UPDATE February 22, 2025: Scheduled our first bread therapy pilot session to celebrate us being the first Bread House in the US as part of the global Bread Houses Network
UPDATE beginning February 2025: We have running water and a working toilet!!!
UPDATE October 2024: The sewer line was FINALLY found, dug up and connected and the City of Kettle Falls just hooked up the water meter.
UPDATE July 2024: We were able to overcome all obstacles and are working hard on renovating the little building! We now even have power and lights have been installed! ! If you drive by you can follow our progress as we are painting the front and prepping the barn door for a mural.
Your doughnations for this future community space are greatly appreciated!!! We receive no public funding and every amounts helps to bringing us closer to our goal of creating a welcoming for our community.

There was a little abandoned building at the corner of 3rd and Meyers in Kettle Falls, WA. You may have seen the strange looking mannequin in the window as you were driving by. That's Roger and he was watching the place until were ready to start our renovations.

"BreadHaus - Traditional Skill Workshop" learning center is a collaboration between BREAD Encounters (a small start-up nonprofit with 501(c)3 status) whose mission is to drive positive social change through community building breadmaking activities and Boulder Creek Rustics. Boulder Creek Rustics is a local business whose owner Charles Lamica is also the sponsor and leader of the 1804 Youth Club which teaches traditional skills as used by the 1804 Lewis and Clarke expedition, to local youth. BREAD Encounters is a licensee of the Breadhouses Network , part of the International Council for Cultural Centers (I3C)

Bread houses are community centers that host bread baking and various other activities for groups of people of very diverse backgrounds, thus encouraging relationships across ethnic and religious origins and social status. The model has been successful in increasing the social capital in communities and strengthening civic spirit as well as increasing the skills, self-esteem, and employability of the participating individuals.

We see our learning center as a dynamic intersection of tradition and innovation, where individuals of all ages and backgrounds come together to explore, create, and connect.

Both bread making (with a focus on sourdough) and traditional skills are deeply rooted in human history and culture and foster a sense of community. Sharing freshly baked bread and showcasing traditional skills will bring people together, spark conversations and preserve cultural traditions. We are working with local grain farmers to include locally sourced and freshly milled whole grain in all of our bread workshops. We aim is on giving our students a well-rounded "bread-ucation with focus on the benefits of naturally leavened, long fermentation breads.
We will use our shared bread baking power in so-called "community bread bakes" where we invite community members to bake bread with us for those with food insecurities by collaborating with local food banks like the Kettle Falls Community Chest
Traditional handcrafting skills used to be handed down from generation to generation but many opportunities for learning these skills have been lost. Through our Traditional Skills Workshops we will offer classes in leather crafting, woodworking and blacksmithing which have all seen a resurgence of interest.
We are very excited to bring "bread therapy" to Stevens County. Bread therapy was developed by Dr. Nadezhda Savova, a Bulgarian anthropologist who studied at Princeton. Bread therapy mixes breadmaking with the therapeutic drawing in flour, rhythm, music, poetry, story telling and drama. It removes barriers between people through creative role games, discussions around metaphors combining activities and communication - intergenerational and intercultural.
Future projects for the "BreadHaus - Traditional Skill Workshop" include building a woodfired community bread oven with members of the community. This oven would be available at certain times to the community to bring their bread doughs, pizza doughs and other goods to-be baked while at the same time providing a space for community engagement.
Coming in March 2025 to the Orient School District: a UK based program called "Bake Your Lawn (from seed to sandwich)" in collaboration with local regenerative farmer Joel Fancy of Fancy's Regenerative Farm who to lead local students through the process of planting, growing, harvesting, milling and eventually baking a loaf of bread from the flour of their harvest. This will help students have a better understanding of bread, one of the main staples in the western diet, learn about (regenerative) farming practices and nutritional benefits of learning to bake their own bread.
The space will also function as a community space for the 1804 Youth Club

Some of our events and classes will be free to the community while others will be paid classes to fund our free programs. We will always offer scholarships. We currently receive no public funding for this project and would be thrilled for you to contribute any amount so that we may see this project come to fruition for the benefit of the community.

The BreadHaus

Reviving Skills. Building Community: