There is a strange little guessing game that happens before every market: How much bread do I make?

Bake too little, and I risk selling out early and disappointing someone who came looking for their favorite loaf. Bake too much, and I may be packing bread back into the car at the end of the day.

There is no magic formula. I can look at past sales, the weather, the market, the time of year, what flavors sold last time—and sometimes I'm still completely wrong. That's just part of market baking.

But lately, I've been thinking differently about what it means to have bread left at the end of the day. Because now, those loaves have somewhere else to go.

A New Partnership I'm Really Excited About

Astrid's Kitchen recently began working with Neighborhood Food Pantries to donate bread left after markets.

These aren't old loaves or bread that's reached the end of its life. They're the same fresh loaves I baked for customers coming to the market that day—they simply didn't happen to find their person before the market closed.

Now, instead of wondering whether I baked a few too many, I get to know those loaves can still end up on someone's table. And I really love that.

Food Insecurity Doesn't Always Look the Way We Think It Does

One of the things that's important to remember about food insecurity is just how many different people and families can find themselves needing a little help. Sometimes it's a family going through a difficult season. Sometimes it's a senior trying to stretch a fixed income. Sometimes it's someone working every day whose paycheck simply isn't stretching far enough to cover everything.

I've been incredibly fortunate throughout my life that I've never had to know what it feels like to go hungry. But growing up, there were times when I knew things were a struggle for my mom. I remember her working incredibly hard to make ends meet, and I remember times when the kindness of other people helped make things a little easier.

As a child, I probably didn't understand everything that was happening behind the scenes. As an adult—and especially as a mom myself—I understand it differently. No parent should have to lie awake wondering how they're going to put food on the table for their kids.

That's why I believe organizations fighting hunger are so incredibly important. And it's why this is about more to me than finding somewhere useful to send leftover bread.

Selling Out Feels a Little Different Now

At one of my recent markets, I sold out. Normally, that's the goal, right?

For a small baker, an empty table at the end of a market is something to celebrate. It means I guessed the numbers right, the hours of baking paid off, and every loaf I brought found a home. And I was happy—but I also felt something I wasn't expecting.

I was a little sad.

There was no bread left, which meant there was no call to make to arrange a donation to the food pantry. That surprised me.

I certainly don't want to intentionally overbake just so I have bread to donate. That wouldn't make sense for my business, and unnecessary waste isn't the goal either. But I've realized that this partnership has changed the way I think about leftovers. I used to see coming home with bread as evidence that maybe I'd baked too much. Now I see it differently.

Of course I still want the person who comes to my booth near the end of a market to find the loaf they were hoping for. But if there are a few loaves left when the tents come down, I don't have to feel disappointed about that anymore.

Those loaves haven't failed to sell. They've just found a different destination.

And apparently, somewhere along the way, selling out stopped being the only way I measure a successful market.

This Is Part of What I Want Astrid's Kitchen to Be

When I started Astrid's Kitchen, I knew fairly early that I wanted giving back to be part of the business. Not something I occasionally did when it was convenient. Not something reserved for when the business was bigger or I had more to give. Just part of who we are.

That's why supporting organizations like Violet's Kitchen and Neighborhood Food Pantries is so important to me. They're doing the hands-on work of helping people in our community, and I'm grateful that this little bakery can play even a small part in supporting that work.

Sometimes that means donating bread. Sometimes it's supporting a fundraiser. Sometimes it's using my business and the little platform I've built to bring more attention to an organization doing important work.

I can't solve food insecurity with a microbakery. But I can help. And I've always wanted Astrid's Kitchen to be the kind of business that does what it can, with what it has.

I've written before about wanting Astrid's Kitchen to be about more than transactions. I meant it then, and I mean it even more now. This partnership takes something that's already part of my business—the unpredictability of a market—and turns it into another opportunity to help.

Bread is meant to nourish people. That's literally what I make it for. So there's something wonderfully simple about knowing that when a market ends, the purpose of a loaf doesn't end with it.

Bread Should Bring People Together

My mission for Astrid's Kitchen is to craft exceptional artisan sourdough while nourishing our community through kindness, craftsmanship, and connection. Those words mean something to me.

I don't expect one small bakery to change the world. But I do believe small businesses can make a difference in the communities they call home, and I want Astrid's Kitchen to keep looking for ways to do exactly that.

Sometimes the bread goes home with the customer who came to the market looking for their favorite loaf. Sometimes it becomes toast on the breakfast table of someone I'll never meet. I don't need to know which table it reaches for that loaf to have done what it was made to do.

Bread is meant to nourish people.

Craftsmanship is in how I make it. Connection is in the people it brings together. And kindness? Sometimes kindness looks like supporting a local fundraiser. Sometimes it looks like helping an organization doing work that matters. And sometimes it looks like a loaf of bread finding its way to a table it wasn't originally baked for.

I'm pretty happy with that.