2,000 loaves of love

She might not have any fish, but a Manitoba baker has done a miracle with 2,000 loaves of bread.

Joan van der Linde is the baker of The Bread Basket, an initiative she began right after the pandemic started to shut things down in Canada. 

"On March 22, 2020, COVID had just hit and I thought, what can we do to bring cheer to the world. This idea just came into my mind, start baking bread," says van der Linde. 

She did just that and started to give it away. She placed a basket at the end of her walkway attached to her lamp post and put loaves in there for any community member who wanted some bread.

"I didn't really know where it was going," she says, yet as of Sunday, she'll have given away her 2,000th loaf. 

Van der Linde started with one bread-making machine in the beginning. Now she's up to four regular machines going in her own 'bread room' in the house. A couple of months ago she even started making gluten-free loaves of bread interspersed in her bread giving. 

"My mind is just blown how this became a community project. Around loaf 1,200, I was giving the loaves away myself. I would text and call people. But around 1,200 I had this idea to let one person take the four or five loaves and they would give it to their family and friends."

She says people donate to the bread fund, have given her bread-making machines to use and ingredients, and are now helping give it away as well. 

"There is something super significant about bread. That is definitely the backstory of this. On my tag on every loaf of bread is 'Give us this day our daily bread.' The second line I have often used is that Jesus said, 'I am the Bread of life.' I think it's hugely significant."

Van der Linde resides in Morris, Man. and yet people from all over Southern Manitoba have enjoyed her baking. 

"I stay excited about this because of the stories that come out of this. There are several seniors that have not had fresh warm bread since their wives passed away. One man had not had this since his wife passed away ten years ago. Then there are stories of the joy of kids giving the bread away. That has been so cool to see that."

Van der Linde reached her 1,000th loaf exactly one year after she started in March. However, she's ramped up the making and giving, as the 2,000th loaf is being given away only 7 months after, on October 31. 

"Starting Monday, November 1, it's going full steam ahead. I want to be doing at least 100 or 125 per month."

She says she will continue baking and giving bread until she feels from God that it isn't needed anymore.