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
Community Catalyst: How Food Creates Transformation
"It's not just the food—it's reinvigorating community spaces." These powerful words from Paul Harris, headteacher at Carhill Community Primary School in Gateshead, capture the transformative impact The Bread and Butter Thing has had on his community in just three short weeks.
Serving a school where 60% of children qualify for free school meals, Paul recognized immediately that TBBT's affordable food model could complement his existing community support initiatives. What he didn't anticipate was how quickly it would breathe life back into a neighboring family centre that had become "like a ghost town" following years of service cuts.
The magic happens every Thursday when up to 80 families receive high-quality food bags for just £8.50. But the true value extends far beyond the groceries. Parents from the school have stepped forward as volunteers, gaining confidence and purpose as they take ownership of the hub. The dignity of paying rather than receiving charity transforms the experience from handout to community shopping. And the money saved enables families to prioritize other essentials—from school uniforms to modest holidays that might otherwise be unattainable.
"We literally came away in tears," Paul confesses, describing his first glimpse of the hub in action. "This is like a little candle showing how we can work as a community, support each other to make this area a really strong place to be, to live, to work and to prosper."
Join us to discover how food can become a catalyst for community revival, bringing people together, creating opportunities, and restoring dignity. Whether you're interested in supporting your local community, finding affordable food options, or learning how small interventions can create big changes, this episode offers inspiration and practical insights into building stronger, more resilient neighborhoods.
Welcome back to A Slice of Bread and Butter with Vic and Mark 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 to right in the heart of their communities.
Speaker 1: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 Yep and this time it is Paul Bit of a North East vibe going on for a few weeks now.
Speaker 3:Paul's up in the northeast, let's have a listen. Great, I'm paul harris. I'm the head teacher at carhill community primary school in gated, but I'm originally from down south, as you can probably tell from my accent, so I haven't got a Geordie accent. 25 to 26 years I've been here now, love the place.
Speaker 2:I can hear in the background. Is it play time or something? Is it break it's continual?
Speaker 3:play time. So we've got I've got reception children out outside my office at the minute, then nursery will have their time out and then key stage one will be out. So we stagger our break time so that they can just be with children that they kind of own age. We've got quite two small yards so if we have all of the kids out at the same time it's too many. So how many kids have you got In the school? It's about 330. So slightly larger than average.
Speaker 2:So you've got 330 kids.
Speaker 3:Yeah, class sizes Well, it's 45 in each year group and we're probably running at about 97% capacity at the minute in the school. There's a couple of year groups where the birth rate seems to have dropped a wee bit in year one in reception, but the rest of the school is pretty much full up. 60% for free school meals in our school. So it kind of indicates that the school is in one of the more socio-economically deprived areas of England, kind of sits in the top 10% of most deprived areas but it's a community that I absolutely love.
Speaker 3:I've worked here for 27 years, so I started as an NQT. So when I completed my teaching degree and kind of just stayed in the school, we started bread and butter recently with you, didn't we?
Speaker 3:Yeah. So basically an email, I think, went out. It was just like, is anybody interested in it? And I read it and then I looked into the background of the charity and I thought, oh, this, this is decent, this is what I like, this idea. So we run a kind of community service within our school where we do a community table where we go to aldi and little and they kind of give us food that won't be sold and basically families can come and take what they need and you know that that's been, I think, really well received within the community.
Speaker 3:And then I read about what the bread and butter thing was about. What I've developed over the last couple of years since I've been head here, is close relationships with the family centre. That's just literally over the road and in my head I was like they have space in there. So I went and spoke to a couple of their managers because I was a bit dubious about how this was going to work, but was adamant. I wanted our school to be kind of part of it, if that made sense do you know what it is from our perspective, paul?
Speaker 2:we don't like tugging a rug. If we start supporting people, then we want to stay, you know, six or twelve weeks and then suddenly it's gone because it doesn't work for a stakeholder. It doesn't feel fair right.
Speaker 3:It was just like right, 100 mile an hour into this and we so I love that and I think that the community center is what we're trying like. 20 years ago this community center was like a vibrant hub and it's kind of, as services have been cut, it's slowly kind of thing, like a ghost town walking in there. We use it for pe because it's got a brilliant sports hall. So we did a couple of like look throughs, worked it out. We did the kind of trial week where the volunteers learned how to pack.
Speaker 3:I put a message out to our parents and carers and the parents and carers have been brilliant. We want to be involved in this. We understand how it's going to work. We want to be part of this. So we've got this bank of volunteers. I can see it in their faces. I can see it and like their feeling of self-worth and giving back to the community. Hopefully this will change opportunities for them as well, because they're in charge of this. They're running it themselves.
