in school for children with special needs. I have a lot of experience in international cooperation (Erasmus, British Council, eTwinning, IPA). Being in the Bread house in Sofia was a wonderful experience. I am opened to all kinds of cooperation.

Morgan is originally from northern Michigan, USA. Currently, she is a student of Erasmus MUNDUS MAPP in Barcelona, Spain, where she is doing a Master’s Degree in the Arts of Public Policy, with a specialization in Political Economy & Development. Her research focuses on chitalishta (Bulgarian community cultural centers). In the summer of 2017, Morgan interned for a month at the Sofia Bread House where she had the opportunity to observe how bread can be used as a cultural symbol for social change. While observing this, Morgan supported the Sofia Bread House team by completing several art projects. Here is what Morgan shared about her experience with the Bread Houses Network (BHN) and its methods: “The BHN is such an innovative space with very useful methods that I think hold power for community building and development and locally-specific creative solutions to local issues/challenges. The ‘Bread-in-the-Dark’ method is the one that interested me the most when I first heard about it, because I had never thought much about such an idea. Once I spoke to people about it at the bread house I realized how important those kinds of practices are for bridging gaps between societal groups.”

Petia is an interior & product design, mentor and business developer based in the Austrian Alps close to Bregenz. Enthusiast baker inspired by her grandma and looking for the connection between art & tradition & development and always dynamic, she is keen on exploring art and crafts with warmth of hands – baking, clay, paper & urban botanic. She utilizes elements of creativity, art, baking and elements of food in order to show and explore the power of creative art as a strong method for development of children.

Gergana is the founder of the Bulgarian School in Milan, Italy. With education in Bulgarian philology, her work is related to teaching Bulgarian language, literature and culture. As a symbol with deep cultural meaning, bread is more than just food for Gergana. “Like all good things bread is seemingly simple and can be found anywhere. The aroma of freshly baked bread brings us back to our childhood, makes us feel at home everywhere, but it also helps us discover the truly meaningful things in life,” says Gergana. She heard about the Bread Houses Network (BHN) for the first time while she was doing a study of Bulgaria’s contemporary inspiring initiatives and discovered that the Bread Houses Network had received nomination for Bulgaria’s 2017 Inspiring Initiative. Gergana shares that her training in the BHN methods was interesting and enriching. She is happy to have met the members of the Sofia Bread House team and been inspired by the love and dedication of the BHN towards people, bread, and the world. Gergana is looking forward to discovering how she will be integrating the BHN methods in her work. Welcome to our family of Bakers Without Borders, Gergana!

Jana and Silvia are two avid believers that food has the power to connect people. Since graduating from the University of St Andrews in Scotland, they have been travelling as R&A scholars across Europe to visit different projects that are “doing good through food”. And making a podcast about the initiatives they visit and the people behind them (The Travelling Foodcast). In late 2018, they spent three weeks at the Sofia Bread House to learn about their amazing community-building methods and hope to share what they’ve learnt at future destinations in their travels.

Rolf works for various organizations, a nursing home, a thrift shop and a community garden. During his travels around Europe he developed experience and knowledge on permaculture and self-sustainability. He is studying religion and psychology and adapts this knowledge with bread therapy. He is currently performing small scale community bread making events. The goal is developing a sustainable endeavor, with a focus on teaching perception, hospitality and proper discourse, challenging personal prejudices, re-examine inequality and providing a bonding and rejuvenating experience for all those who participate.