A Slice of Bread and Butter
The voice of The Bread and Butter Thing - with stories from the frontline of the cost of living crisis from one of the UK's leading food charities.
A Slice of Bread and Butter
Food clubs offer more than just affordable food—they build communities.
What happens when working full-time simply isn't enough to feed your family? Tracy's powerful story exposes the harsh reality many working parents face in today's economy.
As a single mother of five working as a property assistant for Kirklees Council, Tracy embodies the growing demographic of "working poor" – those doing everything society expects yet still struggling to make ends meet. After a series of unexpected health operations last year, Tracy found herself skipping meals so her children could eat, despite working full-time.
"I'd only eat maybe one meal a day, just so then I had enough food in for the kids," Tracy reveals with striking candor. Before her health setbacks, she juggled three jobs – one full-time and two part-time – just to keep her head above water financially. Now, with mounting bills and rising costs, her single income simply doesn't stretch far enough.
The Bread and Butter Thing has become Tracy's lifeline, providing six bags of groceries weekly for just £17. Beyond affordability, the service has transformed her family's eating habits. Her previously fussy children now eagerly unpack each delivery, excited to try new foods like ostrich steak. "It's not dramatic anymore," Tracy explains about mealtimes that were once fraught with tension.
This conversation challenges common misconceptions about food insecurity, revealing how it affects even those with stable employment. Tracy's experience highlights the dignity found in food clubs versus traditional assistance models – positioning her not as a charity recipient but as a savvy shopper making economically and environmentally conscious choices.
Could innovative solutions like an "Eat Well Card" help address this growing crisis? Listen to Tracy's full story and join the conversation about how we can better support working families struggling to put nutritious food on the table despite their best efforts.
Welcome back to A Slice of Bread and Butter with Vic, Mark and Nina from the Bread and Butter Thing. We're a charity that delivers affordable food to the heart of struggling neighbourhoods to help nourish communities and act as a catalyst for change.
Speaker 2:We provide access to a nutritious, affordable range of food, which means our members can save money on their shopping, feed their families healthily, as well as access other support too, right in the heart of their communities.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and this is where we share a slice of life of somebody involved in bread and butter and hear about how they connect with us. And this week, it's Tracy. Yeah, tracy 2., tracy, 2.
Speaker 2:We've had quite a few.
Speaker 1:Traces.
Speaker 3:I'm Tracy. I'm from West Yorkshire and I'm a mother of five children. I currently have three of them living at home full-time. The older two have moved out and I work full-time. I'm a property assistant for the Kirklees Council. I arrange for new bathrooms, new kitchens, so we deliver any elements that the tenants need.
Speaker 1:So five kids, three at home, you're on your own.
Speaker 3:I am, yeah, single parent.
Speaker 1:Nice and busy then.
Speaker 3:Yeah, constantly, all the time. The children, the ones that live at home, are 10, 7 and 5. My five-year-old thinks she's the boss because the youngest always do. Hang on, I'm the youngest, which is right, though they do always think they're the boss I guess I'm talking to the eldest of the family then, when you were kids, yeah, I am the eldest, yeah, Knew it.
Speaker 3:And then my 19-year-old. She's full in the nest. She's now living in her own place and my 14-year-old son wanted to move in with his father. But I do see him on a regular basis and have a real good relationship with him.
Speaker 1:We're somewhat rural. What's it like around here trying to get to I don't know a supermarket or buy your daily shop?
Speaker 3:We have co-ops, so we have a few co-ops in this area. I am lucky enough that I do drive, but if I didn't drive then it would be a well. You'd have to catch the bus down and catch the bus back.
Speaker 1:How far roughly to the nearest shall we say cheap supermarket or affordable supermarket?
Speaker 3:I'd say about a mile and a half away. We're just at the top of the village and then we have to go down.
Speaker 1:I was going to say it's down as well, because we're hilly round here, aren't we?