Speaker 3:Basically, it's fantastic the whole process of this about empowering people at every level and the other lovely thing that we've loved about it because there's a cost to it. It doesn't feel like we're giving it away. There's an element of we've got to own this, from paying the money for it. So, like June the 5th I think was the first one we've done Today is our third full one. So the first two weeks we can take a maximum of 80 families and we've been over capacity on that. It's just blown my mind away.
Speaker 3:And like the community centre over there is like it's not, like it's a different place, but on a thursday there's a massive buzz to it and even our kids like what's going on, because they can see from our schoolyard all of these families and people going in. They've got half an hour to get in, yeah, and I was really dubious. I was thinking how is this gonna work? How does this? But it's been absolutely perfect, like, no problems. They've been oversubscribed. They make a couple of extra bags at the minute because they know people turning up don't fully understand it and then they're giving that away and the quality of food that they're getting is just unreal for 8.50, like, or for 17.50 if they're going for the bigger bags.
Speaker 2:So that's fantastic. We really really love. I mean, we try and explain it to people, paul, but it's something you've got to see for yourself, really, isn't it? Yeah because it's not just the food for us, it's that reinvigorating community spaces, it's creating that footfall. Next step for us will be challenging you and the local authority to say, okay, well, we've got a footfall, what we're going to do with it?
Speaker 3:come on and this is what I've already had those questions, so the kind of facilities manager, the managers of the family, centers, of crossgates, and saying that this is working here, what else can we do to get this going for other areas, because there's no reason why it can't work now. So we've seen it work and that's the kind of conversation. So myself and my family support worker went over there on the first week and the pair of us just came away in tears because of everything you've just said, like we literally went to see all of the bagging up at the start and then just left. I didn't want to be there when people were being getting getting the food or anything like that. I just wanted out there. But I just wanted to say thank you to the volunteers for our community for what they've done to help for the people from the bread and butter thing from your team, if that makes sense. Yeah, you know the driver, the person who sits in the, the lorry and hands out the, the kind of chilled goods and stuff like that.
Speaker 2:Tell you what they're going to take. Issue, paul, they're just sitting in the lorry and just handing out the get. Well, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 3:But the intense piece of work from the driver and everything they do the unloading and loading and the stocking and making sure it all runs they are absolutely brilliant. But it's what you've said it's reinvigorated people. You know you feel like you're closer and also that we're part of that. This people it's. You know, you feel like you're closer and and also that we're part of that. Yeah, you know, this is absolutely incredible because people are talking about food poverty everywhere because it's so rife at the minute. You know the cost of food, the cost of energy and everything is still high. If you've got running a car, that's not easy.
Speaker 3:You've got to take your car through an MOT those sort of things are not cheap at all, and this just gives you a window of kind of actually I can have a bit of ease on the food shop for this week or this next couple of weeks.
Speaker 3:That will help me kind of prioritize money for somewhere else, and that might be for clothes for kids, it could be for a holiday to a caravan park that just wouldn't have been obtainable but might be now because of this, and yet the families still feel that they're contributing and paying to something, and the quality of food and the amount of food you're just like this is absolutely phenomenal and it's all there to support communities. There'll be a point when I'm not quite as busy as I am at the minute, but what I'll do is I'll go and share this with every head teacher engaged about what this is going. If you've got this or you've got this capacity, these are people that are worth getting in contact with, because I haven't felt this strongly about something that I feel is not in this building. If that makes sense in the school that I mean. Yeah, I get it long, long time.
Speaker 2:It's absolutely what you're doing is absolutely, absolutely incredible what I'm loving, paul, is you're almost rocking our vibe, because I can hear you as a head teacher, but I can hear you almost doing what we do, which is community. First, there's something about that community investment. If you actually put something really interesting like this into a community, it just lights the blue touch paper and then you. It's all about exploiting the opportunities that come along with it.
Speaker 3:Absolutely we're really, really fortunate. We're one of the first ever greg's breakfast club. So, yeah, we've had a free breakfast club running in our school for over 25 years. We've got over 110 kids coming on a regular basis. You feel like you're just putting these building blocks in place to support families that might not all need it, but some do, or they can just dip in when they need it, and when they don't need it they can just leave it.
Speaker 3:It's about understanding that there's no judgments made on this.
