North West Baker Becomes Real Bread Campaign Ambassador

Aidan Monks, co-owner of Lovingly Artisan Bakery, based in Kendal became one of 12 new Real Bread Campaign Ambassadors.

The Real Bread Campaign is run by UK-based charity Sustain: the alliance for better food and farming. Their mission is to find and share ways to make bread better for us, better for our communities and better for the planet, working towards a future in which everyone has the chance to choose Real Bread.

Aidan Monks who has always been a local lad from Kendal and has been running the Artisan Bakery in Plumgarth for 10 years said: "I have been baking here in Kendal and Plumgarth for the past 30 years.

"I trained as a chef originally and it sort of evolved when I was in Boston College of Culinary Arts Schools where I got a scholarship .

"I got the bug for artisan bread and then came back and opened my first bakery."

"We always concentrate on quality of the bread – a lot of people will remember us from Oxenholme train station where we started this business, there are a lot of people wo would buy bread and coffee from there.

The family run business pride themselves with the fact they are organic and handmade.

Father of two, Aidan said: "There are no chemicals distinctive taste in our bread, there is no comparison to mass manufactures - it's that quality people like.

"Concentrating on the quality of ingredients flour, grain is really important.

"I think that's the secret to why we’ve won national bakery award for best bakery in the uk and Olive magazine, best baker in the uk award."

In April 2021, The Real Bread Campaign publicly announced an open-application process, to select a new batch of ambassadors, which ran until the end of May. The team then spent a considerable amount of time cogitating and digesting to narrow the 80 applicants down to the final 12 successful applicants.

Aidan Monks who was one of 12 said: "‘’I’m honoured to have been selected as a Real Bread Campaign ambassador alongside my colleagues

"Being an ambassador will provide me with an even bigger platform to share my passion for Real Bread far and wide, with as many people as possible, and hopefully enable me to share a little learning and knowledge along the way.

"I’d encourage everyone to get involved and become a Campaign supporter and share our passion for Real Bread.’’