All you knead is love

When Sydney's newest bakery unveils its bread at The Sydney Morning Herald Growers' Market on Saturday, the story behind the flour-flecked loaves will be far from obvious.

The list of people involved in creating this bakery is longer than a credit list on a James Cameron film. With seed capital from the federal government and several foundations, the Bread & Butter Project includes players from around the world, including a Spaniard who flew over to spend a week at the venture's Marrickville headquarters to put together its European oven.

The people who own Sydney stalwart the Bourke Street Bakery started the project and are directing operations, but the stars of this production are a little unexpected: they are some of society's most disadvantaged citizens.

''We're doing it to train refugees and asylum seekers, and it looks like we've even found some applicants with baking experience for our first batch of trainees,'' co-owner Paul Allam says.

He rolls off a list of refugee groups associated with Bread & Butter and what's clear is that they are all enthusiastic about this innovative social-enterprise project.

Bourke Street Bakery has gifted the project's key staff, including its new head baker, Alexandra Alewood, with recipes and know-how. ''We've got a track record running a business, and hopefully we can pass along that know-how,'' Allam says. He admits the Bread & Butter dream came before he knew what the term ''social enterprise'' meant. As with many social-enterprise projects, 100 per cent of its profits will be reinvested in the business, creating training and employment opportunities for refugees and asylum seekers.

The idea gained traction more than two years ago when Allam and his wife Jessica Grynberg visited an orphanage on the Thai-Myanmar border. The orphanage had bought an oven and wanted to teach the Karen refugee women how to bake.

''There are several hundred thousand Burmese refugees around Mae Sot, with dozens of legal and illegal refugee camps,'' Grynberg says. ''Human trafficking and child prostitution is rife. We spent 10 days on the ground with the Karen women turning them into bakers.

''Paul worked long days with the women making them proficient in French, Italian and wholemeal breads, teaching them the finer details of mixing, proving, folding, dividing - all the secrets to making a good-quality product. Meanwhile, I met cafe and hotel owners in town and discussed what kind of bread they thought their clientele would like.

''There is a large NGO presence in the area because of the enormous refugee issues. It became clear early on that Western workers would be their main market initially, because there was a natural demand that was not being met … On the last day, several cafes and hotels came to see the result of the Karen bakers and the orders came in - a small baking social enterprise was born.''

Inspired by the experience but frustrated by their inability to keep an eye on its progress from a distance, they quickly realised the greatest possible impact would come from doing something ''in our own backyard''. Allam and business partner David McGuinness spent two years securing backers and kneading out the difficulties. The bakery's Marrickville location means it's within reach via public transport from the western suburbs, where many of the refugees live.

At first, the bakery wants to roll trainees through the system in small batches, with a new group every few months. The plan is that some will graduate to find positions in bakeries and commercial kitchens; others might stay on at Bread & Butter to transfer their knowledge.

''We've been in touch with refugee support agencies and they've indicated there's quite a lot of interest with people from Afghanistan, Iran, Iraq and the Karen community, but in reality the trainees might come from many, many countries,'' Allam says.

''All we know for certain at this point is that our first group will come from western Sydney from postcodes from Auburn to the Blue Mountains.''

Explaining the systems the trainees will go through, starting with smaller jobs, graduating through weighing and shaping, Allam marvels at some of the equipment on offer, including the Salva oven and a roll-in portable mixer.

Allam, McGuinness and Grynberg used their contacts and record to cut deals to sell Bread & Butter Project bread at Thomas Dux and David Jones Foodhalls (it will be available from mid-April). It will also be sold at markets around Sydney, beginning on Saturday at the SMH Growers' Market with a ''best of'' line-up, including organic sourdough whey and rye boules, beer and barley sourdough batards, organic wholemeal sourdough batards and white semi-sourdough sandwich loaves.

Were the breads selected for commercial or training reasons? ''We selected the breads for the food lovers of Sydney - we want to sell lots of great bread,'' Allam says. And topped with all the goodwill the project provides will surely make them taste even better.

Bread winners

When the Bourke Street Bakery team decided to pursue the Bread & Butter Project, they researched the social-enterprise landscape.

The concept of creating businesses to deal with social problems is gaining traction. Early efforts in the US have had success helping groups such as ex-inmates and those who are difficult to employ.

Greyston Bakery in New York was established by a Zen Buddhist. The bakery has an open hiring policy and uses profits to help fund community ventures including daycare and low-income housing.

In Melbourne, Charcoal Lane works with Aboriginal and disadvantaged young people to help with training and opportunities in the hospitality sector.

NSW-based Fair Repairs is a cleaning and repair business that works with Housing NSW to provide work for individuals who have experienced barriers to employment.