Speaker 3:But if that money saves a family and gives them the ability to go and buy a uniform or buy sports clothes or take them to a sporting event, we're enriching their lives with their families. Then the only thing that can be beneficial is back to us from an educational point of view, because the kids are going to be more ready to learn, they're going to be understanding, they're going to have the nutritional side of the diets. The food that they've been given is really, really high quality food. It's win-win on absolutely every single level and you feel like you give that back to the community, giving them absolutely every opportunity they need and can take to then make the best choices in their lives. And we're really fortunate, I've got two teachers that are in this school that used to be pupils when I was a teacher here. They've gone through the system, they're part of our community and we've got two teaching assistants who are ex-pupils of our school, so we're being able to show to the new generation of children coming through that.
Speaker 3:These are life chances. These are things that you can take. These are opportunities that you can use in what is everybody would agree is a really really tough and challenging area, and this is like a little candle the bread and butter thing has given us about how we can work as a community, support each other to make this area a really really strong place to be, to live, to work and to prosper as we move on in life.
Speaker 2:So quick and seamless Spik, this was down to you.
Speaker 1:Obviously, speedy Gonzalez. Yeah, paul's a dude, so I'm going to give the backstory, because Paul didn't cover that. He mentioned that there was an email went round. It went round from the council to some schools to say do you think this could help? And I got an email one day that said we need this in our community. Here's my mobile number Call me whenever. And no head teacher does that. I've never seen that before.
Speaker 1:So I rang him on a lunchtime thinking okay, this feels like it could be a safe time. And he was out on duty and I said is it okay to speak now? And he was like, yes, it's too important not to tell me. And then he was like, okay, we need this, I'm going on holiday, I'm going to speak to you while I'm on holiday. There'll be no kids about it, it'll be easier, we'll get it sorted. And then we went and did a site visit, all in record time and Paul's walking the family hub going no, it'll be better there, it'll be better here, it'll be better there and really trying to kind of make sure it landed. And then we started and sounds like the community's really kind of taking it under the wing, which is fantastic.
Speaker 2:It's amazing to hear the kind of enthusiasm, and you don't need us going out there telling everybody the benefits of bread and butter. When you've got the likes of Paul. He's fantastic.
Speaker 1:Oh, you didn't even need to be on that podcast.
Speaker 2:No, not at all. I could have just said could you just do me a recording?
Speaker 1:Yeah, and he's like really inspiring. I did kind of think, oh, if I could have had a head teacher like Paul when I was a kid. I think that that would have been a really lucky thing because he's brilliant. We got a little tour around school, largely to see how tricky the building was and how as much as he'd love bread and butter to be in school, it was not possible, but the school's got a really cool vibe about it as well so tell me about the buzz of a bread and butter day, because paul really talks about that.
Speaker 2:Personally, I don't see it as special, and what I mean by that is it feels like that everywhere you go you're just grumpy.
Speaker 1:Of course it's special. We create a footfall of lots of the community all coming together for the same thing. They've got common interests, they can chat to each other. Last year we gave out 52 000 cups of tea to help people have a conversation with people that they might not see all the time. And a key thing is that we've got volunteers that are part of that community. It's not us going into a community and going, oh look, here you go, we've made this happen for you. Like paul said, they own it, it's theirs.
Speaker 2:That's really impressive, I think amen to that and I'm enjoying this new Vic that just keeps telling me off and making me behave. So tell us about the drivers, then the CDDOs, because they don't just sit in the truck.
Speaker 1:I loved that. No, I always say that the guys on the front line, team TBBT, the people that genuinely make it happen they've got a job of two halves. So in the morning they are grafting in the warehouse, selecting the best food that they possibly can to put on all of the vans for the right number of people come rain or shine. Come rain or shine. They work a dark art. It's magic in terms of not knowing what food we're ever going to have because it's all somebody else's surplus and it's a surprise. And then making that into something certain out in the community.
Speaker 1:So once they've done that bit of magic, they then jump in a van, hopefully, turn the tunes up and have a little blast on the way to the hub, get to the hub and they're all smiles and hosty and actually it's really nice because they quite often go to the same hubs so they get to know the volunteers and they're part of that family in the community too. But then while they're there, they're not just sat in the truck, paul, they are doing all of our due diligence. They're making sure that the right food goes in the right bag. They're greeting members, hopefully facilitating some of them cups of teas and chats, and then obviously making sure that everybody gets served, then tidying up and going back. So that's what a day looks like for them hard graft. I always say it's pretty demanding, but also really quite rewarding yeah it's cool going out to a hub we don't do it enough.
