Bel, Twins, and the Beetroot Debate

A front room in Crewe, a panting old dog, and a mum of three-year-old twins who can turn one cooked chicken into three meals without breaking the bank. We sit down with Belle to unpack how an £8.50 membership with The Bread and Butter Thing stretches into fresh fruit and veg, pantry staples, and the freedom to try new foods—yes, even ostrich steaks—without fear of waste. The real story isn’t just cheaper groceries; it’s how dignity, choice, and community show up week after week in the queue, at the extras table, and across a neighbour’s fence.

Belle walks us through practical wins: packed flasks with hot home-cooked lunches for nursery, a sensible approach to snacks, and a zero-waste mindset that turns leftovers into casseroles or mild curries the twins love. We dive into OLIO—how volunteers collect surplus food, how pickups work, and why local “help yourself” tables build trust when handled safely. There’s honest talk about the balance in our bags, from giant tubs of mayo to the pickled beetroot divide, and why sharing and swapping are features, not bugs, of a people-first food system.

Between laughter about cold coffee and an Americano with pouring cream, we explore what counts as a luxury when money is tight. Sometimes a £4 coffee is really a ticket to connection—time with a sibling, a breath in a busy week, a small anchor that helps you carry on. If you care about affordable food, community resilience, and simple, practical ways to cut waste without cutting joy, you’ll feel at home here.

Enjoyed the conversation? Subscribe, leave a review, and share this episode with a friend who loves a good food hack. To join a hub or learn more, head to breadandbutterthing.org and follow Team TBB on TikTok, Instagram, Twitter, and LinkedIn.

Chapters

• 0:10 Meet Belle and her world
• 1:52 Why TBB matters: affordability
• 2:38 Trying new foods on a budget
• 3:18 What’s in the £8.50 bags
• 3:57 Queue connections and swapping
• 5:22 Sharing surplus with neighbours
• 6:21 How OLIO works, practically
• 6:24 Zero-waste habits at home
• 7:04 Community share tables and safeguards
• 8:08 Little luxuries: the coffee trade-off
• 9:01 Treats, social time, and sanity
• 10:32 Safety, chilled food, and standards
• 12:09 Time, twins, and fitting life in
• 16:47 Find hubs, join, and support TBB

Transcript

SPEAKER_01 0:10

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_02 0:21

We provide access to a nutritious, affordable range of food, which means our members can save money on their shopping, feed the families healthily as well as access other support too, right in the heart of their communities.

SPEAKER_01 0:31

And this is where we share a slice of life with somebody involved in bread and butter and hear about how they connect with us.

SPEAKER_02 0:35

And this week it's Belinda, so buckle up for a superhero mum of twin toddlers. Hard job. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 0:52

I'm Belle.

SPEAKER_02 0:53

Where are we, Belle?

SPEAKER_00 0:55

In my front room with my dog.

SPEAKER_02 0:56

In Crew. Crew. Now we can definitely hear like a now. Panting in the background, but that's okay because I've had kittens attacking me whilst we're doing this and all sorts, so don't worry about it.

SPEAKER_00 1:08

I love that.

SPEAKER_02 1:09

Yeah. So what do you do for a living?

SPEAKER_00 1:12

I'm inventory analyst for I've no idea what that means.

SPEAKER_02 1:24

How old's toddlers?

SPEAKER_00 1:26

Three.

SPEAKER_02 1:26

Three. Great age. Running around everywhere.

SPEAKER_00 1:30

They're delightful.

SPEAKER_02 1:34

Yeah, so I I'm probably stopping you from sleeping right now.

SPEAKER_00 1:37

Uh no, no, there's far too much to do to sleep in the day. I've got to do my shopping yet.

SPEAKER_02 1:43

So you're a bread and butter member, so where's your hub?

Why TBB matters: affordability

SPEAKER_00 1:47

Underwood West School, which is literally about a mile down the road. It's very, very helpful to keeping the cost down. My girls eat a lot. They're pretty liberal on what they'll eat, they're pretty easygoing. They love fruit and veg, they love fresh food, and that's the most expensive thing to be buying. It helps a lot with that.

