Davidovich Bakery Helps Feed the Hungry

Davidovich Bakery Helps Feed the Hungry

                  By Katherine Sabal

As a food manufacturer in the great City of New York, Davidovich Bakery does what it can to give back to the community.  As many know, hunger is a huge problem in New York City where approximately 2.9 million people have difficulty affording food for themselves and their family.  Davidovich Bakery realizes this city-wide issue and tries to help by donating the excess bagels that they produce to various food pantries and feed the hungry programs throughout the city.

This March alone, Davidovich Bakery donated 1,725 pounds of bagels to City Harvest, a well-established 30 year old organization dedicated to “Rescuing Food for New York’s Hungry.” CityHarvest expects to collect more than 40 million pounds of food this year alone.  The food they collect is delivered free of charge to nearly 600 community food programs throughout New York City.

DavidovichBakery also donates to the Food Bank for New York City. Similar to City Harvest, this organization works to fight hunger in three ways – through food distribution, income support, and nutrition organization.  Food Bank distributes food to over 1,000 community based member programs citywide.

Just a few months ago, New York City was faced with another hardship in the aftermath of Hurricane Sandy.  Many lost homes and were, and some still are, without adequate food and shelter.  Davidovich Bakery lent a hand by donating bagels to the Hurricane Sandy Relief Foundation.

But Davidovich Bakery also contributes on a smaller scale, counting Bnos Menachem, a Jewish school for girls in Crown Heights, Brooklyn, as one of their recipients of donated bagels.

And in its mission to help tackle the issue of hunger in the city, Davidovich Bakery does not forget the community to which it belongs.  Donations are made on a weekly basis to the very successful food pantry at nearby church Blessed Virgin Mary Help of Christians Church, a.k.a “St. Mary’s ”.  Sister Mary Conroy’s Food Pantry is open every Thursday to hand out donated foods in an effort to alleviate hunger in Woodside, Queens and surrounding neighborhoods.

Hunger is a big problem in New York City.  But the city is fortunate enough to have so many organizations, big and small, working to help fight the fight on hunger.  If you or your organization would like to help by contributing to any of these organizations or if you would just like to learn more, you can get more information at the links and contact information listed below.

Also, let us know what you do to give back to the community. Please share your experiences of giving back or being the recipient of generosity from community groups in our comments section. We would like to hear from you!

City Harvest

Food Bank for New York City

Hurricane Sandy Relief Foundation

St. Mary’s Church : 718-672-4848 – Lourdes LaPolla (Coordinator of Sister Mary Conroy’s Food Pantry)

Davidovich Bakery To Sponsor 2013 TD Five Boro Bike Tour

Davidovich Bakery - Proud Sponsor of the 2013 TD Five Boro Bike Tour

            By Katherine Sabal

Davidovich Bakery is proud to be a sponsor of the TD Five Boro Bike Tour for the second year in a row! This year’s event, which takes place on Sunday May 5^th, is expected to draw an estimated 32,000 people. Davidovich Bakery will lend its support by providing nutritious and delicious mini bagels to bike tour participants at rest stops set up along the way.

So, what exactly is the TD Five Boro Bike Tour? Well, this annual event draws people from all over, inviting many to cycle through 40 miles of traffic free city streets in all five boroughs.  This year’s tour starts in Manhattan at Battery Park. From there, cyclists travel uptown and into the Bronx, down into Queens, on into Brooklyn and finally end at Fort Wadsworth on Staten Island where a finish line festival will be set up with fun, music and food.

The FiveBoro Bike Tour is an event that has grown by leaps and bounds since its humble beginnings as “The Five Boro Challenge” in 1977. That year, the first tour was started and arranged by Eric Prager and Sal Cirami. Prager was commissioned by the NYC Department of Education to create a bicycle safety program and Cirami worked for the school lunch program. Together they came up with an idea for a bike tour throughout New York City. They and a committee of people worked to get things started.  On June 10, 1977, 250 people, including 50-60 high school students, participated in the first ever NYC bike tour. Today, more than 30,000 people participate on traffic free streets – it wasn’t so back then – and their achievements are celebrated with a finish line festival.

