Baking a Difference

A social enterprise in Rwanda is producing protein-packed bread that nourishes thousands of schoolchildren each day, while helping women secure job skills and employment. Started in 2015 by former Peace Corps volunteer Markey Culver, The Women’s Bakery (TWB) offers training in baking and business to women interested in working in one of several commercial bakery locations throughout the country.

The 200-hour training program covers key aspects of baking (including ingredient functionality, unit operations, and food safety), equipment maintenance, marketing, sales, and distribution, culminating in a vocational degree accredited by the Workforce Development Association. For these Rwandan women, many with no formal education, the opportunity to learn a valuable skill set and increase their income has been life-changing.

The bakery products they manufacture have also had an enormous impact, especially through TWB’s One Bread Project. In Rwanda, where 33% of children under age five are chronically malnourished (UNICEF 2024), more than 20,000 children at nearly 50 primary schools now receive a daily nutritious snack of fortified bread from TWB, up from 463 children in 2019 (TWB 2024).

The latest product iteration, NutriBun, was developed last year to meet World Health Organization and World Food Programme nutrient guidelines for specialty fortified breads and to support growing children. Besides protein, NutriBun contains fiber from wheat bran, as well as vitamin A, several B vitamins, iron, and zinc. At participating schools, 99.6% of teachers reported improvements in student attentiveness since the bread deliveries began (TWB 2022).

Though the One Bread Project is funded through grants and donations from organizations like The Abbott Fund and Bakery Equipment Manufacturers and Allieds (BEMA), TWB also sells bakery products to the community through retail outlets and its café in Rwanda’s capital city, Kigali. These products are also formulated to be highly nutritious, using milk and eggs to achieve a minimum of 7 grams of protein per serving and incorporating local vegetables, fruits, and peanuts. TWB offers a variety of products to meet local tastes, including whole wheat and white bread, sweet potato bread, braided bread, buns, pretzels, beet brownies, and banana, carrot, and beet muffins. The products are made without preservatives and have a shelf life of three to five days.

One of the biggest challenges in running the bakeries has been inconsistent electricity to power the ovens (though the electric ovens are a vast improvement over the wood-fired ovens used until 2020, which resulted in uneven baking). For better reliability and product quality, TWB is looking at backup generators and also commercial dough proofers, which hold the dough within a precise temperature range, so the proofing step is not dependent on the day’s weather.

The bakeries are structured as for-profit enterprises, supported by the nonprofit parent organization in Denver, until they are self-sustaining, aiming for operational profitability in 18 to 24 months. While high product demand suggests this might be easily achieved, constraints include TWB’s commitment as a social enterprise to provide employees with higher wages, family health insurance, and on-site childcare while keeping product prices affordable. Fluctuating ingredient supply and costs are another hurdle.

TWB serves as an inspiring and scalable model for improving access to nutritious foods (especially among schoolchildren) in developing countries, while strengthening the food industry through skills training and business creation.ft