Older people in Salvation Army care homes across Britain will be enjoying freshly-baked bread for the next year in a scheme that will also help them to remember important personal memories.

Carlisle-based Carr's Breadmaker has donated 40 automatic bread-makers and a year's supply of flour to 18 Salvation Army residential care homes across the United Kingdom and Republic of Ireland.

The breadmakers will provide a year's worth of fresh bread for the church and charity, and this may also be used to work with residents to trigger their personal memories.

"This generous gift enables us to offer residents the opportunity to make their own fresh bread which is, in itself, a very healthy and worthwhile activity," says Elaine Cobb, Director of Elderly Care Services for The Salvation Army.

"We also know that smell can trigger memories and in many of our centres we will be able to use the unique smell of freshly-made bread to help stir the memories of some of our residents who will be involved in the bread-making."

Smell is one of the most powerful stimuli known and has a greater ability to stir up emotions than even a photograph, picture or voice. "Loaves baking in the oven evoke warm, cosy feelings in most people," says Caroline Dale, Marketing Manager for Carr's Breadmaker. "I have heard of estate agents saying that the smell of fresh bread can persuade people to buy a property. But stimulating memories from the past? That will be very interesting indeed."

Several breadmakers will also be donated to The Salvation Army's employment training centre for adults with learning difficulties and other needs in Hadleigh, Essex. The breadmakers will be used in the kitchens at the Hadleigh Training Centre, which serve a busy public tearoom.

The Salvation Army and Carr's Breadmaker could eventually bring out a special book of memories if the upsurge in breadmaking really does bring back to mind 'the good old days'.






Re-printed in Christian Today with the kind permission of The Salvation Army