4
street roots
Jan. 7, 2011
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SBÏ
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PH O TO BY JENNIFER JANSONS
Above, Dave Dahl
next to his signiture
logo fo r Dave's
Killer Bread.
Below, one o f
several o f D ahl’s
mugshots from
m any years past,
featured in the
book, “GoodSeed,”
medication worked for me, and also going to
“One thing you have a problem with when
BREADMAKER, fro m page 1
school, but all of that wouldn’t have worked
you’re in those shoes,” he says, “is that most
fo r m A w i t b n n t m A m a lt in g a Hprim'nn that T’rl
b ig g e r apartm ent complexes .are operated by
beginning his sentence o f 115 m o n th s in
had enough. And really, sometimes you make
property management companies, and have
prison for assault, delivery of a controlled
that decision two or three times. Or maybe
certain
insurance
and
certain
rules
they
go
substance, and possession of a firearm. He
10 times, before you actually do i t So it’s not
by. This person is a risk, and so their
served more than seven years and was
an easy thing to do.”
insurance
won’t
allow
it.
Also
if
you’re
a
law-
released early due to his completion of a
In August of 2005, Dave and his nephew
abiding citizen who has an apartment, you
drug program.
Shobi debuted Dave’s Killer Bread at
may
not
really
want
an
ex-con
like
an
armed
By December 2004, Dave had spent more
Saturday Market in the Park Blocks in
robber, a drug dealer, moving in next to you.
than 15 years of his life incarcerated. But
downtown Portland, and the response was
It’s
totally
understandable
that
you
kind
of
this last round of prison had been different.
overwhelmingly positive. By the fall, Dave’s
have
to
start
at
the
bottom.”
He’d learned computer-aided drafting and
Killer Bread was available in grocery stores
In addition to filling in for bakers and
was good at i t The drug
such as New Seasons, Peoples’ Coop, Food
emptying
bread
loaf
pans,
Dave
began
to
treatm ent program had
Front and the Alberta Street Coop. Soon to
experiment with mixing a new kind of bread.
left him clean, and
follow: Whole Foods and Fred Meyer, and
Prison
had
given
him
plenty
of
time
to
reflect
determined to stay that
eventually Costco. Today, Dave’s bread is
way. And he had decided on his upbringing in a bread-making
now available in the northwest from Alaska
business,
and
after
15
years
of
prison-issue
to return to the family
to California, as well as Idaho, Montana and v
white-bread sandwiches, he longed for a
bread-making business.
Utah.
heavier,
grainier
loaf.
Out
of
this
“This particular time
arinthom’s introduction to Dave’s Killer
experimentation came his “Blues” bread, a
I had the humility and
Bread came by way of her husband, who .
delicious
cornmeal-crusted
loaf
of
bread
that
the acceptance, and the
she says fell in love with the bread “in a very
he
says
looked
so
beautiful
that
he
hated
to
hope — I had all those
extreme way.” Because she’d grown up on
cut
into
it.
This
“Blues”
loaf
was
the
most
things,” he says. “I knew
Thailand’s rice-based diet, Varinthom wasn’t
expensive sandwich bread Nature Bake had
where I was, I knew
accustomed to eating much bread, but she
ever produced, but they knew it was
where I’d been. I
soon came around to share her husband’s
something
special.
Dave’s
brother
Glenn
accepted who I was at
affection for the new brand. By now, she had
encouraged him to call his invention “Dave’s
the time.”
lived in Delaware, Maryland, Massachusetts,
Bread.”
Meanwhile,
Dave
had
grown
attached
He started working at
and South Dakota, where she’d finished her
to the title “Killer Bread,” but given his
the bread store for $10
BFA in painting. Before moving to Portland,
history,
he
wasn’t
so
sure
using
the
phrase
an hour, mixing loaves
she lived in Alaska, where her practice
“killer” in conjunction with his name was a
and subbing for absent
included creating giant sculptures and
good
idea.
Eventually
“Dave’s
Killer
Bread”
bakers. Finding housing
was born, and rather than hide his past, Dave paintings. On a walk one day, she saw up
was difficult for Dave,
close evidence of glaciers impacted by global
told it on every bag of bread he sold. He
considering his past crimes and his status as
warming, and that day when she returned to
gives a nod to his own past drug addiction,
an ex-convict. “I lived with my mom at first,”
and emphasizes a preservative-free loaf with
her studio and saw the scale of what she was
he says. “I wasn’t able to get actual housing
making, she felt a little sick to her stomach
the phrase “Just say NO to bread on drugs.”
— or, my choice of housing, as you’d expect.
at th e amount and size of the materials she
He
knows
well
the
difficulty
associated
You think if you have a certain amount of
was using.
with
kicking
a
drug
habit
money you can get a certain amount of
“My epiphany was that I should do
“It really comes down to, have you had
housing. Well that’s not true with criminals,
something more social, that other people can
enough
yet?,”
Dave
says.
“For
me,
I
don’t
with ex-cons, if you have a criminal record.
know what would have stopped me if it hadn’t relate to. If I was going to count in food miles
Getting housing is very tricky. I was just
when I ate, why couldn’t I make my work
been for prison. I went to prison so many
going to accept whatever housing I could get.
environmentally friendly and sustainable
times, and that last time I’d just had enough.
Again, I was comparing it to prison. I was
too?”
I
said
you
know
w
hat
I
can
either
die,
or
like, OK, you can’t throw me in any place
Varinthorn applied to Portland State
spend the rest of my life in prison.” Dave
worse than I’ve already been. I’m still going
University’s MFA program in Art and Social
sometimes
had
dreams
while
incarcerated
to be able to get up and walk outside and go
Practice and began in 2007. The program
that he had committed further, serious
do what I want to do.”
emphasizes the community component in art
crimes
that
meant
life
in
prison.
He'd
awaken
About a year and a half ago, Dave
making, and often means an artist works
with his heart pounding, and then have a
purchased his own home, and his worries
rush
of
relief
to
realize
he
only
had
five
more
directly with a particular group of people,
about securing housing for himself were over.
such as elementary school students, local
years of a sentence left.
But the situation remains daunting for
“These dreams made a big difference to
countless other ex-cons being released from
me,” he says. “Taking antidepressant
SEE BREADMAKER, page 5
prison who need to find a place to stay.
V
PH O TO COURTESY OF
VA R IN TH O R N '
CHRISTOPHER A N D
DAVE DAHL.
I
I
Dave's Killer Bread
donates more than
75,000 loaves a year
to local food
charities, such as the
Oregon Food Bank,
Loaves and Fishes,
Helping Hands.