SPEAKER_02 2:11

We talk about two things quite a lot, Bill. We talk about access and affordability, and what you've just said with Asda across the road, it's clearly affordability for you, not access, right?

Trying new foods on a budget

SPEAKER_00 2:22

Yes. Yeah, it's definitely affordability. For instance, if I travel a bit to Aldi, it's 16p for a banana. That doesn't sound a lot, but we're going through six bananas a day, plus apples, pears, grapes, strawberries, and then there's fresh veg.

SPEAKER_02 2:41

Which is all brilliant stuff that they should be eating, but it's not cheap. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 2:46

Bread and butter also means that they can try stuff that I wouldn't normally buy. So we've had ostrich steaks. There's no way I'd go out and buy ostrich steaks. A, the cost of them. And B the not knowing whether the girls would eat them.

SPEAKER_02 3:02

So this is like the value of bread and butter to you is not only stretching budgets, but also that ability to try new foods for your girls.

SPEAKER_00 3:10

For not a lot of money, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 3:12

Yeah.

What’s in the £8.50 bags

Queue connections and swapping

SPEAKER_00 3:13

If they don't particularly like it, then it's not a massive loss. So£8.50, three bags of shopping, one of them's fruit and veg, one of them's cupboardy items. We've had lots of recently crisps and chocolate or snacky items, which is nice. The girls are allowed snacky items, but I but it's a balance. I limit it. They go to nursery with um a pat lunch now most days. They have quite a bit of fruit in there, they have um a hot meal normally in flasks, and most of that's home cooked. And then they'll have a small chocolate bar, like a penguin bar or something. But most of it's pretty good stuff.

SPEAKER_02 3:57

I was talking to an academic on the way here and who listens to the podcast and she was saying, Oh, if you're going to interview somebody, ask them why they actually use it, what value bread and butter is to them. Have you met new people?

SPEAKER_00 4:11

Definitely, yeah. You see the same faces every week, normally roughly in the same place in the queue as well. So there's there's quite a number of people I chat to in the queue. There's another lady who's got a little in in a buggy. I used to take my two in their buggy. Um, everyone used to laugh because they'd stand by the we we have like extras, so anything left over from packing the bags is put out for everybody to help themselves, and they would stand there and pretty much demolish whatever fruits and raw veggies that they could eat whilst we were in the queue.

SPEAKER_02 4:43

You get the community vibe as well.

SPEAKER_00 4:44

Yeah, and quite often you'll see people once they've picked the bags up, they'll go rifling through, and if there's something they won't eat, they're swapping it with pe other people. I've got a an old guy across the road, anything that me and the girls definitely won't eat, or I've got lots of. So sometimes there'll be a glut of I don't know, pickle beetroot.

SPEAKER_02 5:07

There's only so much pickle beetroot you can eat, so I bag up anything that's you've drink a bee with that, because I remember mum forcing that down me as a kid, so I d I really No, I c I quite like pickle beetroot, but there is only so much you can eat.

Sharing surplus with neighbours

SPEAKER_00 5:21

So we had a large jar last week, a large jar this week. So the old guy has had some sourdough bread and some spare fruit and veg and tomatoes, plus some pickle beetroot, because we've still got plenty.

SPEAKER_02 5:37

You're doing the right thing with anything that you don't think is right for you, you're sharing it as well.

SPEAKER_00 5:41

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 5:42

Rather than wasting it. And and that's a really interesting one because before we we started recording, you were talking about other things that you do like Oleo. That makes me feel that there's something about not wasting food as well.

How OLIO works, practically

SPEAKER_00 5:53

No, I I don't like waste. Most of our leftovers go into casseroles or curries. So I'm currently defrosting a ready cooked chicken that we got in the bread and butter bags yesterday. The girls will get it as a sandwich, because we're going out tomorrow for a day, so they'll get cooked chicken sandwich, and anything that's left will get picked off the bones and turned into a a mild curry for the girls, and they'll have the rest of it with some rice or even some um pasta.

