Help Women Bake a Fairer Food Future in Turkiye

Dear KEDV Supporters,

We are excited to share the first progress from our Clean Bread Project: our first loaves have been baked!

The project began with a simple but ambitious idea: to strengthen the journey of local wheat from the field to the market together with women producers, women’s cooperatives, farmers, and other local actors in Hatay, Malatya, and Adyaman.

Following the February 2023 earthquakes, our work in the region showed us once again that sustaining local production requires more than increasing production capacity. Producers also need access to knowledge, strong solidarity networks, opportunities to develop solutions together, and better ways to bring their products to market.

The Clean Bread Project brings these pieces together.

The First Bread Training in Malatya

In collaboration with Zeynep Ana Women’s Cooperative, we established a bread production facility in Malatya and recently completed the first hands-on bread training.

Women producers from Zeynep Ana Women’s Cooperative and Adpayan Women’s Cooperative in Adyaman, together with women entrepreneurs from Malatya, came together to learn and practice the entire bread-making process.

Participants learned how to create and feed a sourdough starter, prepare dough, monitor fermentation, shape bread, and bake it. Every step was practiced together.

The ingredients were just as important as the techniques.

The women worked with whole-grain local wheat varieties grown by farmers in Hatay using agroecological methods. Women producers from Zeynep Ana Women’s Cooperative had spent the summer cleaning, drying, and milling these grains, connecting the work in the field directly with the bread produced in the bakery.

More Than Learning to Bake Bread

The training also created a space to talk about food.

While baking together, participants reflected on changing eating habits, how bread production has changed over the years, and what “clean bread” can mean for families, producers, and communities.

At the end of the workshop, everyone left with their own sourdough starter. These starters will now continue to grow, be used in different recipes, and be shared with others.

For us, this captures the spirit of the project: knowledge and skills becoming stronger when they are shared.

Building a Fairer and More Resilient Food System

Through the Clean Bread Project, we aim to transform local wheat varieties from the earthquake-affected region into flour, bulgur, and bread through women’s cooperatives, while increasing access to nutritious and responsibly produced food.

At the same time, the project strengthens the role of women’s cooperatives and women farmers in local wheat production and helps build stronger links between farmers, producers, cooperatives, and markets.

By supporting local production and agroecological practices, we are also working toward food systems that are more resilient to disasters and the climate crisis, while remaining inclusive and fair.

Our journey has only just begun. The first loaves coming out of the oven were an important milestone, and our next steps will focus on strengthening production, developing the network, and preparing these products to reach wider markets.

Our goal is to see Clean Bread products reaching market shelves beginning in 2027.

Thank you for helping women producers turn local wheat into new opportunities for their communities and for a fairer food future.

With gratitude,