FEEL-GOOD FRIDAY: 2000 LOAVES

They gather to bake bread each week, then give away thousands of loaves.

Monday mornings at 9 a.m., Gary Farrah ties on an apron, washes his hands and spends two hours making and kneading dough, then forming it into plump little bread loaves. 

Farrah, 60, had never baked bread until about a year ago, when he heard about Bread Mondays, a community program that helps feed those in need in Fredericton, New Brunswick in Canada. Anyone can sign up to learn how to make homemade bread at Fredericton’s Greener Village food bank.

Volunteers chat around a flour-coated table while they make about 200 loaves of bread on Mondays, then they get to take home a fresh golden-brown loaf for themselves. Farrah said kneading dough is therapeutic both physically and emotionally. 

“Yes, it’s relaxing — I do enjoy the feeling of my hands in the dough,” he said. “But I also like knowing that I’m doing something that will help somebody else to have something delicious. The more bread I bake, the better I feel.” 

Greener Village CEO Alex Boyd came up with the idea of teaching people to bake during the covid pandemic. “We taped a bread-making class and put it on Facebook as a way to get people more engaged with food,” he said. “Then last January, we decided it would be a good idea to do classes in person and bake bread...read more

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