Loaf’s New Home in Stirchley

Aim

Help Loaf Bake a Bigger Future in Stirchley! We’re raising £25,000 to move into our new home at the Stirchley Co-operative Development.

Crowdfunder Update: More bumps in the road and the rallying of friends and other independents to keep Loaf up and running!

It’s been a turbulent few months for Loaf, and we wanted to share an update on where things stand at the moment.

As many of you know, we left our previous home in February after giving our six months notice on our lease in preparation for moving into our new space at the Stirchley Co-operative Development - a project we’ve been part of shaping for over a decade alongside local residents and fellow co-ops.

Since then, things haven’t quite gone to plan. Delays to construction (and, more recently, challenges around the future ownership of the building) have left the whole project in a tricky position. There was even a period where it put the future of the development, the homes and the three businesses within it, at real risk.

The good news is that conversations between SCD and GSA are underway, with support from Birmingham City Council and the wider community. We are cautiously optimistic that a resolution is within reach.

Right now, we’re hoping to move into our new home in early June. In the meantime, we’ve been keeping Loaf alive through pop-ups and market appearances, something that would not have been possible without other independent businesses offering us a much needed helping hand! This includes Steamhouse Bakery in Redditch for allowing us to use a corner of their bakery each week, Birmingham Artisan Markets for giving us a stall free of charge at the markets in Stirchley, Kings Heath, JQ and Bournville and the incredible Verbena Kitchen, Anosh and Deadbeat for giving us a space to sell from.

We were also grateful to receive a £15,000 grant from Solidfund - a member-led organisation dedicated to supporting workers in controlling and collectively owning their own work. By pooling regular and one-off contributions from supporters, Solidfund are doing something practical about worker cooperators’ lack of access to mainstream money and support, and without their help we hate to think where Loaf would be!

We can’t overstate this enough - your support has carried us through. Whether you donated to our crowdfunder, came to a pop-up, or just kept showing up for bread each week - thank you! It has made a real difference to the Loaf team and has enabled us to weather this extremely unpredictable storm.

We’re not quite there yet (frustratingly) but we are close! We’re hopeful that we’ll soon be welcoming you into our new, permanent home which will have a bigger bakery and a proper space dedicated to our cookery school. Until then, come and find us at the markets, follow our newsletter and Instagram for updates, and keep spreading the word of our pop-ups.

With all our love & gratitude,
The Loaf Team

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We’re raising £25,000 to move into our new home at the Stirchley Co-operative Development - so we can teach more people to make real bread, bake more bread for our community, and create a lasting hub for real food in Stirchley.

This is Us

We’re Loaf - a community bakery and cookery school based in Stirchley, Birmingham. We started back in 2009 because we believe food does more than fill tummies - it brings people together, teaches, heals and builds pride.

For 13 years, Loaf has been:

• Baking hundreds of loaves, pastries, lunches and sweet treats every week, for local residents and independent businesses in our neighbourhood.
• Running hands-on cookery school classes: bread, pasta, pastry - you name it.
• Giving away our leftover bread to food banks, and our Pay It Forward scheme helps people who come in for a loaf of bread when times are hard.
• A workers co-op, which means we share the work, the decisions, and the joy (and sometimes the stress) of running this place together.

Why Move?

We need more space - it’s as simple as that. Our current place has served us well, but we’ve outgrown it, and this move gives us long-term security by freeing us from reliance on landlords.

The new spot - the Stirchley Co-operative Development, just across the road - gives us the room to:

• Run lots more cookery school classes.
• Bake way more bread (because when people ask, “do you have a large white sourdough left?” we want to always say yes).
• Make sure the space is fully accessible, so everyone can take part, including our cookery school classes.
• Build a hub: shop, school, bakery, where people can drop in, learn, eat and share.

But it’s not just about square footage. We’re joining a bigger vision. The Stirchley Co-operative Development is all about doing business differently - affordable, cooperative spaces for local people and enterprises, rooted in the neighbourhood. That’s exactly what we believe in too.

Being part of this building means working alongside other like-minded co-ops and community projects (like our friends Artefact and Birmingham Bike Foundry who will be our new neighbours). It’s not just Loaf moving - it’s Loaf becoming part of a collective that benefits everyone in the building, and the wider community around it. And we’re really excited about that.

How the £25,000 Helps

We’ll use your support for:

• Fit-out: ovens, cooking stations, shop fixtures
• Moving costs (including the mammoth amount it’s going to cost to move and fit our bakery ovens)
• Equipment (not just big stuff, but the many little bits that make daily life work smoothly)
• Accessibility tweaks so our cookery school is welcoming for everyone

This crowdfunder is a crucial part of making the move happen. With your help, we can move forward and grow while keeping Loaf rooted in Stirchley for many years to come.

What You’ll Get

Every donation matters. You can give any amount with no reward if you prefer - your support is so appreciated. But if you’re up for choosing something:

💛 Any amount – Be part of Loaf’s future! Every penny helps, and you’ll have our heartfelt thanks. 

💛 £30 - A Tray of Cake or Focaccia: An entire tray of one of our cakes or rosemary & sea salt focaccia for you on a date of your choosing (maybe for a party or event) & your name on our supporters’ wall in the new bakery. 

💛 £50 - Sourdough Starter Kit: A jar of sourdough starter, a 1.5kg bag of flour, a banneton or tin, a scraper, a scoring knife and a baking tile from Loaf's old oven & your name on our supporters’ wall in the new bakery. 

💛 £100 - Voucher & T-shirt: A £50 cookery school voucher to spend on a course of your choosing and a limited edition Loaf T-shirt, & your name on our supporters' wall in the new bakery.

💛 £200 - Simply Sourdough Workshop: A voucher for a place on one of our Simply Sourdough Workshops & supporters’ wall recognition.

💛 £500 - Private Cookery School Class: Private Handmade Pasta class for you & 4 friends & supporters’ wall recognition.

💛 £1,000 - Tailor Made Private Cookery School Class for 8 People: A private cookery school class for you and up to 7 friends with one of our in-house Loaf tutors & supporters’ wall recognition.

Why This Matters to Us (& to You)

Because accessing real food should be possible for everyone - food that is made by hand, with real ingredients and that isn't ultra processed. Food that nourishes, that feeds more than hunger, and gives joy, dignity and fosters community. We’re not a big business - we’re your neighbours, your local bakers and cookery school teachers, trying to do right by Stirchley.

If we can hit this target by December, Loaf will have a solid, permanent home, with more capacity to teach, bake, and give back.

Join Us

Want to help? Pick a donation, grab a reward if you want, or just send what you can. Share this with friends, family, or anyone who you think would care about building something good in Stirchley. 

PLEASE NOTE: If you decide to donate, the tip to Crowdfunder is completely optional (and we don't see any of it). You can set it to £0 by selecting 'custom amount'. We pay a 5% platform fee, so this tip to Crowdfunder is extra. 

Funding method

Keep what you raise – this project will receive all pledges made