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

• 'Incredible read and desperately important - Free Loaves will stay with me for a very long time. 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

• 'A raw and emotive account of the real care sector and 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

• 'So often care-experienced people are not listened to, their exclusion from policy setting and decision making is ever apparent. Often those who have experienced care are spoken about as though they are all one homogenous group. They aren’t. Their diverse experiences are brought to life in this book. 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

• 'Free Loaves is an incredibly poignant and powerful book and shines a light on the courage, bravery, creativity and individual uniqueness of each care-experienced child, young person and adult contributor. It has been a privilege and honour to read this book. This is a must-read for every social worker, we must hear and learn from the voices of the care-experienced community, and influence and change practice and systems for the better’ Maris Stratulis, the national director for the British Association of Social Workers

• 'A very timely topical and relevant book in which the editors have captured the real lived experiences of people with first-hand accounts rather than an interpretation of their experiences . . . This is a powerful book that goes beyond telling people their stories, which in themselves are truly inspirational. As a care-experienced person, I couldn’t put the book down and cried just a little with pride at the accounts in the Tales of Strength, Success and Survival section' Avril McIvor, British Journal of Social Work

• 'Possibly the closest thing we'll ever have to an encyclopedia of the care experience . . . For those of us with a spirit of adventure, the usual reaction to being on a rollercoaster is to want another go straight away. That was my response to this book. So, if you feel similarly adventurous, buckle up safely and enjoy the ride' Dr Jim Goddard, Scottish Journal of Residential Child Care

Rebekah Pierre lives in south London and is a care-experienced writer and campaigner. She has written extensively about the care system, and has appeared in publications including the Guardian, the Independent, and on BBC Radio 4 among others.

Rebekah is deputy director of the charity Article 39, which campaigns for the rights of children in institutional settings, and she has drawn upon her lived experience to expose wider policy failures. Her peer-reviewed journal, 'Revisiting Diary Entries from Care: An Exposition of the Challenges of Unregulated Placement Settings', is the first-known auto-ethnographic paper to feature childhood diary extracts written while in the care of the state.

@RebekahPierre92