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
Garfield's Story: Theatre, Food Waste, and Community
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From the bright lights of theatre to the humble act of sharing food with neighbours, Garfield Allen's story shows how The Bread and Butter Thing touches lives in unexpected ways.
Garfield, a freelance theatre producer with 40 years of experience bringing creative ideas to the stage, first connected with TBBT when finances were tight. Though his work bringing dance, film, mime and puppetry to audiences doesn't always pay generously, it fulfills him in ways many never experience in their careers. "I've been very lucky in life in that way," he reflects, "that I've actually enjoyed what I've done."
What began as a practical way to stretch his budget quickly became something more meaningful. While financial savings matter, Garfield's passion for fighting food waste drives his fortnightly visits to the Inspire hub in Levenshulme. This environmental consciousness extends to his own practices – he's established a charming tradition of leaving surplus food on his garden wall for neighbours to take, creating micro-community connections through shared resources.
Having previously used a traditional food bank limited to just two visits, Garfield appreciates TBBT's dignified approach that feels less like charity and more like smart shopping. The variety of fresh foods stands in stark contrast to the primarily tinned goods available elsewhere. Even challenging items like lamb heart become culinary adventures (albeit heavily disguised with ginger, garlic and whopping doses of sauce!).
Garfield's participation in TBBT's Living Library project, where members shared their stories directly with policymakers in Westminster, highlights how our community extends beyond individual hubs. People from diverse backgrounds and circumstances found common ground and lasting friendships while advocating for change.
Whether you're struggling to make ends meet, passionate about reducing food waste, or simply looking to connect with your community, we welcome you to join us. Visit breadandbutterthingorg to find your nearest hub and become part of our story.
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 2We 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 1And this is where we share a slice of life of somebody involved in the bread and butter thing and hear about how they connect with us.
Speaker 2Yeah, and this week it's Garfield, so I went out to Levenshulme to see Garfield I'm sure you can tell them all about what he is as part of a living library.
Speaker 1Yeah, of course.
Speaker 3My name is Garfield Allen and every other week I go down to Inspire to collect my three bags of goodies.
Speaker 2Yeah, it's a nice place where we are, because I don't know if you know this Garfield, but you know St Mary's just down the road. Yeah, that was actually our second hub. Some of the mums there asked us to move to Inspire, so Inspire was like almost like our third hub, so it's perfect Been going for years now.
Speaker 3It's really good. It's a really good, given what they do.
Speaker 2Yeah.
Life as a freelance theatre producer
Speaker 3Given what you do, it's just a really good place to be. So do you work? I work as a freelance theatre producer. Well, I used to run venues as an artist, as director. So I started out in Bristol at a place called Inkworks. I'm a Mancunian originally but went to Bristol University and stayed there and then came back to do an event. It was a two year contract, it was called City of Drama 94 and then I ran for 14 years the Green Room, which is now called Gorilla, which is opposite the Ritz, and I get the funding. I put the creative teams together, I commission writers, I commission artists, I facilitate it. Really, I've been doing that for 40 years.
Speaker 2So do you choose what actually is put on by the theatres?
Speaker 3Yeah, yeah, my speciality is to get people's creative ideas on the stage. Don't just do it through linear narrative writing. It can be dance, it can be film, it can be mime or puppetry, so I like mixing it up that way. That's what I do up and down.
Speaker 2Does it?
Speaker 3pay. It doesn't pay a lot of money, but you know it's interesting work. It's almost like it's my hobby and it's great. I've got a lot of colleagues and friends who literally hate what they do. Yeah, they're just waiting for retirement and that'll be them, and then they'll probably do what they want to do. So I've been very lucky in life in that way that I've actually enjoyed what I've done in meeting lots of people I think.
Speaker 2I often find they're dissatisfied with their job, aim for retirement and then realise that they don't actually know what they want to do. Yeah.
Speaker 3Because it's when you say that we're going to do retirement nothing. I mean, oh, you might. You know. I don't know if that's going to be a good thing for you. I'm not a nothing kind of guy. I couldn't do that. I'm not even sure if I can afford to retire, for God's sake.
Speaker 2So we'll see well, that is another question we may come on to that. Are you on your?
