It was only a few months ago that Trent Cooper found himself struggling financially. Last fall he was living far from the Green Mountain State in St. Petersburg, Florida, without a job.
In December, he established a bakery, Trent’s Bread, in Westford. Cooper said he was welcomed warmly by community members, and now, he’s giving back to those who have been hit hard by Covid-19 the way he knows best: with freshly baked bread — for free.
For the past few weeks, Cooper said he’s given away several hundred loaves of bread.
He sees the coronavirus shutdown as an opportunity to help people in the community now in need.
“Without the people in the community buying my bread before this pandemic, I wouldn’t be able to give so much bread back,” Cooper said. “I wouldn’t be able to support the community without the community. If they support me, I support them.”
The idea started with a call-out on Reddit. Cooper posted a note offering free bread, no questions asked, to anyone who is struggling financially during the coronavirus pandemic.
He started bringing loaves to local food banks and inviting people to pick up loaves for free at his shop. And then, customers and neighbors wanted to help, too. They began buying loaves to bring back to their communities.
They also began donating money to Cooper’s free bread fund. He said he has enough donations to keep giving away 100 loaves of bread a week for the next 12 weeks.
Surinda Cavanagh is one of those customers who began buying loaves to pass out to neighbors. As a yoga instructor who operates her business on a pay-what-you-can basis, she said she immediately felt connected to Cooper’s free bread “giftivism.”
“My husband and I have found that there’s huge prosperity when you just let go and give,” Cavanagh said.
Cooper is now working out of the same shop that famed local baker Gérard Rubaud operated in for decades until his death in 2018. Rubaud was born in France and moved to Vermont in the mid-1970s.
Cooper worked under Rubaud as an apprentice in 2012 and it was there that his passion for bread-making began to take hold. When Cooper heard about Rubaud’s death in 2018, he reached out to his daughter to find out what happened to the bakery, Gerard’s Bread of Traditions.
It turned out no one had claimed the space. So Cooper started Trent’s Bread bakery in the same location. Now, he specializes in a country bread loaf with a spelt berry grain that makes the dough particularly aromatic.
Cooper starts work at 10 p.m. He bakes through the night and ends his work shift after morning deliveries. His only coworker is his dog. And he likes it that way.
“You need money to live but don’t be greedy with that s––t, it don’t mean anything,” Cooper said.
“Give a s––t about the people. Care about the people, man. People are important.”
