URC Flour Is Training Community Leaders to Teach Baking, and the Goal Is Bigger Than Bread
This is not your typical corporate baking demo.
URC Flour has teamed up with Tekton Social Development Association, Inc. to launch “Knead and Lead: Train the Trainers Program,” an initiative that is less about baking bread and more about building something that lasts. The idea is straightforward: instead of just teaching people how to bake, train them to become trainers themselves, so the skills keep spreading long after the program ends.
The participants come from Missio Amare’s Laguna and Metro Manila chapters, and the end goal is to send them back to their communities equipped to run their own baking livelihood sessions. Think of it as the multiplier effect, but with pandesal.
The program runs in three phases. The first, Commercial Baking, already wrapped up last April 13. The second phase, Technical Baking, ran from April 27 to 30, where participants went deeper into baking competencies and the more technical side of the craft. The final phase, Practical Demonstration, is where everything comes together. Participants will be assessed on their ability to actually lead community training sessions on their own.
Graduates walk away with a Certificate of Program Completion and a spot in the official trainer pool under Baker John Academy, URC Flour’s training facility. From there, they can conduct workshops in their own communities.
URC Flour is not just lending its name to this either. The company is putting in instructors, training modules, baking ingredients, and the Baker John Academy facility itself. There is also a concrete target built into the partnership: at least 300 community beneficiaries reached within the program term, which keeps the initiative accountable beyond the feel-good launch announcement.
It is a practical approach to community empowerment, and one that does not require a bread pun to make the point. Though “Knead and Lead” is already doing a fine job of that on its own.