Zero-waste habits at home

SPEAKER_02 6:21

It's only on the pod we've never talked about Oleo before. So tell me how you use Oleo and could you describe to people what it is?

Community share tables and safeguards

SPEAKER_00 6:28

It's a free app. So you download an app called Oleo. O-L-I-O. You have people who go out and collect from supermarkets, local businesses, and it's surplus or short date or damaged. You find an item that you want, you click it, you send a message requesting the item, you put when you can collect. Anything that's like out of date today has got to be collected before sort of midnight, and you get an email from Olio as to whether you've been awarded the item.

SPEAKER_02 7:04

And is this picking up from shops?

SPEAKER_00 7:06

No, it's so let's say I was collecting it for Oleo, I'll go to Tesco's, let's say, I collect whatever it is they're donating for Oleo, and then I would then put it on the Oleo app and people then would message the collector, and then there's a lady the other side of crew, when she's collected, if any of it hasn't gone, she actually has a table outside her front and she'll put anything left on there with a help yourself sort of label. So the local people who live around her will go ahead and just pick what they want.

SPEAKER_02 7:40

And I love that. A couple of weeks back, I met a guy called Garfield in Manchester, and he does the same thing that community spirit of just leaving stuff out and take what you want, sort of thing. Yeah. And it doesn't seem to get abused.

SPEAKER_00 7:52

No, people do tend to just take what they need, they don't tend to overtake. Which is nice, right? It is it is nice, yeah, because if you overtake, it's only going to go to waste anyway.

Little luxuries: the coffee trade-off

SPEAKER_02 8:01

Yeah. I normally ask people as well about luxuries, because obviously everything's got harder. What's up with your coffee now? What's up?

SPEAKER_00 8:11

No children of my coffee's gone cold.

SPEAKER_02 8:15

Yeah, well, I I've ruined it, sorry.

SPEAKER_00 8:17

No, it's fine.

SPEAKER_02 8:19

Tell me things that are luxuries now that possibly were like everyday things pre-COVID, should we say?

SPEAKER_00 8:26

Um decent coffee.

SPEAKER_02 8:29

Yeah, well, you were talking about your your cost or weren't you? Because I was saying four quid for a cappuccino.

SPEAKER_00 8:34

It's a lot of money.

SPEAKER_02 8:35

Stonking amount of money for a coffee.

SPEAKER_00 8:36

Yeah. It's just nice now and again. I go with my brother and we'll go and get a coffee.

SPEAKER_02 8:42

But you you've got a weird coffee that you drink. What what was it you drank?

SPEAKER_00 8:45

I have an Americano with pouring cream.

SPEAKER_02 8:48

That just feels like halfway to an Irish coffee for me. I don't get it. But it at least it'd be hard.

SPEAKER_00 8:53

I've got twin toddlers, I'm not allowed to drink much. It's frowned upon.

Treats, social time, and sanity

SPEAKER_02 8:59

I get that. I get that. What about Leica? How how do you feed Leica? Are they part of the waste system as well?

SPEAKER_00 9:05

She's mostly raw fed, but she also gets like commercial dog food. But sh she'll have anything that's left over as well.

SPEAKER_02 9:14

Leica is the most sprightly 14-year-old I've ever seen.

SPEAKER_00 9:17

Oh yeah, yeah. She loves veg as well, so any leftovers from tea. And she was rather partial to the uh leftover ostrich as well.

SPEAKER_01 9:35

So is it Belinda or Belle?

SPEAKER_02 9:37

Oh, it's definitely Belle. Okay, so really should have said Belle at the beginning, really, shouldn't I? Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, my bad.

SPEAKER_01 9:42

Sorry, Belinda or Belle.

SPEAKER_02 9:45

I see you did it.

SPEAKER_01 9:46

I did.

SPEAKER_02 9:47

So I want to start with a coffee actually, because it definitely felt like a weird coffee. It has to be an Americana with cream poured into it, cold cream. Just that little bit too close to an Irish whiskey for me.

SPEAKER_01 9:59

An Irish coffee.

SPEAKER_02 10:00

Irish coffee, sorry. Yeah. Of course.

