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
Feeding Community, Not Just Cupboards
A mixed bag of food can feel like a puzzle — unless someone shows you how to turn it into dinner, conversation, and community pride. We sit down with Sue, a powerhouse hub leader in Maidstone, to uncover the reality behind a town often labelled affluent. Parkwood sits in the top 10% for deprivation on the Indices of Multiple Deprivation, with food and fuel poverty, health inequalities, and isolation shaping daily life. Sue and the Fusion team respond with practical care: slow-cooker courses, starter cooking sessions, and a live “ready steady cook” night that transformed surplus into meatballs, giant pigs in blankets, and blackberry crumble.
Across the chat, we unpack why trust beats signposting. Fusion brings partners like Citizens Advice into a safe, familiar room, adds advocacy so people aren’t left to navigate alone, and keeps dignity front and centre. Community events aren’t an add-on; they’re strategy. Easter egg bingo, summer picnics, and a homegrown panto build belonging, spark joy, and give residents a reason to show up, meet neighbours, and stay connected. That’s how a food club becomes social infrastructure: it stretches budgets, reduces waste, and opens doors to wider support.
We also dig into the data. Hyperlocal IMD maps help target help where it’s needed most, showing the stark contrast between streets. That’s the thread running through this episode: empowerment over handholding, relationships over referrals, and consistency over promises. If you believe food can be a tool for trust, learning, and resilience, you’ll find ideas here worth borrowing for your own neighbourhood.
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Hello and welcome back to a slide of bread and butter with me, Vic and Mark. We're the bread and butter thing. We run a network of mobile food clubs that take surplus food from supermarkets and factories and brings it straight into communities where families are struggling to get by.
SPEAKER_01:For less than a tenner, our members get bags packed with fruit, fed fridge food, and covered staples. It's a weekly shop that stretches the budget and takes some of the pressure off.
SPEAKER_02:Our members are at the heart of everything we do. They turn food into friendship and neighbours into community.
SPEAKER_01:That's what makes us tick.
SPEAKER_02:Great. And today we're going to hear from Sue, one of our hub leaders in Maidstone.
SPEAKER_00:We are a community hub for the bread and butter thing. So we help you with two venues. So we have our venue, which is here at Parkwood, and we also supply you with a volunteer team that run the hub at Shepway, just across the road from here. So that's how we know the bread and butter thing. We've worked with you, I think, since April, April this year. I think we were the first hub in Maidstone to reach the target of 80 participants per week. We did that, I think, within six weeks. For me, it's a happy and a sad sentence, all in the same package, because I think it's sad that so many people need to have this service, but equally it's absolute ticking the boxes of the food waste and what they get for their£8.50 is phenomenal. You know, what in fact they're here today, I'm watching them out there at the minute packing all their bags and and what comes in off the van. You know, it's helped a lot of people in Parkwood.
SPEAKER_01:For a lot of people outside of Maidstone, Maidstone's posh, right? Why Maidstone?
SPEAKER_00:Oh, I think it's the same with a lot of areas that you um that you see. You drive through an area or you're aware of an area and you think it's affluent, and you think, oh, it can't possibly be any deprivation. And I think it's a hidden pocket. So Parkwood is very high on the IMD, so that's the index of multiple deprivation. We sit in the top 10% of that, and that manifests itself in high levels of poverty. There's significant health inequalities, there's social isolation, there's a lot of antisocial behaviour, a lot of digital exclusion, significant social housing provision, and there's limited local facilities. Hartwood itself has a population of just over 9,000 people. So the food and fuel poverty is very, very high. You know, we're all in a cost of living crisis, we're all feeling it. But I think for these people, particularly, it compounds itself in the health and economic crisis which is going on. You know, they they really struggle with food, they really struggle with fuel.
SPEAKER_01:But what sort of mix have you got? Have you got transient people, generational unemployed? What what kind of place is it, Parkwood?
SPEAKER_00:So 12% of that 9,000 are over 55. There's a lot of single mums, it's a prime area for those who are coming out of domestic abuse where they are relocated. So it is a it's a prime area to drop them in where they know nobody, nothing, you know. So this is part of what fusion does engagement with those people. There's a quite a lot of young teens, a lot of that would feed into that antisocial behaviour element I mentioned because there isn't anything for them to do because the council stripped back the youth work provision that was here as part of their cup. So we're looking to fill that gap. We have very high levels of unemployment, quite low levels of attainment, so in terms of literacy and numeracy. It was a former council estate, so it was part of that when all that got taken over. There was a regen here in 2016, so they completely redid a lot of the housing. There's a great lack of pride in the area. We've done some litter picks with the community, that type of thing, you know, to try and reintroduce that pride. So that's the sort of demographic we have here.