Speaker 2:It is. I love the mix that we have of CDDOs as well, from the sublime to the ridiculous, really of all the careers that we've seen that have come and gone through that role, Because it's actually very much people wanting a community role and willing to put the hours and the graft in to get that community role as well.
Speaker 1:Absolutely, and we've got we've been chatting about this recently with trustees, haven't we that we've got such a diverse team, and actually we probably don't celebrate that enough so give me some of the examples of previous careers people have had okay, you've got a cutie.
Speaker 2:Smirk on your face um, you're worried now, are you?
Speaker 1:so we have had people that have been program managers in the nhs. We've had nurses. Oh, one of our members of staff used to work at a snow zone. Um, what else have we had? Let's think bet 365 on the german desk of bet bet 365, though so multilingual yeah, we've had bus drivers, post people that have worked in retail, people that have worked in hospitality. We've got quite a few people that are doing education while working with us like extra education after uni. Any other random ones that are missing Insurance centre.
Speaker 2:Well, we've had bankers as well. Publon ladies, that's a good one, yeah, huge mix Big mix. What tends to bring everybody together is that characteristics, isn't it? It's positive, enthusiastic people that share common values.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and that want to provide a really good service for our members or just sit in a van. That's because they make it look so easy. They're like swans when they're out in the community, making it look so easy and effortless. And, to be fair, paul did only drop in for a quick snapshot. He made that clear.
Speaker 2:What about the payment? So Paul was saying it's important to pay for the bags. I guess we keep coming back to this food bank food club differential, but this is a key aspect really, isn't it? The payment bit?
Speaker 1:I think it's really important. This is a key aspect, really, isn't it? The payment bit? I think it's really important. I think it gives our members more agency and it makes them feel like they are providing for their families Well, not makes them feel they are. Ensures that they are providing for their families. Yeah, the way that people shop nowadays has changed again, so everyone's after a bit of a bargain. People like to shout about a canny shop. You know, oh, my yellow sticker had this much off of it that kind of stuff when you're going into the supermarket. So actually adding a bread and butter shop into the mix becomes the everyday way of life for some families in the communities that we're in. People like the surprise as well and the diversity that we provide. So it's kind of stuff that you wouldn't necessarily always include in your basket of shopping, but then you give it a go anyway and then you decide you like it, so it's a win I think it differentiates and I think it stops people thinking they're getting charity because we're not giving them charity.
Speaker 2:We're actually giving them a bargain. So they don't even look at us like a charity, they just see us as a community project. Really, to be fair, we don't look at ourselves like a charity no well, look at all the kind of careers we've just rhymed off for the cddos.
Speaker 1:It's a demonstration that we're not really yeah, the thing for me and why I wanted paul to do a podcast really early doors is we chat to a lot of our members and volunteers later down the line, when we've got to know them, and we can coerce them into coming on and chatting to us. But actually Paul is in that still the bit of oh my goodness, this place looked different before and now. There's a visible difference. And he was talking about the family hub. Yeah, I think after a time people forget that. So I was keen that we kind of managed to bottle it a little bit.
Speaker 2:No, I get it and I love his enthusiasm and I love how he gets the pulse of bread and butter.
Speaker 1:Yeah, did you swap dog stories by any?
Speaker 2:chance, bloody hell, no, should I have you missed out then? Well, maybe there'll be a poll too, then, yeah.
Speaker 1:Enthusiastic about dogs. Yeah, I feel I need to do a separate podcast vick on just on dogs. Yeah, I think you could do that and, uh, I think blue would join in.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I, I feel that we wouldn't get much attention, though, unless we actually had the dogs on it, so it's gonna have to be video, just like yesterday when he video bombed the team's meeting we were on. He'd just have to sit in front of me yeah, could you?
Speaker 1:yeah, but could you imagine, if I'm there, normally he's like stuck to me so I'd have like blue on my knee yeah, for those of you that don't know, he's 45 kilos and enormous, but very lovely.
Speaker 2:Just a bit too lovely at times.
Speaker 1:So 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 bread and butter thingorg and if you've got any feedback or thoughts on the podcast or want to come and have a chat with us and tell us all about what you think of bread and butter, drop us an email at podcast at breadandbutterthingorg lastly, we're always open to new members at all of our hubs, so if you or someone you know would benefit from our affordable food scheme, or food club as we like to call them, you can find your nearest hub on the become a member pages of the website, and please do all of the things that podcasts ask you to do Like us, subscribe, leave us a review, share us with your friends and chat about us on social and share some dog photos See you later Wow, bye.