Speaker 3:Oh yeah, definitely hilly, that's Yorkshire for you. We'd have to walk down and then we'd have to catch the bus back up.
Speaker 1:Can you make it stretch, given that you're working full time?
Speaker 3:So I've been here seven years. My landlady is a really, really nice lady, but she did call me a couple of weeks ago saying that the rent would have to go back up again, which is fine, which is understandable. It hasn't gone up much, but it's enough to make a difference, especially in the weekly shops. So I'm very, I was very good at getting things that was just about to come out of date. You know the yellow stickers, stuff, especially on your meats and your joints, or you know your sausages and so on, and then I'd either cook it because I do a lot of batch cooking then that's my meals. I would say in the last 18 months, if not longer, I do rather let the kids eat than me.
Speaker 3:So I did hit a real bad time last year. I had four operations, unexpected operations. I was in hospital for a little while, so my wage wasn't meeting the needs of my bills or anything like that. So I did go a lengthy time without missing meals. I'd only eat maybe one meal a day, just so. Then I had enough food in for the kids, so then they could eat. And then it was my friend that introduced me to the bread and butter. I've gone every week. I can't put into words how much it's really helped us out, because try, yeah well it's, it's just, it's been absolutely great.
Speaker 3:So the kids were very fussy eaters. Oh right okay, they would never try anything new If I went shopping with them. They'd want to stick to their own things that they like, which is fair enough, because a lot of kids have the same issues, so I'm not going to be the only parent that has that issue. I always get the £17 scheme, so I get the six bags of shopping. My children are eating different foods because we're not going out and we're not, you know, physically getting them off the shelves.
Speaker 1:So you're not getting almost like the peer pressure of your kids.
Speaker 3:Yeah.
Speaker 1:Saying I'm not going to eat that.
Speaker 3:Yeah, so it's all, and every week it's different food.
Speaker 1:Yeah, that's really interesting, though, isn't it, how their behaviours have changed with that tea time now is not.
Speaker 3:It's not dramatic, it's not. I'm not screaming at top of the voice I'm not eating this or I'm not eating that, like they used to do. You know they'll say every tuesday they look forward to coming home because you know, tuesdays is the days when we go shopping bread and butter day exactly. First thing the kids are doing is unpacking the shopping, putting it all away, and they're like oh mum, can we try this? Can we try that?
Speaker 3:me 10 year old, bless him, we got some ostrich steak ostrich, yeah, okay so, which is very unusual, I never thought it was on the shelves, to be honest. So we made it and I ate it. He loved it and I was amazed. I was like what was? It like it's just the same, really to be fair in the taste and the texture it's just all the same. It doesn't if anything, it's just a little bit tougher brilliant.
Speaker 1:It's really nice to hear. It's fascinating how a lot of people say we take agency out of the model because people are not choosing the food, and I say rubbish to that because actually people are making their own choices. Because they would never say such a thing for a middle-class version like a able and coal or something like that would they?
Speaker 1:or a hello fresh. I don't think actually picking things off the shelf is a choice. It's a way of actually looking at it and saying, well, we, we take food that would otherwise go to waste and you grab a bargain right.
Speaker 3:Yeah, absolutely, and that's another thing that I enjoy about this scheme is that it helps with landfill. A good couple of weeks ago they must have had cartons upon cartons of coleslaw. My fridge was full of coleslaw. Luckily enough, I enjoy coleslaw. I've actually got my best friend registered as well. She's actually a childminder. She does it every week and it helps her out with her own children as well as the children that she looks after as a job, and her fridge was full of coleslaw. But if there's anything for instance, there was quite a bit of prawns that we couldn't well, we don't like the prawns I actually spread the food out to my neighbours. So if I get too much vegetables and I know I'm not going to be able to cook it in time, I'll put a few bags on doorsteps.
Speaker 1:Have you met more people in your community as part of Bread and Butter, or is that just something that you already did?
