The Bread of Life

Story by Glenn Settle, Professor of English

Eaten Poulsbo Bread lately?

Sold all over the world, the hearty bread comes from the small Scandinavian town of Poulsbo, across Puget Sound from Seattle.

The bread originated from a scripture verse.

Marion and Loretta Sluys were able to buy the Poulsbo Bakery in 1966 because of a $1,000 loan from Marion’s sister. She mortgaged her life insurance policy and then lay ten $100 bills on the Sluys’ kitchen table.

A few years later, following the financially tight start of their new bakery, Marion and Loretta found themselves talking one day with Nicolene Johnson. She was teaching a nutrition course at Christ Memorial, the Sluys’ church.

Nicolene told them about the building blocks of protein. Even vegetarians can get by just fine, Nicolene said, if they eat a balance of grains, nuts, seeds, and beans.

Wondering what the Bible had to say about nutrition, Marion took his concordance off the shelf and looked up “bread.” Interestingly, in Ezekiel 4:9, he found a recipe for bread–one containing all the building blocks of protein.

Marion put the recipe together, using sunflower seeds as a local alternative to one of the ingredients. (Marion was the first baker in America to use sunflower seeds.)

“The first time I baked it,” says Marion, “the bread was perfect. I have never changed the recipe.”

The bread caught on quickly.

From the start Marion, Loretta, and their six kids were working twelve-hour days, six days per week. And now they were also baking and selling 100 loaves of Poulsbo Bread every day, Monday through Thursday, as well as 200 loaves on Fridays and Saturdays.

As business grew, the Sluys realized they needed help baking and distributing their increasingly popular bread. Then in 1987 a major Seattle firm offered to buy rights to bake and distribute the bread. There was only one catch– the Sluys wanted the phrase “Inspired by God’s word (Ezek. 4:9)” on the back of every loaf as a thank-you to God, and the firm’s officials told the Sluys the phrase couldn’t be included.

The Sluys turned down the firm’s lucrative offer.

Only one week later, through a series of coincidences only God could have directed, another Seattle firm, the Lucks Co. (now “Westco”), agreed to the Sluys’ request. Soon the bread was being sold in Safeway stores and other major outlets across the country.

The rest, as they say, is history.

In addition to their high protein Poulsbo Bread, Marion went on to devise and bake a low-protein bread suitable for kidney patients. Military hospitals around the world purchase this bread.

In subsequent years the Sluys have invested in real estate and even in dietary supplements. (Sarah Lee purchases one of their products.)

But a major focus of their lives is still Poulsbo Bread, the Poulsbo Bakery, and a scripture verse.