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
Cake Divides Us, Groceries Unite Us
Use Left/Right to seek, Home/End to jump to start or end. Hold shift to jump forward or backward.
The cost of living makes quiet heroes out of neighbours, and today you’ll meet two of them. Tracy and Tina welcome us into the New Life hub in Billingham, one of the many bread and butter hubs in the North East. What starts as a shop quickly becomes a ritual: unload the van, sort the fruit and veg, share a cuppa, swap recipes, and leave with a little more energy than you arrived with.
We dig into what makes this model different. It’s not means tested, and that matters. Workers on zero-hours contracts can step in when shifts drop and step out when they’re stable, without shame. Volunteers often use the club too, proving that dignity and contribution can live side by side. Tracy shares how she moved from the ambient table to the high‑pressure chill van and found her groove. Along the way we hear smart, practical tips: turning frozen chickens into midweek wins, half‑prepping veg before Christmas, and passing along items so nothing goes to waste.
Beyond logistics, we tackle the bigger question: why wait for crisis? We contrast emergency food banks with an upstream, preventative approach that keeps people steady and eases anxiety before it spirals. Real member quotes bring the economics and the humanity into focus—a 63‑year‑old made redundant after 29 years, a parent juggling zero‑hours, both using the club to stay afloat without overusing the system. Tracy’s award‑winning “hub tree” drawing says it best: roots of volunteers, branches of safety, no judgement, and new friends you didn’t know you needed.
Join us to hear how community, routine, and a bit of graft can transform surplus into stability. If this resonates, subscribe, share it with a friend, and leave a review. Want to get involved or become a member? Find us at breadandbutterthing.org and @TeamTBBT across socials.
Hello and welcome back to a slice of bread and butter with me, Mark and Vic, we're from the Bread and Butter Think.
SPEAKER_02:We run a network of mobile food clubs that take surplus food from supermarkets, farms and factories. We take it straight into communities where families are struggling to get by.
SPEAKER_01:And for less than a tether, our members get bags packed with fruit, veg, fridge food, and cupboard staples. It's a weekly shop that helps them stretch the budget and take 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. And that's what makes us tick.
SPEAKER_01:Yep, and today we're having a chat to Tracy and her neighbourly heckler, Tina. Let's have a listen.
SPEAKER_00:So for somebody who gets like a tap on the shoulder to meet or feel like a punch, and I suffer with anxiety and depression as well. So I needed something to do. So I've been at New Life Bread and Butter since it started. I go once a week. It's a safe space there, and I love it.
SPEAKER_01:Tell us where New Life is and what it is.
SPEAKER_00:Right. New Life, it's uh day nursery, it's part of New Life Church. We're in Billingham, not far from Middlesbrough, Hartleypool. We're in in the middle of there. It is for the the community, it is a place where you can go. It is a hub basically for anybody. It just depends what's going on on that day. They do Christmas parties, the it is the main part of the the area, and everybody knows new life.
SPEAKER_01:Tell us about you. You you obviously live nearby.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, I live walking distance. I have three children. I have five grandchildren. I share a house with my ex. Bit strange, but yeah, it works. Because our kids live on our doorstep, so Okay.
SPEAKER_01:Do you mind me asking about that? Yeah. I've heard this quite a lot, Tracy. Why do you live with your ex?
SPEAKER_00:We get on better as friends. I've known him on and off now for 36, 37 years. And where I live, you come out of my gate and there's houses in front, but like a side view of houses. My daughter lives in one of them. My daughter-in-law lived in one as well, but she moved recently. And it just works.
SPEAKER_01:Is your ex dad as well?
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, yeah, he's dad to all three children, so it just makes sense. He works away most of the week. He drives a lorry.
SPEAKER_01:So financially it makes sense, right?
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, yeah. It just seemed after him getting a flat for a weekend when you'd be up here anyway seeing the kids.
SPEAKER_01:I'm guessing not only a bread and butter volunteer, but a member as well. You take the bags?
SPEAKER_00:I do. I get one for myself and I get one for my daughter, and then she'll come and pick the bags up for me because I get there early and I count out the amount of bags that we need. It can be up to 80 bags. I'll do three lots of bags, and then we'll go out and we'll empty the van. We have a big area for the fruit and veg. Then we've got a smaller area for ambient, and for people who because some people don't know what ambient is, and it's pretty much cupboard food, tins, pastas, stuff like that. And then we have so much on the van which is chilled and it's kept cold. I used to be ambient, but I've changed it to van. Once we've done all that, then we all go back in the centre and we'll have a cupper. I always say, You're gonna bring about to bring a cake. That's one thing I never have. I've never had a bit of cake. I like a jam site, but I don't like a cake. So they all sit and have a cupper in a cake and we'll have a chat and put the world to rights.
SPEAKER_01:What's wrong with a bit of cake?
SPEAKER_00:Because I just never eat it. One of the girls used to always have marpiece, they used to say, I hope we've had my pace. You know, she has two bits of cake for me. At about one o'clock, we set up. There'll be some girls inside to get one bag of fruit and veg and one bag of uh ambient and put them on a on like a trolley. The person will come in and they'll pay their£8.50, or they might get two lots, pay£17. They'll get however many bags off us, then they'll come out to me, and then me and Vicky will give them a bag of off the chill van. So they'll get the three bags for the£850. Another one of our volunteers is my good friend, and she's easy.
SPEAKER_01:She's heckling from the side, she can join in, you know, if she wants, if she's that close.
SPEAKER_00:She's pulling a bit of her face.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah.
SPEAKER_02:Hello.
SPEAKER_00:Hello. Um you get a mixture of things, but sometimes you'll get something you'll think, I've never tried that. But it's a bit of money, and I wouldn't pay that. But you'll try it and think, well, yeah, no, but you've not wasted any money on it.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah.