SPEAKER_01:Yep. So you mentioned it earlier. I know one of your passions really is about food education and cooking skills.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, absolutely. So I've always said before we we became your community partner, it's great that you're given a potato or anything really, go to a food bank or you go to a larder. But then what about if you don't know what that is? You know, what about if you don't have the facilities to to cook with that? What if you can't read, so therefore can't read a recipe? You know, so I think education is a huge part of this. Some people don't have any kitchen confidence, they have no idea. So we do some programs here that do that. So we do a slow cooking course, for example, that's a whole different level of cooking because it's a lot cheaper. Well, the ingredients as well as the electricity it uses. We do some introduction to cooking courses, and we do we work with quite a lot of young people for that as well. But I think in terms of the bread and butter thing, one of the bits of feedback that came back quite early on was you don't know what you're gonna get every week. And I think they missed the point that it's a top-up shop as opposed to a replacement shop. What you get from the bread and butter thing, you have to have some store-covered staples that you would use to make a meal. So the community partner that's in the town, which is Make a Difference Maidstone, they would provide a community chef that would do like a ready, steady cook, if you like, type experience. So they would be given a bag of ingredients they didn't know until they came in on the evening what was in that bag and what could we make from that. Yep. So, you know, and we provided a few, like I say, store-covered staples, so there was, you know, your pastor or your spices and that type of thing, to see what could be made. From memory, they had some mint, some blackberries, they had some sausages, they had some bacon, and they had some bats. So there were other things in there as well, so some bread they had. So out of that bag, they managed to make meatballs, which they served on a bed of noodles, spinach, and onions. So spinach onion was uh and noodles also in the bag. They made some large pigs in blankets, so they wrapped bacon around the sausages and cooked them in the oven, and they also made a blackberry crumble, so it just went to show that from that one bag of stuff, there's three meals and a and a dessert there. And they could have carried on, but we run out of time.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, yeah.
SPEAKER_00:It was great, it was lovely to see.
SPEAKER_01:I find cooking brings conversation, and that's one of the important things for us.
SPEAKER_00:Oh, definitely, and I I think it absolutely addresses that, and it's a safe space, and it allows for those conversations you're right around what other things might be troubling people, you know, because you're there for a common goal. Food is a great unifier, it always has been, isn't it? And that's one of the beauties actually about fusion is we have that safe space all the time, and that's what happens, you know. Quite a highly skilled staff team and volunteer team that take the time to find out what is going on with people.
SPEAKER_01:So tell me a bit more about fusion then.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, how long have you got? Yeah. So we are a health and well-being charity, we deliver and facilitate a vast range of services and activities that improve the health and well-being of people of all ages and backgrounds. So we've been here for just over 22 years. We've been embedded in partwood, so we're trusted, and I think that's the key. We do what we say we'll do, and I think that's where a lot of maybe other services struggle, especially statutory, you know, people don't want to engage, they don't trust them. So that's the beauty that we bring. Food and fuel poverty, we do a lot around that, so we do a lot of free food as well as working in partnership with the bread and butter thing. Very light touch mental health, we're not mental health practitioners, but we do work with mental health. We do some stuff around physical well-being, so we have some activity groups, chair exercise is one. We offer a lot of information, advice and guidance services. We partner with over 75 other organisations. So if we haven't got something here that will help you, we absolutely can refer you in. And the bit we do is we'll do a bit of advocacy support around that, and we also will do a little bit of hand holding so that we ensure you're accessing those services. Because it's all right saying to people, go to this place, but how do we know you're even gonna do that? Or that then that service responds.
SPEAKER_01:I was gonna say we struggle at times too with people that call it signposting when actually if they just say go that way, it's not enough. No, you've got to take them by the hand or bring the service into them, right?
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, so that is the beauty of what Fusion does. We bring most of those services here. We have lots of services like CAB and stuff like that here that people can access. Yeah, equally the advocacy support and the hand holding, if you like. And the other thing we do is we run some really good community events. We do Easter egg bingo, which is one of the highlights for a year. So for those that don't understand that, it's bingo as you know it. Yeah, but you don't win money, you win Easter eggs. Um we also do an annual panto. So the panto is Oh no, you don't. Oh yes, we do. Um so the the it's the staff, the trustees, and the volunteers we put on a show. First one we did was Fusionella, so that was uh Cinderella with um a fusion twist. And we do the show and a meal for£2.50 a head, so they still pay a little bit, but they give it a lot of it.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, the nominal fee just feels like it's not charity, right?
