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    The Friendship Bread Project: Can Baking Promote Unity In A Divided World?

    It's the chain letter of baking: a simple starter that you divvy up, keeping some for yourself and sharing the rest with others. It's an old tradition we'd like to see you revive in your community.
    by Kristen Hartke Dec 31, 2017 6 minutes
    Friendship Bread is the chain letter of baking: A simple starter that you divvy up, keeping some for yourself and sharing the rest with others. It's an old tradition that connect neighbors through the act of sharing food. NPR would like to see you revive it in your community. Share your stories on social media — use #NPRFriendshipBread — and we might feature your experience in a follow-up story.

    Chef Carla Hall had never heard of "friendship bread" before someone gave her a plastic zip-top bag full of a yeasty, mushy starter. As a young caterer just starting out, she got busy baking up a storm and was excited to tell her friend some days later about everything she had made.

    Instead of being delighted, her friend just stared at her. "You used it all up?" she asked. "That's not the point. You're supposed to just use some of it, and then pass it on to someone else. That's why it's called friendship bread."

    Hall was mortified, saying now, "I broke the chain. I literally took her love and bashed it, like it was a one-night stand."

    Friendship Bread — also known as Amish Friendship Bread — is the chain letter of baking. A simple starter of flour, sugar, milk, water and yeast is mixed together and then developed for 10 days at room temperature. The person who makes the starter, similar to a sweet version of a sourdough starter, keeps some to bake up a loaf

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