SPEAKER_01 10:02

No, I get that. But I think if you've got twin toddlers running around, if that's what floats your boat, go for your life.

SPEAKER_02 10:10

And I I wish I could have taken a photo of the disappointment on her face when the coffee had gone cold.

SPEAKER_01 10:16

Yeah, I heard that. Like almost really disgruntled because the one time that coffee should have been warm and actually enjoyable, it wasn't because you ruined it.

SPEAKER_02 10:26

Yeah. Yeah. So again, apologies, Bell.

Safety, chilled food, and standards

SPEAKER_01 10:31

Feels like we're doing a lot of gravelling.

SPEAKER_02 10:33

Yeah. Respect to her though, because it again, you know, sending the kids with hot cooked meals to school.

SPEAKER_01 10:40

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 10:41

I mean, you know. Pretty amazing. I I I don't know a mum or dad that can do that or does do that.

SPEAKER_01 10:48

No, me either. I didn't do that.

SPEAKER_02 10:50

I know I didn't. I know Jane didn't. So there there's a lot of respect to that. And coping on our own with twin toddlers and being able to deliver a service. What a service. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 11:02

Yeah, fantastic. It's interesting, isn't it? Because I think when people are working hard to make ends meet, they really prioritise the bits that matter to them.

unknown 11:10

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 11:10

And clearly it matters. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 11:13

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 11:14

So um pickled beetroot.

SPEAKER_02 11:16

Yeah. I I almost feel like we've let them down a bit, you know. Even when we have too much surplus, we we shouldn't just keep chucking too many jars of pickled beetroot into the bag, right? It chokes me to try and get pickled beetroot consumed anyway.

SPEAKER_01 11:30

Oh, I really like it.

SPEAKER_02 11:31

Do you?

SPEAKER_01 11:32

Yeah. A cheese and pickled beetroot sandwich is like a proper way forward.

SPEAKER_02 11:36

Wow.

SPEAKER_01 11:37

Yeah. I think it could be quite a big thing in Yorkshire. I feel like it's a Yorkshire sandwich, not necessarily a Manchester sandwich.

SPEAKER_02 11:46

I just well, no, it was a Preston thing because I read Mum would try and put it on my plate every time we had hot pot, sort of thing.

SPEAKER_01 11:51

Oh no, I don't like that does it it doesn't belong there.

SPEAKER_02 11:54

No.

SPEAKER_01 11:54

Not with hot food. But in a cheese sandwich. Have you never tried this?

SPEAKER_02 11:59

No, I I've got to be honest, Vic.

SPEAKER_01 12:00

I'm not gonna I'm gonna make you one and bring it in and watch you eat it.

unknown 12:08

Okay.

SPEAKER_01 12:09

Are you in tomorrow?

SPEAKER_02 12:10

Not anymore.

SPEAKER_01 12:13

Wow. So now are we saying that we're not allowed to put pickled beetroot in pads because you hate it so much?

SPEAKER_02 12:20

It's not that, it's the service levels, isn't it? It's about making sure that actually condiments we don't pile them in on the food slope.

SPEAKER_01 12:29

And some of the some of the food that we get is like huge sizes. So we've given out bonkers amounts of mayo before now. And if you love the mayo, then great. And if you don't, then it just becomes a hassle, doesn't it? What do you do with it? But I guess that brings us on to lots of people sharing the food. So actually, there's far too much mayo for me to eat here. Can I give some to the neighbours or yeah.

SPEAKER_02 12:55

Answer yes, definitely. Yeah. As long as it's not picklebait, right?

SPEAKER_01 12:58

Well, that goes to the old bloke across the road, right?

SPEAKER_02 13:00

Indeed.

SPEAKER_01 13:01

But I do have to say, I do get the heebie jeebies about when people leave the food out front. I know it's really nice and community-minded, but I just hope it's never chilled food, because that makes me worry.

