King Arthur Flour bread-baking lessons help Heritage Elementary and Saline Middle students feed hungry Washtenaw County residents

Before Tuesday, December 4th, Brooke Stoica and Jon Karski weren't exactly sure what went into making a loaf of bread.  Now, the Heritage Elementary students are experts.  And, the baking lessons they have learned will help feed Washtenaw County's less fortunate residents.

5th-7th graders were part of a Life Skills Bread Baking Program presented by Vermont's King Arthur Flour.  Brooke and Jon helped in a hans-on demonstration in measuring, mixing, kneading and shaping leaves of bread.

"Baking is really math and science," said Paula Gray, the King Arthur Flour represntative who led the program.  "But what you're going to do with this skill is really inportant.  You're going to help people in your community."  Following the demonstration, each student took home a bag of supplies donated by King Arthur flour, so they could make 2 loaves of bread.  Students kept one loaf for their family and brought the other one back to school to donate to the Ann Arbor Salvation Army.  The students donated over 800 loaves of bread!

"The project fits well with the FCCLA's focus on community service," said Liz Galimore, the Saline Chapter's Advisor.  "This is a terrific project for the high school students to participate with the younger students.  They also were responsible for packaging the 1200 bags of supplies and delivering the bread to the Salvation Army (along with students from the Teen Leadership class.)