SPEAKER_00:And it's exactly so it gives them a bit of ownership, yeah. Yeah, and then last year we did Peter Panto Visits Partwood, and this year we are doing Snow White and the Seven Tall People.
SPEAKER_01:So nice, and what role do you play?
SPEAKER_00:I'm always the narrator.
SPEAKER_01:Okay, always so the narrator's normally like a fairy godmother type, right?
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, absolutely. That's me. Got it in one, yeah, yeah. From Fusion's point of view, it absolutely unifies that team. Yeah, we come together so well, because it is a giggle as well, because it doesn't matter if you get it wrong, does it? That's the whole point of panto. Yeah, and maximum audience participation, and it's great.
SPEAKER_01:As you say, 250, panto and a meal, a bargain in anyone's books, a triple bargain down south, being the cliche northerner that goes, How much? Yeah, yeah, exactly.
SPEAKER_00:So we do summer community picnics as well, and that is where we supply the food. It's just a picnic on the wreck, you know, because again, it's about bringing people together that might not necessarily know each other, and it starts to build that network outside of Fusion's four walls.
SPEAKER_01:What change can you see, Sue?
SPEAKER_00:Connectivity in the community. I mean, I I always said that one of the things, if there was a good thing that happened in COVID, it was the community spirit came back. Neighbours supported each other, people that maybe hadn't talked to each other before, you know, they were going and getting their shopping, they were doing their prescriptions. I just said to myself, if only we could bottle that and take that forward, yeah. I think that's what we're beginning to see is the change in that people are beginning to engage again with each other. It's building that. I mean, one of our strap lines would be we don't enable, we empower. You know, it's about empowering people to be more resilient, you know, that they can tackle these problems on their own. I mean, everything Fusion does is absolutely driven by that community, you know, just being here, being safe, being that safe space, you know, so you can come in and have a rant if you like. You're more than welcome. Come in and tell us what's going on.
SPEAKER_01:Okay, curveball question. I like I like a curveball question. What is the IMD Vic?
SPEAKER_02:The indices of multiple deprivation. So it tells us across maybe. I'm gonna go five or seven, seven, seven categories about the makeup of an area and the challenges that it faces.
SPEAKER_01:For a bonus point, how many of those can you name? Oh good God.
SPEAKER_02:No, we're not even going there. I've not got my Google ready. Um well, health, poverty, employment, housing.
SPEAKER_01:Generational poverty.
SPEAKER_02:Is that in there as a separate thing? Wow. Okay.
SPEAKER_01:Crime.
SPEAKER_02:Crime, yeah. It's quite interesting actually when you look at them because you get an overarching IMD. But then actually, if you're nerds like we are, and you're looking at a specific area and you start to look at the different elements of it, you can get quite different read-ins for different places.
SPEAKER_01:You can, and and you can see how hyperlocal it can be as well, because it goes down to ward level, I think, doesn't it?
SPEAKER_02:Isn't it a super output area?
SPEAKER_01:There you go. What's a super output area?
SPEAKER_02:A tiny collection of population. There's a number of how many it would be. So in rural areas there might be bigger geographically, but in urban areas there would be smaller.
SPEAKER_01:But when you look at the map, you can see this disparity. It's like a heat map, isn't it, that you can see the IMD on. And that's what we often use. But it is fascinating to see how you can see affluence next to deprivation.
SPEAKER_02:Absolutely. And what impressed me about Sue, other than her surname is Maidens and she's from Maidstone, which just goes to blongs there.
SPEAKER_01:Um is that no, I was gonna go all panto on you then.
SPEAKER_02:No, you did that to Sue.
SPEAKER_01:I can't help it. It's the time of year.
SPEAKER_02:What can I Do you love a Panto?
SPEAKER_01:I do love a Panto.
SPEAKER_02:A Punto? That's a car.
SPEAKER_01:A Ponto. A featho. It's going well.
SPEAKER_02:Brilliant. So I did really appreciate how knowledgeable Sue was. She knows her community really well.
SPEAKER_01:Doesn't she?
SPEAKER_02:Impressively well.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, and genuinely, I don't think for a second she did any homework before the interview either. I I I think she just knows it. She knows everybody in there, and the way she was talking, she really does know also how to kind of make those community spaces tick.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah, so I met Sue when we were doing all the early work in Maidstone, and she is a proper community force to be reckoned with in a brilliant way. Just infectious.
SPEAKER_01:She talked a lot about pride as well. Yeah. She was very proud of where she lived and the communities there. And where's that gone?
