Gingerbread (charity) Some Gingerbread members run local groups offering peer support for other single parents and their families. Online advice and information Gingerbread offers comprehensive advice and information for single parents on its website, as well as a number of interactive advice tools and an online community for members. The advice covers areas including child maintenance, tax credits and steps to take when a relationship ends. In October 2011 a mobile version of the website was launched. Training Gingerbread offers training, employability and confidence-building programmes for single parents. It runs schemes in partnership with Marks & Spencer (Marks and Start) to help
Gingerbread been brought to Europe in 992 CE by the Armenian monk Gregory of Nicopolis (also called Gregory Makar and Grégoire de Nicopolis). He left Nicopolis (in modern-day western Greece) to live in Bondaroy (north-central France), near the town of Pithiviers. He stayed there for seven years and taught gingerbread baking to French Christians. He died in 999. In the 13th century, gingerbread was brought to Sweden by German immigrants. In 15th-century Germany, a gingerbread guild controlled production. Early references from the Vadstena Abbey show that the Swedish nuns baked gingerbread to ease indigestion in 1444. It was the custom to