Iconic Liverpool community bakery receives £95,000 in funding to inspire baking talent

A much-loved community bakery in Liverpool has been awarded £95,000 in National Lottery funding to help train up the next generation of local baking talent.

Homebaked Co-operative in Liverpool has been awarded the grant deliver a programme of training and volunteering at its bakery opposite Anfield stadium.

The community bakery has been providing informal training for the community and its team of volunteers since it opened in 2013, but the grant will allow it to offer more bespoke training programmes for individuals, as well as businesses within the local catering industry.

The bakery, which is well frequented by Liverpool FC supporters on match days, was originally custom built on Oakfield Road in 1903 and traded there until 2010, at which point it was closed due to the decline of the area.

Rather than see it fall into a state of disrepair, the building was saved by Liverpool Biennial of Contemporary Arts visual arts festival as the base for its Two Up Two Down arts commission, which saw local residents reimagine the area as a thriving community hub.

Deciding that the site should be viewed as an integral part of the area’s past, present and future, the building was re-opened as a cooperative bakery by a local group of residents in 2013.

Homebaked, which also operates from a site in St George’s Hall in Liverpool city centre, currently supports 30 volunteers and, with the help of the grant, plans to train up enough people to open a second city centre venue.

Sally Anne Watkiss, Treasurer at Homebaked, said: “Homebaked bakery has very deep roots in the community and its model of employing local people, while providing support and training through a successful trading business shows the ‘art of the possible’ to our community and beyond.

“Thanks to National Lottery players, we are now able to sustain and grow our training and volunteer programme, which will positively impact hundreds of people in our community. We constantly receive requests for training from our partner organisations in the area and this will enable us to meet that need.”

Homebaked have also launched a ‘Peace Pie