Speaker 3own? Do you have family? Yeah, I live on my own but yeah, I'm still very close to my ex-missus and my two sons still in Manchester. Yeah, I should say that one's just bought a house in Liverpool in Penny Lane wow. And the other one's an IT specialist and I'm not sure where it works, but it works on computers. He's always been a bit snazzy around computers and that's what he does.
Speaker 2he's a bit like the artist you can't really explain IT, but it makes money.
Speaker 1That's the difference.
Speaker 2So tell me why you use bread and butter, then Well.
Speaker 3I was chatting to someone and he told me about this organisation and I thought that's interesting, so then registered. My main thing for doing it is it supplements my food. It's getting really expensive. But more important to me is food waste and I've always gone. I'll give it a view test and give it a sniff test. You don't want to poison yourself, but a lot of food you don't have to throw away. You know, I mean and I've got a lot of young people around me, literally my young cousins nope, it's, it's. It says it's the 28th and it's the 27th won't even open the packet, straight in the bin. I wouldn't mind volunteering, but they seem to be such a well-oiled machine actually.
Speaker 2Yeah yeah, so just let them do their thing. No, we do find that every hub that we go to the food club just gets established with, let's say, a dozen volunteers that rotate and they all find their groove and they know exactly what they're doing I know I've been on the vans in desperate measures.
Speaker 2You know and I'll rock up and they don't know me from adam, which is lovely, and and you'll get out and they go. I'm mark from bread and butter. Yeah, yeah, you're the new boy. Sit over there, go and have a brew. It's like no, no, no, this is no, this is how we do it here. It's like okay, as long as you're safe, I'll be fine you know, I get bags of food sometimes.
Speaker 3It's just not complaining, there's only so many bananas I can eat, but what that makes me do is I share it amongst my, because I live in a. I know all my neighbors. Um, I share it amongst them and family and it's just been just been really good to be able to do something like that. I've always left things on the wall. Yeah, and then just yeah, and then they just go. Sometimes people knock on the door and go oh, you've left. I say no, no, you can have it.
Speaker 1Oh can.
Speaker 3I really Kids, you know, help themselves and parents help themselves. It's nice.
Speaker 2I suppose I felt a bit of that when I first started Bread and Butter, because you're the only person and you're on the van and there's weeks when you get too much food right and you know there's only like 50 families turning up but you've got so much food and and then you're actually saying to him look, help me out, take it, take it, take it. And there were people coming back for more and more because actually they were like I'll use it, don't you worry, I've got a massive freezer and all the rest of it, and it just felt good that you weren't wasting it. You know you were finding an answer to it.
Speaker 3No, that's excellent. And do you have? I know you're interviewing me Do you have? Are you ever left with anything or do you work it? You know, because obviously you send us a text, you know who's coming, you know the numbers.
Speaker 2We try not to left with anything. So what we've got is we founded a network of food redistribution charities as well, called excess. So we have a whatsapp group on excess. So if we've got too much food we'll go to the other. There's about a dozen other charities.
Speaker 2Okay, cool, because if we get a lot of something right, I mean we've had weeks where we've got trucks and trucks of courgettes because it's in season and all the rest of it's just like there's only so many courgettes you can throw at people, right. So things like that we do, and we do receive food that isn't safe to give out, and I mean used by, not best before. So we can't give out anything beyond used by. I know I'm like you if it was in the fridge I'd punt on it and use my senses, but I can't so out anything beyond used by. I know I'm like you If it was in the fridge I'd punt on it and use my senses, but I can't. So when it's like that. We've also got things like dogs, homes, all right, okay. So we try and keep it to a minimum.
Speaker 2My ambition really is there are a couple of local pig farmers and I'd love to get bread and butter sausages on the go. All right, okay, that'd be fun. Man. Bread and butter sausages on the go? Ah, okay, that'd be fun. Man with a plan, I like it. So going back to you then, because this is about you, garfield, not me. I don't know why I started this. You did warn me. Do you know anybody else on your street, et cetera, that uses it? Or I get a real sense and Inspire of the community there. Does it ripple out this far?
Speaker 3There's some real regulars down in Inspire aren't there? I'm sure people go every week, don't they? And I'm always seeing new people. I suspect people use it, like I do, you know, sort of like once every two weeks or something. It's a really good thing, because I wasn't working for a bit and I got told about it and I used a food bank before there's a church down there and you're completely different, because most food banks I mean they're still useful, but you're full of getting tinned stuff yeah, yeah, mainly whereas you, you know you've really got that going, haven't you?