Davidovich Bakery is extremely proud to be a part of this event that celebrates and promotes cycling in New York City, an eco-friendly form of fun and transportation for everyone.

DAVIDOVICH BAKERY ATTENDS 2013 IMMIGRANT HERITAGE WEEK BREAKFAST

DAVIDOVICH BAKERY ATTENDS 2013 IMMIGRANT HERITAGE WEEK BREAKFAST

Members of the Executive Team at All Natural Products Davidovich Bakery attended the 2013 Immigrant Heritage week breakfast at Gracie Mansion on Wednesday April 17, 2013.  This event was hosted by Mayor Michael Bloomberg in conjunction with NYC Mayor's Office on Immigrant Affairs.  This important event demonstrates the City's understanding of the importance of the rich, immigrant population to the intellectual, social, and economic fabric of the City.  Companies like Davidovich Bakery understand the rich contributions of the immigrant population to NYC and the Nation and we celebrate the opportunities afforded to immigrant entrepreneurs every day.   The event showcased locally prepared delicacies from immigrant formed, NYC companies and featured brief remarks by Mayor Bloomberg and NYC Immigrant Affairs Commissioner Fatima Shama as a kick off the Immigrant Heritage Week.

When Is Flour Yoshon?

When Is Flour Yoshon?

Yoshon Literally mean old.   This is not to imply that that products that are labeled Yoshon are old in the negative sense.  Old used in the context of Yoshon refers to whether or not flour, specifically from Wheat, Oats, Spelt, Rye, and Barley, was planted prior to, or after the "16th of Nissan", which translates to the second day of Passover.   Flour from these grains, planted prior to Passover is consider Yoshon, or old,  under Jewish Dietary Laws.   This flour is acceptable to use after harvest and milling.  Flour from grains planted after Passover, or new,  should not be used until after the following Passover in order to comply.

While the timing may seem arbitrary at first reaction, the laws actually are quite sensible.  The notion, in a secular context, holds true as aging is an important part of healthful and nutritious grain production and harvesting.  Today many companies circumvent the natural aging of grains in flour production through the use of chemicals and artificial conditioners, while companies like Davidovich Bakery use all natural, aged, high gluten flour in the production of their Davidovich Bagels.   An additional benefit of the Yoshon timing rules is that it, by implication, insures that flour from cycle to cycle is segregated and, therefore, limits waste and insures the flour your are getting is not stale. Whether consumers are religious or not, they should seek products for optimum health that follow these types of natural guidelines.  For many, the concept of Yoshon helps to guide that decision.   

WHAT IS MEANS TO BE PAS YISROEL

What it Means to Be Pas Yisroel
Davidovich Bagels are more than just Certified Kosher

Pas Yisroel or Pat Yisrael (Hebrew: "Bread of an Israelite") products are grain products, such as bagels that were cooked or baked with the participation of an "observant" Jew.  This must be, at minimum, the ignition of the flame used to prepare, cook, or bake the grain product.  In classical Rabbinical Judaism, this requirement is considered restricted to five classical grains of Judaism-these are wheat, barley, oats, spelt, and rye.  In modern food production, commercial bakeries may accomplish a status of Pas Yisroel by using something called the "Shain System", named for it's inventor Rabbi Yehuda Shain, whereby an apparatus can be ignited remotely by an observant Jew.   For more information on this and other Bakery Historical Facts visit www.allnp.com

The History of The Bagel

The History of The Bagel

A bagel is a round bread, with a hole in the middle made of simple ingredients:  high-gluten flour, yeast, salt, water, and malt.  Its dough is boiled, then baked, and the result should be a rich caramel color.  It should not be pale and blond.  A bagel should weigh five ounces or less and should make a slight crackling sound when you bite into it.  A bagel should be eaten warm and, ideally, should be no more than four to five hours old when consumed.  All else is not a bagel.

