Sign up for E5 Bakehouse's bread subscription service and support their training scheme for refugees

Now the season of carbs has truly arrived, does anything sound more appealing than a bread subscription service? Especially one as warm-hearted as E5 Bakehouse and Refugee Council’s project Just Bread. The ten-week training scheme for female refugees and asylum seekers was launched in 2015. It gives women who have an interest in bread and pastry the chance to get training from the kitchen’s head chefs and develop their English language skills and confidence in a work environment.

‘We try not to ask much about their lives,’ says Jean Kern, who organises the course. ‘But many of them share recipes from their cultures, like Middle Eastern flatbreads.’

The third group of Just Bread trainees hits the kitchen for the first time this week. The 12 women will be baking a new loaf a week – and the bread’s available to collect from the bakery in London Fields, L’Epicerie on Chatsworth Road or Palm 2 in Lower Clapton as part of a four-week service launching on January 10. For £20, subscribers get a loaf a week, plus occasionally a cake or some jam as a treat and the money goes towards running the course and ingredient costs. It’s the perfect gift for someone who’s both socially conscious and hungry.

Find more at e5bakehouse.squarespace.com.