Speaker 2in terms of meats and fresh foods and how does it feel as well when you ended up having to use a food bank? How does that feel in comparison to bread and butter?
Speaker 3say it actually has a lot of similarities. I mean because people at food banks really nice, really nice folk, really respectful. Yeah, you know what I mean. Don't make you feel, yeah, yeah, a lesser being, because you're using?
Speaker 2was it a referral?
Speaker 3food bank, or just, yeah, it was a referral, I only could use it twice. Yeah, it feels pretty much the same. It's just the products you get in are completely different.
Speaker 2The other aspect that people talk about as well is feeling that independence when they come to Bread and Butters, because they don't feel it's charity, they feel it's just stretching the budget and part of their everyday shop.
Speaker 3To be honest with you. You know it's pretty much whatever I get from the Bread and Butter thing I make it stretch and I don't really have to shop outside. That actually feeds me and it's introduced me to. I'm sure you've heard this a gazillion times, but I'll add to it. It's introduced me to things that I wouldn't even consider buying. What's the weirdest?
Speaker 2thing it's introduced you to.
Speaker 3When did you say that Lambheart, lambheart.
Speaker 2Okay, all right, yeah yeah, that was a bit of a challenge, wasn't? Lamb heart? Lamb heart, okay alright, yeah, yeah, that was a bit of a challenge, wasn't it?
Speaker 3it was just a bit. So I did a. I went to Chinese where they got a recipe off the internet, just doing it in some whole who sends sauce and ginger and garlic and they, they, they tend to just hide it as much as possible. Sauce and ginger and garlic, and they taste.
Speaker 2Just hide it as much as possible. How did it taste? It was all right.
Speaker 3It was edible, wasn't it it?
Speaker 2went down.
Speaker 1So Garfield's a bit of a dude, isn't he?
Speaker 2Yeah, he is. I've met him a couple of times Garfield and he's really, really passionate. I don't like that word because it's overused, but he's so into his role, his job and the arts. It's just. It must be brilliant for him to have a job that he loves so much.
The Living Library project explained
Speaker 1I think it's really interesting. The thing that struck me listening to yours and Garfield's chat was actually he demonstrates the diversity that we have in our membership group.
Speaker 2Yeah.
Speaker 1And I think it's nice for people to hear that that people from all walks of life, with all interests and all types of jobs will use the bread and butter thing and they'll also kind of use it maybe for different reasons yeah, he fits beautifully with the living library, with his theatrical, creative background, and I did say beforehand you'd explain it and and then I was remiss and didn't ask you straight off.
Speaker 2So, vic, what is a living library?
Speaker 1So a living library is, instead of having lots of written down stories about people's lives. They talk for themselves, which is more powerful, and we pulled together a group of our members to take them to Westminster so that we could introduce them to politicians and people that can change what their situation's like, so that they could tell their stories and really bring everyday situations to life for people that are perhaps a little bit detached and Garfield was one of the. Did we take about 10 people? We did yeah To Westminster? We did yeah.
Speaker 2It was did. Yeah, it's great, and the training and support that we put in with proper job to help them build up their confidence to be able to tell their stories, etc. Really worked because they were comfortable. I mean to watch them actually going over and asking the chief exec of morrison's for a selfie was brilliant. It just for me, it just showed that even though they were completely out of their comfort zones, they felt confident in themselves and that was lovely to see.
Speaker 1Yeah, and the other thing that I really enjoyed was these people were from all different communities and had never really met each other before and by the time they'd done their training and honed their stories and things, they'd got a real camaraderie between them and they'd got peer support from each other. So that was really nice, because it's one of the first times I've seen almost the bread and butter community rather than lots of their own communities, if that makes sense.
Speaker 2I know exactly what you mean. It was amazing because they were so diverse, not only in communities, but in backgrounds and geographies yeah and they just gelled and they've. They've still got their own little whatsapp group.
Speaker 1It's brilliant oh fantastic, I didn't know that.
Speaker 2That's great so that garfield in his living library, but best before, was in used by dates.
