Edible Blue Ridge Spring 2023

Baking Breaks Barriers

A Roanoke non-profit helps women gain new skills and build bonds

LISA ARCHER

WORDS & PHOTOS

“I don’t have a lot of negative memories about the kitchen, you know? It’s the happy spot. The kitchen is where the heart is.” On a spring-like February morning I step into the LEAP commu nity kitchen in Roanoke and am met with a flurry and flour cloud of activity. If the smell of toasted oats, almonds and cinnamon hadn’t sig naled I was in the right place, the steady patter of voices and thwunks of bread being turned out of tins onto counters clues me in. I’ve come to observe the first bake day of the new House of Bread cohort. House of Bread is a faith-based non-profit designed to help for merly incarcerated women gain new skills and re-enter the workforce. Now in its sixth year, the ten-week program is held every spring and

fall. In addition to learning baking and kitchen skills, participants meet weekly to develop life skills such as resume writing, prepping for job interviews and reacclimating to civilian life. Why baking? It’s easy to establish a common environment when you’re elbow-deep in bread dough, kneading shoulder-to-shoulder. Co founded by Jen Brothers, Jordan Hertz and Lisa Goad, House of Bread (HoB) drew inspiration from a similar non-profit in Alexandria, To gether We Bake. Goad is the current program coordinator. In addition to the multitude of roles she fulfills at HoB, she’s also an avid baker and develops all of the recipes participants prepare. The program begins with a two-week ServSafe training class — a

edible blue ridge SPRING 2023 | 21