Speaker 3:The neighbours around here are absolutely fantastic, but I would say it's more of a. We have more of a conversation now when it comes to the bread and butter scene, how much it's helping other people and what impact it's helping with them with the landfill because, again, they're with me when it comes to the landfill. But, yeah, we have more conversations.
Speaker 1:We'll cook dinner for each other and batch cooking we're doing a bit of work at the minute and I don't know whether you've heard of this or not, but defra the government department for food and rural affairs and things we're trying to tell them about the issues that people like yourself face we see that that two-pronged approach of it's not just making food accessible but it's also making it affordable.
Speaker 3:I do have to admit it is a struggle. We went last week for my grandson. He did some nappies and we're gone. I think they're like £7 something, but if you had the Tesco's card it'd come down to £4.98. You know it's a massive difference, you know, just in that. So and the co-op if you've got the co-op app, it's a bit cheaper than the normal prices, which I find very unfair.
Speaker 1:Co-op's not alone in doing that, though are they Because they're all at it, aren't they?
Speaker 3:Oh yeah, ald they. Oh yeah, aldi's, aldi's, the same liddle's the same.
Speaker 1:I see the same with baked beans. I don't know. The shelf rate is like nearly two quid nowadays for a tin of beans, which is bonkers, but then if you buy a pack of four it can be two quid how does that work? And I never understood the the economics of this stuff. You've got to be a proper savvy shopper to be able to actually buy such things.
Speaker 3:Yeah, yeah, you definitely do, and if I'm honest with you, the bread and butter covers everything. So you know, the only thing that I really need to top up on is dog food, my toiletries, my laundry stuff. Maybe you know if we run out of milk, but it lasts us.
Speaker 1:So, looking at you then, and what's happened over this past 18 months, the operations that kind of tipped you over the edge because you've got nothing behind you, I guess.
Speaker 3:I was worried I weren't able to pay my bills. You know I've never missed a bill in five years, so that was always on my head. You know, no matter how tough money was, I always made sure the bills was paid. I always made sure my kids were fed. It did get really tough.
Speaker 3:I have got a really good family and friends support. They do now see a difference. I don't have to rely on them now, you know, to be able to get, I don't know, maybe 20 quid's worth of shopping just to tie me over until I get paid. You know my fridge is empty at the moment. I've got butter, milk a meal that I got out at freezer yesterday. I've got loads of pasta, I've got quite a bit of peanut butter and I've got bread that I bought yesterday, but I haven't had no breakfast this morning because, again, I want to save it for when the kids get home.
Speaker 3:So, yeah, yeah, it's always going to be a tough road. I think it it's harder when you're on your own because you don't have that support you know that support from a partner who can take half of that worries and stress and because everything's just seemed to have just gone. Whoosh, you know, and my wage doesn't seem to just stretch that little bit further where it just needs to do so. It's always harder in the last week before you get paid. You know it is a struggle.
Speaker 1:So it's like a monthly cycle.
Speaker 3:Yeah, it is, and it doesn't seem to change.
Speaker 1:This is what gets my goat right, because you're doing everything that you can, you're being really organised and being on top of your bills and all the rest of it, and that's off to you to that, and you're working full time.
Speaker 3:It just doesn't stretch. Before my operations I was working three jobs. I was working a full-time job and then I had two part-time jobs, just so I can be above water, so I could enjoy life with kids. We can go and do activities. We can, you know, go on holiday each year. Don't get me wrong, we don't go abroad, we just go in the UK. We're going to Scotland. It's something that's had to be paid on a monthly basis because I just can't afford to pay it outright. Since having the operations it's made me realise working seven days a week just to keep my head above water wasn't actually worth it, because I miss time from the kids With this full-time job that I'm doing now. The kids do have childcare. That's an expensive bill. It was £1,000 a month to pay for childcare.
Speaker 1:So what have you cut back on? Because it feels like everything is cut back as far as it can right.