Speaker 1So I feel actually I heard chris, one of our cddos chatting to a new starter the other day and he had a really easy way for us to kind of work out when we're getting all of our food in and he said used by is always in the fridge. Best before doesn't need to be in the fridge and it was great. But used by is a like a safety thing, like you wouldn't want to eat food past its used by date because it might make you poorly. And best before is a quality standard, so you can sniff it, you can look at it, you can see whether there's mold on it and if it looks all right to eat, then go for your life, yeah.
Speaker 2Well then you passed so.
Speaker 1I should hope so.
Speaker 2It was a bit weird being interviewed by Garfield, because it did feel a bit like that at times. He's clearly used to that role being switched.
Speaker 1Yeah, that comes from his job, though.
Speaker 2Yeah, I think so.
Speaker 1Yeah.
Understanding food waste and dates
Speaker 2I mean it was great because we were sat in his lounge and he made us a brew and definitely I was the guest and he was in control throughout. But personally I think that's when you get the best, when people are comfortable like that. That's how we get the stories and interviews that we get.
Speaker 1Absolutely, and Garfield probably provides a different insight into why people would use bread and butter. I mean, clearly his work is up and down and so there's times when, financially, it might be a support. But also he's really keen to try different foods, he likes to share foods, he wants to minimize waste. So when you couple that together, there's a lot of reasons to use bread and butter. His motivations every fortnight might vary. Sometimes it may be about food waste and sometimes it may be about finances, but that doesn't matter to us because we've not got any referrals. We don't ask people to demonstrate how much money they've got or they're having. Yeah, exactly so it's, you know, anyone's, anyone's welcome, which is which I think garfield showed.
Speaker 2Really, yeah, it's a, it's a bargain shop at the root of it. Right, it's, it's a way of stretching your budget, but in a community way. And I I loved it when I went in, because garfield has a little garden at the front of his house, uh, you know, like a couple of meters deep, yeah, and on his front wall he puts stuff out that is for sharing with his neighbors love that and it just made me think about when we've got too much food sort of thing.
Discovering new foods like lamb heart
Speaker 2We kind of do the same and put little tables out and it's just like oh, there's extras today and it. You know, if you want a bit more to stretch a bit further, take that with you as well, because we don't want to take it and we don't want to waste it. Yeah, the whole point.
Speaker 1Whole point is about getting food to people, isn't it? Yeah, and not in the bin, although I do think that lamb heart is a bit of a stretch.
Speaker 2Have you not had one?
Speaker 1Absolutely not I am not an awful kind of girl. That was yeah, that would have been tough.
Speaker 2Okay, so the other one that comes up often, that we went through a patch of was pig trotters. So have you had pig?
Speaker 1trotters? No, I haven't, shockingly, although I'd be more inclined to have trotters, because I feel like you could make a pea and ham soup, like just boil them for a long time and then, yeah, pull them out best way.
Speaker 2Just stick it in a lentil soup as instead of a ham hock or something yeah, it says the veggie, yeah I'm going back to my roots, that that's what mum did.
Speaker 1Okay, yeah, I could do that. I could absolutely deal with the pig's trotters and probably make something okay with it, but the lamb heart, no thanks.
Speaker 2No, clearly Garfield was into it.
Speaker 1Yeah, I mean he did disguise it with a lot of like a lot of seasoning, all the ginger, all the chili type thing.
Speaker 2But isn't that exactly what happens with most offal and things? People say, oh, I love liver or all the rest of it, but it's as long as it's with the following ingredients yeah, but we do.
Speaker 1I mean we do test our members from time to time don't we with these things?
Speaker 2We do, we do.
Speaker 1So 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 and twitter or linkedin or online at breadandbutterthingorg you see tick tock I forgot tick tock.
Speaker 2I'm just gonna push you there like we are out of practice. Clearly we're back from summer and what's happened? We forgot tiktok yeah, I'm still getting over the warehouse move fair and if you have any feedback or thoughts on the podcast or would like to come and be our guest, just drop us a line at podcast at breadandbutterthingorg lastly, we're always open to new members at all of our hubs.
Speaker 1If you or someone you know would benefit from our affordable food scheme, you can find your nearest hub on the member section of the website.
Speaker 2And please do all those things that podcasts ask you to do. I know it's straight back from summer, but, like us, subscribe to us, leave us a review, share us with your friends and check us out or chat about us on social. See you next time, yep, see you later.