The bagel’s birthplace is considered to be Poland.  A story popular in the United States is that the first bagel was produced as a tribute to Jan Sobieski, 17^th Century King of Poland, after he saved Austria from Turkish invaders at the battle of Vienna in 1683.  According to Maria Balinska, the author of “The Bagel: The Surprising History of a Modest Bread” (Yale University Press) it is just that-a story.

The first known reference to the bagel among Jews in Poland, according to Balinska, precedes the Battle of Vienna by seven decades.  It is found, she says, in regulations issued in Yiddish in 1610 by the Jewish Council of Krakow outlining how much Jewish households were permitted to spend in celebrating the circumcision of a baby boy- “to avoid making Gentile neighbors envious, and also to make sure poorer Jews weren’t living above their means.” 

Eastern European immigrants arriving in the United States at the turn of the 20^th century brought the bagel with them to the streets of the Lower East Side.  The rise of the bagel in New York in inextricably tied to that of the trade unions, specifically Bagel Bakers Local 338, a federation of nearly 300 bagel craftsmen formed in NYC in the early 1900s.

Local 338 was, by all accounts, a tough and unswerving union.  It was set up according to strict rules that limited new membership to the sons of current members.  By 1915, it controlled 36 bagel bakeries in New York and New Jersey.  These bakeries produced the original New York Bagels, the standard against which all others are still, in some manner judged.

What did they look like?  They were a mere three ounces.  They were smaller and denser than their modern descendants with a crustier exterior and chewier interior.   They were made entirely by hand.

Local 338 held its ironclad grip on the bagel market for nearly half a century, until industrial bagel-making machines were introduced into the market in the early 1960s.  The introduction of the bagel machines meant any retailer or bakery owner could make their own bagels with non-union help.

Avoid Bakery Goods That Use Bromated Flour!

Avoid Bakery Goods That Use Bromated Flour!

Davidovich Bakery prides itself on the fact that it uses flour in the baking process for its world famous Davidovich Bagels that is designated as "unbromated".  This isn't simply a matter of using ingredients that the company deems conducive to the formulation of the best tasting, Artisan products on the market.   It is also a reflection of All Natural Products' commitment to never using products that the company believes poses any type of health risk to the public whatsoever.  Using this criteria, bromated flour is among the top ingredients the company has chosen to voluntarily ban.

Most consumers don't have a good understanding of what bromated flour is, why bakeries use it, and whether or not their baked good contain it.   Here is a simple summary:

Bromated Flour is flour that contains the chemical agent, potassium bromate.  This chemical is widely used in commercial baking to strengthen dough and promote rising.  Most brands of flour sold in supermarkets for home use also still contain potassium bromate despite the fact that studies dating back to the 1980's found that the chemical causes several types of cancer in laboratory rats.  The International Agency for Research on Cancer considers potassium bromate to be "possibly carcinogenic to humans".  The Center for Science in The Public Interest conducted tests going back to 1992 and 1998 which found levels of potassium bromate in numbers of baked goods which would be considered unsafe by the FDA.  

Bromated Flour is banned by a number of governments including The European Union, Canada, Brazil, Peru, and China.  In the U.S., the   has only recommended that bakers voluntarily cease using the carcinogen but many have not.  Aside from some initiatives in California there is no requirement commercial bakeries bring attention to the use of flour containing potassium bromate.  Only forward thinking bakeries have voluntarily ceased using flour containing this agent.  Davidovich Bakery is an example of a company which has never used flour containing potassium bromate for its world famous Davidovich Bagels despite the fact that the cost of such flour exceeds that of its chemically treated alternatives.  So this leaves the health conscious consumer with the burden to specifically identify companies like Davidovich Bakery that advertise their products as using unbromated flour.  It should never be presumed that simply because a companies baked good are advertised as "healthful" that their staple ingredient doesn't contain potassium bromate-"Let the Buyer Beware".

For more information on potassium bromate see: http://foodidentitytheft.com/the-brominated-brothers-still-at-large-despite-a-bad-rap-sheet/