SPEAKER_02 13:12

Yeah, it it is funny because you have mentioned this to me before, and I I I'm I'm pretty certain that our members are savvy and they don't. But I'm uh exactly on the same page. It would give me the heebie jeebies too if they were leaving like a a bag of chilled food out there to share. That wouldn't be okay. No. But what I do like that Belle was doing it and Garfield's done it as well, it's that putting something on your front wall to share, and it's not just food, it's just like other things that yeah.

SPEAKER_01 13:38

Oh, the generosity and the community spirit is uh amazing. I just want everyone to be safe too. That's part of my job.

SPEAKER_02 13:46

So I do get it.

SPEAKER_01 13:48

But I do think then taking it to the neighbour and saying, here like we've had people take the pig's trotters to the neighbour and things like that. I think that I'm cool with that because that's just a you can put it straight in your fridge.

SPEAKER_02 13:59

Yeah. I mean, it's part of the cause for you, right? It's got to be an everyday given that everything's safe and chilled. So I'm gonna bring you back to coffee. Okay. Because the other side of it was what's a treat? And it's it's like you know, because it's like four quid for a coffee out nowadays, isn't it?

SPEAKER_01 14:15

Yeah, it's not worth it.

SPEAKER_02 14:18

But it is because Bella alternates with her brother and one week he pays, one week she pays, but that's more about the social. Yeah, that's the social. Paying for the social, aren't you, with that coffee price?

SPEAKER_01 14:31

Absolutely. You know, it's like going to the pub for a pint to meet your friends. It's not about the pint, it's about the place to meet and having the conversation. It's the same with the coffee shop. No?

SPEAKER_02 14:44

I want to say it's about the pint, but that's the inner Irish Catholic roots. I can never go in a pub and get a diet coke, you know that.

SPEAKER_01 14:50

Yeah, it'd be a pint of Guinness, right? But same point, you go in to meet people. I can't imagine you sat in the pub on your own staring at a single pint of Guinness.

SPEAKER_02 15:04

While I do a crossword.

SPEAKER_01 15:06

Okay. So you're going in to meet people. Yes. And that's part of the, you know, it's a different, it's neutral territory, it's you get you out of the house, it's something maybe to look forward to. And if the four quid is what you pay to look forward to having some family time, maybe without the kids, then that does become a bit of not necessarily a treat, but something for you. And I can't imagine that Belle gets a lot of time for herself.

SPEAKER_02 15:31

No, she clearly didn't. Um, because not only did she have like her the dog, she also has uh some kind of sharing with horses and things in a paddock were so she sometimes asks the guys if we've got any old carrots and things at the hub that she can take for them. And when we've had a lot of apples, the old horses love it. So uh how she fits it all in, I don't know. Did you hear the heavy breathing? It wasn't me, it was like her.

SPEAKER_01 16:01

I did hear the pants dog at the beginning. Yeah, I did hear that. But they always say ask a busy person to do another thing, don't they? Yeah, and I get that vibe from Belle.

SPEAKER_02 16:12

Definitely went into the house and it was definitely somebody that slots everything in and had one of those brains where it's just like, yeah, I can just slot you in there.

SPEAKER_01 16:22

Great, time's precious, right?

SPEAKER_02 16:23

Yeah, especially when you've got three-year-old twins.

SPEAKER_01 16:26

Yeah. I can't imagine the absolute joy and despair that comes with three-year-old twins in equal measure.

SPEAKER_02 16:35

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 16:47

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 TBB on TikTok, Instagram, and Twitter, or on LinkedIn, or online at breadandbutterthing.org.

SPEAKER_02 16:58

And if you have any feedback or thoughts on the podcast, or you you want to come and just be a guest or have an hour with us, drop us an email at podcast at breadandbutterthing.org.

SPEAKER_01 17:07

Lastly, we're always open to new members at all of our hubs. If you or someone you know would benefit from our affordable food club, you can find your nearest hub on the become a member pages of the website.

SPEAKER_02 17:17

And please do all those things that podcasts ask you to do. Like us, subscribe to us, leave us a review, share us with your friends, and chat about us on social.

unknown 17:25

Cool.

SPEAKER_02 17:26

See you next time.

SPEAKER_01 17:26

See ya.