Speaker 3:So the children did activities. The kids did football, boxing, go-karting and rugby. So, yes, I was working three jobs, single mum to five kids, and then, obviously, since then Now the kids don't do activities, we don't do much. The only thing that we do do is every weekend I try and get out of the house with the dog and we go places. We'll do packed lunches and we'll go to reservoirs, we'll go for waterfalls and we just try and get out. The kids enjoy the free stuff and I do have to admit, going back to basics brings you back down to your roots and, yeah, it's a different kind of like now. Now things have changed dramatically in the last 18 months. I do have to admit. Even though there's not a lot of money there, we are enjoying our lives a little bit more than now because we're enjoying the three, the three things, but not only that. Like I said, the bread and butter 17 pound a week is a hell of a lot better than 120 pound a week and it keeps us going and it ties us over.
Speaker 1:So, vic, you're practically neighbours with Tracy I know.
Speaker 4:I recognise this from how you and Tracy were chatting about the area.
Speaker 1:So there's a really common thread through the recent podcasts, I would say, where we've got working families working full-time. That just can't make things stretch. And Tracy's another one, a single mum of five. She is working full-time for the council but it's just too hard and she really can't make ends meet. And Tracy's another one where she found herself with nothing behind her, no reserves, because she had a health issue, like so many of our members do.
Speaker 2:Right, where one thing derails them and suddenly they're in struggle mode yeah, and it's sad that she works for the council, but she's in this position herself now, you know. I hope that she's getting the support from them that she needs as well.
Speaker 1:Just don't know what that looks like.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:Because is it the council or is it universal credit? And having the right support for her. But I do think that a single income household is still a really tough environment.
Speaker 2:Especially with five kids, yeah it's tough enough on your own, but with five children to provide for as well, it's really tough Think about all of the overheads.
Speaker 4:Kids are really expensive. You know you need a big house and lots of activities. Even five phones for your kids is like wow, that's an investment. But nowadays a kid couldn't you couldn't say sorry, can't afford a phone for you.
Speaker 1:Yeah, but digital is a really interesting place to go with this as well, because how many of those kids have got tablets or laptops to do their homework on? And if they've got one or two, are they sharing and who gets to choose when and how they can actually use them? There will be many a person out there being very judgy if every one of those kids has got a laptop. Right, and I would say, well, actually every single one of those kids needs a laptop because they're in school and they need a laptop for their homework and to just literally get by in school, never mind thrive.
Speaker 4:Yeah, nobody sends a piece of paper home with the sums on anymore, do they?
Speaker 2:it's all online yeah, and if you look at what happened during lockdown, you know home learning and things like that.
Speaker 4:Everyone needed access to their lessons yeah I know the area around here and I know how often the schools close because of the weather, because we're kind of on steep hills and it gets tricky to get kids to school, and so all of those days, all of the snow days, just turn into online days so trace is another one where you can see the struggle and you can see it feels like a mantra.
Speaker 1:They're doing everything that you would want them to do. They are working full-time and trying not to be a burden on society, but work and whatever universal credit top-up they've got, it's not stretching and that's why they end up coming to bread and butter, and Tracy's great at engaging with bread and butter and she loves the idea of it reducing food waste as well as stretching a budget, which is always fantastic, and it's helped with her kids.
Speaker 2:Dietary diversity yeah, it's great to see that she wants that interaction and she wants to get that diverse food into her kids' diet, you know, so that they're getting to try all sorts of things and that she's getting to eat too, because the fact that she's, you know, sometimes feeling like that she needs to let the kids eat rather than herself, that shouldn't be happening.
Speaker 1:But it's an everyday thing.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:It's one of the things that people tend to overlook about models like the bread and butter thing, because we do like a veg box scheme and it's a push model.
Speaker 2:People get to try new things without risking money to try them yeah, some of the seasonal fruit and veg that you see in those bags.