SPEAKER_02:I don't think it's gone anywhere, actually. I think our communities are really proud. And I think some of that pride is a little bit of almost defiance. It's almost like we're proud of ourselves, we're coping, we can do this, we can lean on each other. So maybe not pride in the normal way that you'd expect it.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah. I think that's fair, co-d. So let me uh try a different set of language then. So I would agree with you that there's pride in the communities, but what about society?
SPEAKER_02:Oh, not proud to be in the world that we live in right now. I don't think many people are.
SPEAKER_01:I hear you. It's very difficult when you when you look at society as a whole, right? So yes, I so maybe that's where we can agree that there is a lot of pride and people feel a lot of ownership for the community in the spaces where we operate, particularly, I feel. But society as a whole's a different question entirely.
SPEAKER_02:Totally. Pride at a hyper-local level, I think, is live in large, yeah, but like you say, not for the country.
SPEAKER_01:No, but I think it's also the other word to throw in there at that hyper-local level, whatever you want to call it, trust. Because it's all built on relationships, isn't it? Yeah. It's just like society as a whole is built around we all agree to work to SR rules. Similar at community level, but there's got to be trust and relationships at that community level as well. And maybe that's what's missing at society level. But being a trusted organisation, it's almost like an honour. It's a badge of priority.
SPEAKER_02:Absolutely a badge. And if you think if you know, if you think about the enthusiasm that Stu's got and how much she understands a community and how much she respects a community, Fusion's earned that. Yeah.
SPEAKER_01:And I do think bread and butter has too.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah, I'd like to think so.
SPEAKER_01:But it's lost very, very easily.
SPEAKER_02:Oh, I'd never want to be complacent about that. I want to keep on trying to earn that trust and that respect from the communities.
SPEAKER_01:Every day.
SPEAKER_02:Every day. And I think what might be different with some of our communities and some places like Fusion is I wonder whether we have more people accessing bread and butter for like a short period of time because they need a bit of support and they're stretching the budget, or it's a zero-hour contract and they've not got enough hours to sweep, but then the next couple of months it's all okay. So I feel like we might have new people starting with us all the time, and therefore we constantly want to engage new members and build the trust.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah.
SPEAKER_02:Whereas if you're constantly in that community with the same things going on, maybe you've got a steadier group of people accessing you.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, yeah. I think maybe there's something about approaches as well, because Stu and Fusion talk a lot about hand holding and not signposting, shall we say, but proactively helping people into the services or support that they offer. I think that's an important thing. And we've got some future podcasts coming up, Vic, where I will talk to you about service providers. And it's marked to see how everybody's talking about a similar thing of how different it is to approach people face to face in their own community. As opposed to, oh, you've got a problem? Well, I know there's a service over there, get this bus, get that bus, go and see them, go and make an appointment. That is worst case time posting for me, and it and it's something that we don't advocate or do.
SPEAKER_02:No. But I think Sue talks about empowerment, and I think that's really important. And I think hand holding, if I was going to be really challenging, is a little bit of a naff phrase for us to use. You know, our members are feisty, they're really brilliant people living their best life or trying to. Yeah. They don't need the hand holding, they need they need to know what's available. So that's why meeting people face to face is really helpful. Because if you don't know about it, it doesn't exist, right? And then they need to feel like it's okay to go and get it. So I like the empowerment kind of angle.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, you've got your feisty pants on today.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah, well.
SPEAKER_01:I like it. I like it, Vic. Okay, so how about I flip it as well? Uh, he's he says strategically retreating. And what if we're actually doing the handholding of the service provider?
SPEAKER_02:Yeah, I'm cool with that. Yeah, and that's about making sure that the service provider is welcome in our spaces and knows how best to interact with the people that we've built the trust and the respect for and that we see week in and week out, and we hear all the moans and groans while they're having a brew and getting the shopping. And so, yeah, so that's absolutely fine. But not the other way.
SPEAKER_01:Cool.
SPEAKER_02: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, on LinkedIn or online at breadandbutterting.org and TikTok. Of course, we can't forget TikTok.
SPEAKER_01:And if you have any feedback or thoughts on the podcast, or you want to come in on an attacker or be a guest, drop us a line at podcast at breadandbutterthing.org.
SPEAKER_02: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 scheme, you can find our nearest hub on the Become a Member page of the website.
SPEAKER_01:And please do all those things that podcasts always ask you to do. Like it, subscribe to us, leave us a review, share us with your mates, and chat about us on social.
SPEAKER_02:Cool. See you next time.
SPEAKER_01:Next time,
