24 January 2024
This is the weekly-ish newsletter from Loaf in Stirchley, keeping you abreast of our bakery and cookery school, and other news we think you might be interested in.
This week we talk a bit about price increases, why we have to make them and how we come to that decision. We also have the grand total of money raised by you for Birmingham LGBT last year, and are taking part in a workshop in Stirchley on setting up a co-op.
Scroll down for this week’s lunch menu and cookery school classes.
🍞 Pre-order your bread and pastries 🥐
We’ll have plenty on the shelves all week, with lunches served from noon on weekdays.
Our opening hours are:
Wed - Fri: 12-6
Saturday: 8-1
Some prices are going up, because everything is more expensive
From next week some of our prices are going up. This will not be a huge surprise, we’re sure, as inflation continues to be distressingly high. We’ve seen our energy costs quadruple over the last three years, as have our suppliers who have passed these costs onto us. Add to this our commitment to paying the real living wage and the cost of running Loaf has just kept growing.
To put things into perspective, since 2020, outgoings at Loaf have increased by two-thirds. For every £100 we used to spend, we now spend £167.
We don’t like putting up our prices because we believe good food should be as accessible as possible, especially something as fundamental as bread. But we also have a duty to keep the business viable and to keep ourselves employed.
Over the last year we have cut costs as much as we can. We’ve negotiated with suppliers and rationalised our energy use. Non-critical repairs and maintenance have been put on hold and every expense has had to be justified. This got us through 2023, but with no sign of energy costs returning to sanity, we need to get back to sustaining the business in the long term.
Prices are mostly going up by 50p for sourdough and lunches, with a few corrections in other areas. Pastries went up relatively recently so they’re mostly staying the same, and we don’t think increasing the yeasted breads, such as the white tins, is particularly viable. Cookery school prices also went up relatively recently but will be revisited as the year progresses.
We’re very aware that without our customers buying our bread and coming on our courses there would be no Loaf, and as such it's important to us that you have some understanding of why they cost what they do.
We’re also aware that the received wisdom of running a small community bakery has dramatically changed over the last few years. The old model just might not be viable anymore, so we need to get creative and rethink how and why we do what we do. We're looking into ways of bringing more of our customers, supporters and friends into this process. Watch this space.
Charity roundup
For the second half of 2023 we were collecting money on behalf of Birmingham LGBT and we're delighted to say you raised £618.65 which we'll be transferring to them this week.
James from Birmingham LGBT sent us this email:
Wow, you have all really gone above and beyond – thank you so much for this – brilliant work! I’ve popped some information below for you based on a total donation of £600.
It’s often useful for teams that raise money to have a sense of what that donation actually does. Your donation is the equivalent of 24 hours of counselling for someone who can’t afford to receive LGBTQ+ affirmative counselling, so this is a real gift to our clients. Counselling can be life changing for many of our clients and for this we are beyond grateful to supporters like you. It is difficult to get LGBTQ+ affirmative counselling funded, as many funders expect counselling and talking therapy to be delivered by statutory mental health services.
Alternatively, the donation is the equivalent of 48 hours of room hire for our trans and non-binary youth group to meet which in this current climate has been transformational for the young people, or the whole costs for a group to run for three weeks. So thank you so much from all of us – we are all immensely touched by the team at Loaf’s thoughtfulness and generosity.
Thank you again – please thank the whole team and your customers. This is a brilliant start to the year!
Thank you James!
We're going to pause our fundraising activities for a short period as we review how we do this sort of thing, but if you've gotten in the habit of adding a small sum to your bread orders over the last few years, here's a list of the charities we've supported and how to donate to them directly.
- SIFA Fireside
- B30 Food Bank
- Anawim
- The Rape and Sexual Violence Project
- Migrant Help
- Friends of Cotteridge Park
- Birmingham LGBT
- ASIRT, who were supported in 2021, sadly closed last year but ex-employees are setting up an alternative.
Also please remember we remain a drop-off point for the B30 Food Bank who collect from us every Friday.
Discover Co-ops workshop in Stirchley
Are you co-op curious? Thinking of starting a co-op, or converting an existing business or organisation into one? Then this event might just be right for you!
Along with our sibling co-ops in Stirchley we've long wanted to formalise how we offer advice about the way we run ourselves, and this is the first stab at it.
Speakers from Loaf, Birmingham Bike Foundry and Artefact, backed up by the wealth of knowledge of Co-operatives UK's business support division, will be at Stirchley Baths on Saturday 2nd March, from 11:30am to 3pm.
Places are limited so get more details and register your interest here.
Cookery school classes
The following classes have spaces as of this newsletter being posted.
Loaf’s all-day classes:
- Bread — Back to Basics: sold out
- Simply Sourdough: sold out
- Sweet Breads and Viennoiserie: Tue 19 Mar
- Baking with Heritage Grains returns in spring
- Wholegrain Baking with Tom Baker: sold out
Haseen’s evening classes:
Lap’s all-day classes:
- Sausage & Charcuterie: Sat 24 Feb
- Seafood Masterclass: sold out
Lap’s evening classes:
- Thai: Wed 21 Feb
- Sushi: returns in spring
- Ramen: Wed 13 Mar
- Dumplings: Tue 12 Mar
- Knife Skills: returns in spring
Classes for the spring will be released as soon as we're able to schedule them. You can sign up to alert lists for specific classes here.
Lunches this week
Wednesday
- Tarka daal with sourdough (Ve)
Thursday
- Soup: Leek and potato with sourdough (Ve)
Friday
- Curry: New potato, cavolo nero and pea with sourdough (Ve)
- Salt beef on challah bun
Wed - Fri
- Sourdough pizza: Olives, capers, chilli, rocket and mozzarella (V)
- Ham and cheese croissant
- Tomato, spinach and cheese croissant (V)
Wed – Sat:
- Sausage rolls
- Vegetable rolls (V)
Lunches are made fresh weekdays for 12 noon.
Our menu for the week — with ingredients and allergens — is on the website.
Thanks for all your continued support. See you next week!
Team Loaf: Sarah, Dorit, Rach, Dave, Pete, Mina, Neil, Michael, Martha & Molly
Website: loaf.coop
Socials: Instagram / Mastodon / Threads / Twitter / Facebook