A festival with a difference. A warning for wildlife-lovers. Canada’s bread price fixing class-action lawsuit. Bread wrappers become garden furniture for the NHS. Plus what is possibly the silliest baked goods theft in the land. There’s no end of bread news, and here’s just some of it to brighten up your summer.

The Gays Eating Garlic Bread Festival

August sees the world celebrating our vibrant LGBTQIA+ communities, with Pride events breaking out across the land. They do it in the USA, too. We love this story from Sioux City, Iowa, where people of every persuasion gathered for food, fun and entertainment at the Gays Eating Garlic Bread Festival, something that’s also a big hit in Seattle and Portland, Oregon.

Originally invented as a small, low-key thing for a few friends to enjoy together, these days the festival is incredibly popular. As Sioux City’s website says, it is “a celebration of community and generosity.” The organisers agree, calling their event a “chill, inexpensive, and (most importantly) silly quarterly meet-up group for LGBTQIA+ individuals and allies.” The funds raised went to the Siouxland Recovery Fund and Unity Way of Iowa charities.

Hot weather duck feeding warning

Stale, soggy, smelly bread plus hot weather equals nasty illnesses, whether you’re a human or a duck. Wildlife experts say please don’t feed bread to birds in hot weather – and ideally, never. Bread doesn’t contain any of the nutrients ducks, geese and swans need, just filling them up so they’re bloated. Rotting bread pollutes the water, encouraging mildew, and the result is fowl diseases. If you must feed the ducks give them fruits, seeds, vegetables and grains.

Bread price fixing scandal rumbles on in Canada

A Canadian bread price fixing scandal that went on for years is coming closer to a conclusion. Canada’s biggest grocer Loblaw and parent company George Weston agreed to one of the largest settlements in the country’s history, paying out to resolve the class-action suits they faced over their role in the scheme. $96 million Canadian dollars-worth of compensation has already been paid out, the remaining $404 million is yet to be sorted.

Soft plastics become NHS garden furniture

Bread bags are made from ‘soft plastic’, as are things like crisp packets and the tops on yoghurt pots. They used to be a challenge to recycle. Now soft plastic waste handed in at Tesco stores by customers is going to be turned into outdoor furniture and garden equipment for NHS community gardens.

The environmental and community charity Groundwork is behind the idea and the recycling process comes from Veolia. It transforms soft plastics into garden benches, decking, tables and raised beds, taking at least 2500 pieces of the plastic to make a bench.

The furniture will be donated to NHSPS Social Prescribing Programme, used to help introduce more nature for people to enjoy around health centres. As they say, by tackling the root causes of ill health and improving people’s overall wellbeing in this way, social prescribing is already a powerful asset to healthcare.

Amateur bakery heist gone wrong

Skilled thieves they are not. We’re still giggling at the story about the bakery boss Rebecca Henderson, who watched aghast as CCTV revealed what must be the world’s least successful theft.

A van being loaded up was left open outside her baking business in Blantyre, Lanarkshire. Two less-than-enterprising scallywags, out and about at 2am, took the opportunity to nick two crates of cakes along with the van’s radio. She said they looked drunk. It was apparently hilarious watching the men staggering down the street with the heavy trays, so cumbersome they had to keep stopping to catch their breath.

All was definitely not lost thanks to the cake-loving comedy duo leaving the key to a Hyundai car behind. The police are investigating. In the meantime the video is bringing joy and laughter to people across the UK on social media.

It’s a steal… free samples of artisan bread

As a wholesale artisan bakery in Kent we serve the UK foodservice sector with super-tasty, fresh-frozen breads and baked goods. If you haven’t sampled our wonderful wares for yourself yet, now’s the perfect time. Hop over to this page and request some wholesale bread magic sent direct to your door.