The Sourdough School runs as a social enterprise, and the fees you pay to The School are not just a transaction for a course but rather an investment in meaningful, transformative social impact initiatives that are integrated into the sylabus. In the video above, Vanessa Kimbell, the founder of The Sourdough School, discusses the organisation’s social enterprise initiatives explaining how the course fees that students pay are integral to supporting the systems change programme operating a social enterprise before we knew what this kind of approach was called.
We’ve been helping to train teachers to share Baking as Lifestyle Medicine (BALM) as a social prescription and supporting healthcare providers to prescribe BALM and of course our core work in supporting change in the way bakers approach bread.
Our work is about fostering positive change in our communities through our social prescription baking scheme and scholarship awards. These initiatives are both crucial components of our mission and are funded primarily through the course fees paid by our students, and we reinvest these fees directly into the programmes.
We see education as more than the mere sharing of knowledge. We see education as transformative and driving change, and we see our role as supporting and facilitating this change.
Join a wider movement to shift the narrative of bread-making, agriculture, community health and sustainability.
So if you are a student joining, then you are joining a wider movement, one that is shifting the narrative of bread-making, agriculture, community health and sustainability. When you join one of our courses, your tuition fees are more than a transaction for knowledge. They become a catalyst, empowering systemic change that reverberates far beyond our classrooms.
Your journey as a student at The Sourdough School traces the full narrative of bread, from soil to slice. The very core of our teaching is deeply rooted in the relationships that bind our ecosystem together. It begins with the farmer, the steward of the soil, whose practices nourish the land and support biodiversity. The millers who collaboratively work with farmers play their part in turning grain into flour. As a baker, you complete this chain, understanding and respecting these relationships as you create nourishing bread. In essence, every loaf you bake carries within it the story of the soil, the microbes, the farmer, and the miller.
Understanding the relationships that bind our ecosystem together
As you delve deeper into your baking journey, you’ll also recognise the forward ripple effect of your actions. The bread you make does not only feed your family and friends but feeds their gut microbiota, too, contributing to their overall health and well-being. The ‘bake two, share one’ principle amplifies this positive impact, fostering community connection and helping to alleviate social isolation.
By choosing to study with us, you’re making a decision that has far-reaching implications. It’s not just about acquiring skills or mastering techniques; it’s about adopting a new mindset that places you, the baker, in the wider context of the environment, community, and public health. Each small decision you make, each bread you bake, weaves together to form the larger tapestry of positive change.
Your tuition fees are reinvested in our social prescription baking scheme and scholarship awards, in research into Baking as Lifestyle Medicine (BALM), and in promoting regenerative agriculture and local sourcing. These efforts extend the benefits of your learning to wider society, promoting wellness, fostering social connection, and uplifting local agriculture.
In essence, your fees support a self-sustaining system of education, research and community outreach. They enable us to empower others, like healthcare professionals and the NHS, to utilise the BALM model as a tool for promoting wellness that goes beyond the traditional confines of medicine.
