In August, the Adventist Development and Relief Agency office in the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK) reported that its bakery has been completed and is producing enough bread rolls to daily feed 25,000 children living in the region of Pyongyang, the capital.

Located in central Pyongyang, ADRA’s bakery employs 35 women and is producing 50,000 bread rolls every day. These bread rolls are supplied to 95 orphanages and kindergartens in 10 districts of Pyongyang and Sariwan, located approximately 40 kilometers south of Pyongyang.

ADRA Switzerland coordinated the project, including a training program in Germany for the bakery’s director and production manager. A private gift to ADRA International provided $400,000 of the $475,000 needed to construct the bakery. ADRA’s office in Switzerland funded the balance. The World Food Programme and other donors are supplying the raw materials for bread production.

“In 1994, ADRA was one of the first humanitarian agencies to respond to the DPRK’s request for aid,” says Byron Scheuneman, senior vice president for ADRA International. “Famine conditions throughout the DPRK for several years have caused widespread food shortages. This bakery is the most recent of ADRA’s food initiatives in DPRK, which have included shipments of food, seeds, vitamins, and construction of more than 100 solar kitchens.”