Bread Basket hands out its 5,000th loaf
On March 23, 2020, 10 days into the COVID-19 pandemic, Joan van der Linde made a loaf of bread in a single bread machine and gifted it.
“I had a divine download,” explains van der Linde. “People were grappling with the harsh reality of the pandemic. I heard a whisper in my heart: bake bread and give it away.”
She’s been doing just that ever since, though with considerably more bread machines at her disposal. Last weekend, van der Linde gifted her 5,000th loaf.
“Jesus reminds me this is not about me. I am a facilitator of God’s project. This bread story is something God has used to heal my heart,” says van der Linde as she reflects on what has become known as The Bread Basket project.
“Today we are celebrating what can be accomplished when many people work together,” she says, noting it’s only through the generosity of others in the community that the project has been able to keep going.
“If it wasn’t for Pat Schmitke’s donations of ingredients, this project wouldn’t be happening,” she says, in example, of the Morris Bigway owner. “God orchestrated today.”
Van der Linde looks up from her work with the rolling pin with a smile and recites, “Your purpose is not the thing you do. It is the things that happen in others when you do what you do.”
She has kept a record of the person or place where every numbered loaf has been delivered, along with pictures and newspaper clippings. There were so many that she had to start a second book. There is one handwritten page in that book titled “LOAF 5,000.”
Van der Linde has been looking forward to celebrating that 5,000-loaf day for months. To mark it, she held a celebration Saturday to gift loaves to 12 people who have contributed to The Bread Project in some way to make it a success.
She set up a microphone and speakers and moved her bread machines and shelving rack to her front yard for the celebration. Family and friends start arriving around noon.
“Baking 5,000 loaves of bread is a massive accomplishment,” observes sister Barb Brandt, who had the job of helping stage the front yard. “She is about making changes that make the world a better place.”
Asked how long she intends to keep giving bread away, van der Linde says she has no plans to stop any time soon.
“There is still life in it. The story is still impacting people. I still have a list of people wanting bread. Maybe after 10,000 loaves. I’m calling this part ‘The Next Five Thousand.’”
A transport truck from Paul Brandt Trucking with a trailer attached pulls up in front of the van der Linde’s home. The driver exits and opens the trailer door at the rear to reveal a Bread Basket poster filling the back of the truck.
“If you were given the task of filling that trailer with loaves of bread, it would take 5,000 to fill it,” shares van der Linde. “Someone way smarter than myself figured this out and came up with this brilliant visual.”
“Joan asked me if she could have a truck to create a visual, so people could see the space for 5,000 loaves of bread,” says Kerry Brandt, driver and brother-in-law to the bread baker. “Little things become big things. A few loaves of bread to Joan seemed big. The impact can also multiply.”
Following the truck’s arrival, van der Linde handed out loaves to project supporters, including Troy Hoffman, Kerry and Barb Brandt, Bethany Wiebe, Jason and Stephanie Jablonski, Schmitke, and this reporter, who has covered the project through the years.
Loaf 5,000 went to van der Linde’s church on Sunday to be used in communion.
