‘Bread Man’ brings kindness message to Medina business organization

Photo by Ginny Kropf: Laura Gardner, owner of a lily & a sparrow and a member of the Medina Area Partnership, introduces Chet Fery of Brockport, known as the “Bread Man,” at MAP’s February get-together at the Coffee Pot Café in Medina. Everyone in attendance went home with one of Fery’s home-baked loaves of bread.

MEDINA – If there is one thing Chet Fery values in life, it’s kindness, and the Brockport resident has spent the last 22 years spreading kindness all over the country, one loaf at a time.

This week, he brought his message of kindness, along with several loaves of bread, to the Medina Area Partnership’s February get-together at the Coffee Pot Café.

A retired special ed teacher, Fery founded Bread Time Stories and More to promote random acts of kindness. He is also an amateur baker, storyteller, motivational speaker and kindness coach, who has baked and given away more than 130,000 loaves of bread.

“There’s something about baking bread that stays with us,” Fery said. “I started baking every Sunday for my children.”

Then on Mondays, he would take the extra loaves to work and put them on a table with a sign, “Free bread.”

“That seemed to change things,” Fery said. “People would come to work early, walk quickly to the bread table, pick up a loaf and smile.”

He said that changed his life, when he realized it was more than the bread – it was the act of kindness. He said kindness has the power to change things.

“We are happier, smarter, friendlier, work harder, heal faster and life longer,” he said. “Kindness is a choice that benefits the giver and the receiver.”

Fery also shared his admiration and respect for Medina.

“I bring my wife here every week in the summer for ice cream at Double Dips,” he said. “She won’t go anywhere else. I’ve been to Harvest and I love the book store and the chocolate shop.”

He invited by principal Brad Pritchard to spread the mission of kindness at the Albion middle school after the pandemic, to help the kids get back to normal, Fery said.

“Kids want kindness, too,” he added.

Fery can bake 44 loaves of bread at a time in his oven. He also makes pizzas and will do presentations at a house party, business meeting or any gathering.

Along the way, Fery got the idea to make a “Kindness” sign to accompany his loaves of bread. They have proven almost as popular as the bread. He has made and given away 200 of them.

MAP has a calendar of events planned for the spring and summer, including the annual Easter Bunny and Golden Easter Egg Scavenger Hunt on March 23 and a Murder Mystery on May 4. Complete information on those events will follow soon.

MAP has a new slate of officers for 2024-25. They are Cindy Robinson, president; Marc Shurtz, vice president; Jessica Rockcastle, secretary; Amy Crandall, treasurer; and Bill Bixler, Jesse Cudzilo and Michael Snyder, directors.