Sub Rosa Bakery plans to distribute its bread to local children and families in need in partnership with the Neighbor Loaves Program. (Photo by Stephanie Breijo)
“I think that one of the things that COVID has done is reveal to us where some of the fault lies and structural issues lie in our communities,” says Evrim Dogu, co-owner of Sub Rosa Bakery, noting inequities surrounding race and class with regard to health care, food quality and food availability for children.
To help address the issue on a local level, Dogu, along with sister and Sub Rosa co-owner Evin Dogu, are turning to their wood-fired oven in Church Hill. In advance of a new partnership with the Neighbor Loaves Program (NLP), the duo will work to provide fresh bread products to children in Richmond who are in need of healthy food options.
Sub Rosa is the first Richmond bakery, and one of five in the state, to participate in the national initiative that showcases how vital regional food systems are for communities.
In keeping with their concept of a community-supported bakery, the Dogu siblings have wanted to donate high-quality, locally sourced breads to Richmond schools since the shop’s opening in 2012. Now, through the Neighbor Loaves Program — and in a desire to respond to the pandemic — they have a framework to do so.
“The Neighbor Loaves Program gives us a format for something that we had planned to do anyway,” explains Evrim. Over the past year, Sub Rosa has been working to introduce a program that brings “healthy, nutritious, delicious bread to populations that either don’t have access to it, don’t know about it or otherwise just wouldn’t be able to connect with bread."
However, progress has been slow going, with COVID-19 and the subsequent economic downturn postponing their outreach. Evrim has continued to research the logistics and limitations associated with donating to local schools, reaching out to other local bakeries to see if there’s room for collaboration. “There is a need way beyond what we can provide,” he says.
Started by the Artisan Grain Collaborative, NLP works to provide a steady source of bread products to regional food banks and shelters and simultaneously ensure local farmers, bakers and millers are supported during the economic crisis.
Comprised of a collection of bakeries across the Midwest and Mid-Atlantic, project participants commit to utilizing 50% local grain. Customers can choose to purchase a loaf of bread from the bakeries and donate it to a local food bank, utilizing a “pay it forward” mindset.
“It is the first step to establishing that long-term plan,” Evrim explains. Sub Rosa plans to donate its bread products to the Richmond Public School System through the McKinney-Vento Education Program, a federally funded initiative to ensure that children experiencing homelessness have equal access to a public education experience.
The McKinney-Vento Education Program, in partnership with Housing Families First, a local nonprofit dedicated to helping those experiencing homelessness, connects interested restaurants, like Sub Rosa Bakery, to Richmond Public Schools students who are no longer receiving food from school.
Currently, Sub Rosa is milling most of its flour with grains from Ohio and Minnesota and will not meet the Neighbor Loaves criteria of 50% local grains until next month. Until then, the bakery will donate bread on its own, dubbing the project — which debuts this week — Community Loaf. Once they obtain more local grains, they will officially join the Neighbor Loaves Program.
Evrim shares that he's excited to share Sub Rosa's baked goods with children and families, and that in the future, the goal is to create a long-term donation program similar to Neighbor Loaves.
“There needs to be help from the city and the people that we elect; there needs to be some kind of help in addressing the quality and the nutritiousness of what children and communities in general have access to," he says. "That was the pre-coded inspiration behind wanting to pursue [distributing] our bread in the education sector.”