Speaker 4:It looks amazing and people are so excited to see that stuff in their bag each week I just see people like like Tracy shopping at Bread and Butter as a really part of her canny shop, isn't it? It's a really good choice for her to be making, because she gets different stuff for the family, stuff that they might not have tried, stuff that she would never risk a bit of cash on, and I love that.
Speaker 1:I think there's more to it than that as well, and this is where some of that really interesting contrast between a food bank and a food club is right, because this is us being part of trace's portfolio shop. He says in inverted commons this is the savvy shoppers seeing I'm a savvy shopper not. Oh, I'm in crisis, oh, I need a handout, oh, I need some charity. They're just actually saying I'm going to grab a bargain and save the planet a bit at the same time and feel pretty dignified and stand on my own two feet.
Speaker 2:Thank you very much yeah, and everybody loves a bargain, so why not?
Speaker 4:and it's a bargain with a social yeah. So you've seen lots of other people grabbing the same bargain and you get to see them every week and you have a bit of a crack with them at the hubs, and so it's super accepted and accessible for people to access bread and butter and almost they become part of a community so you know, I like a curveball, yeah, I'm just.
Speaker 1:I'm just thinking vick's rolling her eyes, but I'm actually thinking, nina, it's only week two or week three and you, you've been out, you've been out about. Have've been out and about have you seen this yet?
Speaker 2:I have seen the community. In all the hubs that I've been to, I've met the most amazing people. They work really hard but they have such a fun time doing it and they know the people in the queue that turn up every week. They swap recipes, they swap stories, they have a cup of tea and it's just a really lovely place to be. Or in a food bank for that matter.
Speaker 1:Yeah, although again in a very BBC type way. Other food clubs are available and certain food banks are actually more community focused than others as well.
Speaker 4:Yeah, community kitchens too, of course. So can I give you some stats around this and food bills, because I feel like it's helpful for some context for people. So we know that 50% of our members earn 300 quid or less a week and we know that spending on their food budgets is round about 30 to 39% of their income goes only on food. So if you add on a bit of rent and a bit of getting to work and stuff for the kids, there is literally nothing left. And you'd probably also argue because when people shop with us, they eat more healthily. They tell us they eat more diverse food, they eat better than they could otherwise afford. So you could argue that that 30 to 39 percent of their food budget isn't even going on giving them the diet that they would actually really want. It's going on compromised eating, with Tracy still skipping a few meals, or buying some cheaper alternatives for the kids just to fill them up with calories rather than giving them the nutrition.
Speaker 1:You've suddenly given me a double curveball week. I'm loving this. So tell me, Vic, what do you think government should do about this?
Speaker 4:We've been here, we've done this. I think that they need to riff off of the Healthy Start card and make it like an eat well card so that families that are struggling to make ends meet. They clearly have to think about the thresholds because we know governments track records with setting an appropriate threshold is a little bit questionable. But if they could do it right and they gave people money off or money towards pulses, fruit, veg, milk, those kinds of things, then actually we'd be getting the right food into fridges. The eat well card is my I like it.
Speaker 1:An eat well card, that sounds great.
Speaker 4:I'm on board. Thanks guys.
Speaker 1:I'll pitch it to government next week if you could, and if you don't get an answer, just let us know and then we'll put it on socials yeah, I'm designing that eat well card right now.
Speaker 2:If you'd like to know more about the bread and butter thing and what we get up to, you can find us at Team TBBT on Instagram, tiktok, twitter and LinkedIn, or online at breadandbutterthingorg.
Speaker 1:And if you have any questions or thoughts on the podcast or would like to come and have an atter with us or be a guest, just drop us an email at podcast at breadandbutterthingorg.
Speaker 2:Lastly, we're always open to new members at all of our hubs. If you or someone you know would benefit from an affordable food scheme, you can find your nearest hub at the Become a Member pages on our website.
Speaker 1:And please do all the things that the podcast asks you to do. Like us, subscribe, leave us a review and share us with your friends and DM Nina on the socials.
Speaker 2:DM.
