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- Mo Cheeks: So, the act of sourdough bread making
started for me as a hobby.
You mix flour and water and salt,
and you're gonna end up with bread.
Sometimes, I impress myself, though.
Usually, no one's here to see it.
- Announcer: Mo Cheeks knows
artisan bread making is very different
than his days on the Madison Common Council.
- It's so much more chill than when I was in politics.
- Angela: The pandemic provided this former politician
a chance to further pursue his hobby.
- Coincidentally, I started just before the pandemic.
I was not a baker at all,
at all, before I took up sourdough baking.
Each of these bins is gonna be 11 loaves.
So, for tomorrow, we're doing 22 loaves of bread.
- Angela: The art of bread making
also allows Mo to ease his mind.
- Slowly, methodically, silently in the evening,
shaping dough
is a really valuable source of self-care for me.
- Angela: It's a time to reflect on how to change the world
from the confines of his kitchen.
- As I was thinking about how to process
and the realities of injustice in our country,
I have found myself with a number of sleepless nights.
And there was something about handmaking the dough
that had just become a hobby
that now had become a source of sort of therapy for me.
As I'm making this sourdough bread for my family,
I realized I have too much bread.
We started to give it away to our friends.
That'll be good.
Bakers Against Racism is certainly the inspiration
for sort of how the light bulb first went on for me
in terms of thinking about, oh,
I don't have to just give this bread away.
- Crowd: Black lives matter, Black lives matter.
- Angela: The racial justice movement
provided the missing ingredient
for combining two of Mo's passions.
- Crowd: Black lives matter.
- That was the first time
that I saw bread and justice come together
in a way that I thought, these are my people.
This is exactly what I want to be doing.
- Angela: And with that,
Mo starts a micro bakery in his home kitchen,
mixing a dash of joy and activism.
- It's called Bread & Justice
because I originally created it with community in mind
for folks who care deeply about justice
and also care about being able to enjoy
fresh, local, handmade bread.
So, we started selling it as a fundraiser.
- Angela: Sleepless nights have now given way
to early morning wake-up calls.
- As I call it, bake day,
wake up at 3:30, preheat the oven.
I set a timer.
And then, around 4:30,
you can start loading the dough into the oven.
And that's what we do.
[upbeat music]
- Angela: Mo also launched a Bread & Justice newsletter,
sharing stories and details about his bake sales.
100% of the proceeds are donated
to nonprofits fighting for racial justice.
- I can only make 50 loaves a week.
There's 600 or so people that are on the email newsletters.
This is the fun part about baking in your home oven.
At the end of the day, I can only make so much bread.
Okay, cool.
- Angela: Demand has been overwhelming.
- Got really good rise.
I love that.
It's really moving to me to see
so many people be so interested in--
The reason why they want to buy bread from Bread & Justice
is because they want to support social justice
and anti-racism initiatives.
It's nice, thick, it's nice.
That smells great.
- Angela: Mo's efforts are not going unnoticed.
- It's really good.
- Angela: The World Bread Award selected him
as Bread Hero of the Midwest for 2021.
With that recognition comes a sense of satisfaction.
- Mo: And that's awesome.
I'm really proud to be practicing what I preach
in terms of doing something to feed the community
and knowing that it's feeding not only people's bellies
but, hopefully, people's souls as well.
The biggest thing that I take away from Bread & Justice
is a reminder that there are so many good people out there
that really want to be a part
of making the world a better place.
[orchestra music]