Free Loaves on Fridays

This book is all about the care system, and it's written by people who have experienced it first-hand.

Free Loaves on Fridays is an anthology of stories, poems, reflections and letters by more than 100 care-experienced people, which aims to challenge worn-out stereotypes. This collection gives voice to diverse experiences including foster care, adoption, kinship care and semi-independent living, among others.

Headlines written about care often entrench negative ideas and dominate the narrative, leaving care-experienced people with nothing but crumbs. This anthology is an opportunity to redirect the dialogue and present a window into a world that has been overlooked for too long. Free Loaves on Fridays presents a spectrum of joy and sadness, laughter and tears, love and loss, and reminds us that bread tastes so much better when it’s been chosen.

'Incredible read and desperately important... This perfectly structured and perfectly edited collection should be on everybody’s must-read list for 2024’ Lucy Easthope, Sunday Times-bestselling author of When the Dust Settles

'The most important book you will read in 2024. Absolutely gripped from the first page. It is more than just a book’ Chris Wild, author of The State of It and Damaged

'Please do read Free Loaves on Fridays, it’s an emotional journey that will make you cry and laugh. But most of all understand the reality of our care system and why it absolutely must change' Emma Lewell-Buck, MP for South Shields and former social worker