Support Forest & Flour

Hi! Thank you for being here 🙂

If you are not familiar with Forest & Flour, allow me to introduce myself and who we are—my name is Sway and I founded Forest & Flour in late 2018 out of my home kitchen in San Jose. Back then F&F was really just a passing thought. You see, I needed wholesome gluten free and dairy free bread, not the ones presented on the shelves of supermarkets filled with soy lecithin, milk powder, potato starch and some other foreign ingredients that can’t be pronounced. So when my friend Jolie stopped making her delicious loaves that checked all my boxes of nutritious ingredients, I took matters into my own hands. In May of 2019 we debuted at two farmers markets in the south bay and the rest as we say, is history. 

Very quickly into this amazing venture I realized that I was called to build something different, I mean, not just in the food sense, but in the community as a whole. As someone who has worked in the food industry since I was fourteen, I’ve had my share of horrible experiences as a worker—from racial discrimination to not being paid properly. I also have seen the damage humans have done and are continuing to do to our common home—the earth. It can no longer be business as usual! So the two pillars of Forest & Flour were born—environmental advocacy and worker health. 

The past five years have taught me so much. The team and I made friends with farmers, ranchers, customers, and everyone that has had a hand in putting food on our tables. The journey has been an amazing unfurling. 

And the truth is also—it takes extra energy, dedication, and resources to run a business in the intentional way we do at Forest & Flour. Most times I feel like swimming against the current in this cheaper, faster, bigger way of living we are accustomed to. 

This Monday was Forest & Flour’s two year anniversary/birthday at our brick and mortar cafe. Being able to operate in our own commercial kitchen brought a sense of excitement and hope, the feeling of doing something greater beyond our small humble home kitchen (thank you, tiny oven, you have worked so hard!). In the past two years we have grown our team and grown our presence to other cities in the Bay Area, hosted several pop-up dinners and workshops, celebrated special occasions, created a grass roots campaign for local outreach, and supported other like minded businesses and organizations. I have seen first hand the joy of people who found out they can eat EVERYTHING we have to offer. And that makes all the work we do full of meaning. 

As we step into our third year at the cafe, I’m reaching out to the community for help. Although money is not the most important thing, it does enable us to continue to make nourishing food and spaces that support our mission of caring for the earth, the worker, and the community. Your gift of financial support will allow us to grow in more sustainable ways, more crucially, we will be able to continue to show up as a business that is doing good and stirring up much needed changes, one loaf at a time.  

Every dollar you give counts! 

The positive impact of your gift includes:

• Allowing us to pay our entire team a decent wage, perhaps allowing us to bring some past benefits back
• Continuing to help us support local small farmers and growers and build community by hosting more events
• Building new partnerships to drive change in the food industry
• Enabling additional working time for us to develop new recipes (hey, some of you have asked for croissants, wink wink)

By supporting us, you’re not just investing in a local eatery—you’re backing a vision of a healthier, kinder food industry and a stronger, more connected community.

Thank you for being a part of this journey with us. Here’s to many more years of nourishing, meaningful moments—made possible by friends like you!

with love, 

sway

founder & head of table

Friday, 10/25/2024