SPEAKER_00:Last year, we got um now it was a big tray, you know, like a pucka pie. You got a tray of twelve pucka pies, and they were still frozen. So I brought mine home, shoved them back in the freezer, and then they were just there that you could use you didn't have to use them all at once.
SPEAKER_01:Nice little backup.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah.
SPEAKER_01:So have you had anything that you didn't know what to do with?
SPEAKER_00:Um Do you know what? No, because if I can if I don't want it, I'll pass it on to somebody else.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, yeah. So what what what's your cooking skills like then, Tracy?
SPEAKER_00:Not great. We make up or we tell people what they can make. Oh, yeah, we can tell them what they can make, but we can't. But we can't do it. Like the past few weeks we've been getting frozen chickens. Proper coop chickens, but frozen.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah.
SPEAKER_00:And then there was uh on that week we had a frozen chicken, a bag of noodles, some pasta, some like barbecue or tomato and herb sauce, and then there was something else. So we were asking people, what would you make if you had them for items? One person came and said they cut the chicken breasts off and they got a jar of barbecue sauce, and up all the barbecue sauce, they said it was absolutely banning. So we do they do pass on ideas. Last Christmas I half cooped my veg and put it in the freezer. So when it comes to Christmas Day, I didn't have a lot of cooking to do.
SPEAKER_01:That's a cracking idea.
SPEAKER_00:Half done. I've got about three bags of sprouts in the freezer from when we had the sprouts.
SPEAKER_01:Well, you do just pour a boil them or whatever and then freeze them.
SPEAKER_00:No, they were just already frozen, so I shot them in the freezer. Yeah. If somebody hasn't got anything and they're looking for something to well I've got saucer in the freezer, do you want that? I won't bin anything. We're all struggling. You know what I mean? It doesn't matter who you are, what job you've got, or if you haven't got a job, we're all struggling. So if I can help somebody and if that's a way to do it, then what is struggling look like in Stockton then? Um we have some people who come that they're working and they think that they shouldn't be allowed to go to bread and butter. But like our 30 people why not? You're not means tested. You've got the food bank, you've got to be on benefits, you've got to be this, that, and the other. We do all need it. But these are lot of people that come continuously and we try not to make people feel like they shouldn't be there.
SPEAKER_01:For workers, feeling like they can't come that that that doesn't feel right, does it?
SPEAKER_00:No, it doesn't, no. And you can tell when they're stood in the queue, you can tell that they're like they're a newbie, that they shouldn't be there. But well no, everybody should uh if you want a bag, you come and get a bag.
SPEAKER_01:You know, I'm gonna say it just sounds like a really nice community buzz.
SPEAKER_00:Oh, it is. You'll have to come one day, but you have to come at eleven o'clock.
SPEAKER_01:Definitely. Yeah, yeah.
SPEAKER_00:Help us unload the van.
SPEAKER_01:Fair dudes.
SPEAKER_00:If anybody comes with leaflets to hand out, I always say you've come too late. We're supposed to come at eleven, so you can help us unload the van and you can help us pack the bags, then you can go back and tell people what you have to do.
SPEAKER_01:Do you know what, Tracy? You you'll probably not be surprised at this, but you're not the first person to say that to me. Every every hub's the same. It's like if you rock up to it at any of the hubs, you don't expect to actually just get a free meal.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, no. You can stay for tea in a cup, but as long as you've done your bit. It's but I love it. I come home and uh don't get me wrong phrases, I'm tired, but I've really enjoyed it. I've enjoyed being talking to people because I've got new life behind me and it's a safe space, I don't feel too anxious. And we have got a good gang of uh volunteers. Like when Tina's been off bad or she's been on her holidays, it's like I'm sorry, I can't. Don't be sorry. We're grateful of when you can come. We only want you to do what you can do. We don't want you coming and hurting yourself, you know. We're just grateful that you're turning off. We have a register, but it's a good cracking that you're doing so it for the community as well.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah. And and Tina, do you have any heckles left in you?
SPEAKER_00:I think it's brilliant. It's one of my days where I actually love going to. Now Tina was the same since she started this, she never went over the door so. I was always stuck in my house. And she's another one that shares a house with her ex. I share my house with my ex. Yeah, she shares her house with her ex. Do you? Yeah. Okay. Yeah. Yeah.
SPEAKER_01:And and is that the same thing? Because you you share family sort of.
SPEAKER_00:Oh, yeah, because my daughter-in-law is actually Tina's daughter. So we're in-laws sort of thing. But yes, it works for them as well. Yeah. But we just we've got on, we've got on like house on very well. Brilliant, we go on brilliantly, don't we? Yeah. And wetlands day. Yeah, that's how it is, isn't it?
SPEAKER_01:Nice.
SPEAKER_00:We we went to um Stockton. We went to the Stockton Library, and it was to do with the bread and butter different hubs were all turning up. We had to do a picture of our hub. So one of them said, draw a family tree and put all our names in the tree. And I went, Well, no, but where the roots, really. So I drew a tree with the roots, and at the roots I wrote all our well, I wrote most of our names. I left a couple of ladies out.
SPEAKER_01:Like the volunteer names.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, all the volunteer names. And then in the tree, I just did it as big bubbles, and then I put things in like a friend you didn't realise you needed to feel safe, to meet people. Well else. There was all sorts in it.
SPEAKER_01:And have you got any photos of that?
SPEAKER_00:I have in my phone.
SPEAKER_01:Could you send me one?
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, I can send you it, yeah. Um picture, didn't I? Yeah, they kept out picture we came first. And we won. We won a tub of celebrations from our picture.
SPEAKER_01:So what is wrong with cake? Lee, you've got a thing about cake, haven't you?
SPEAKER_02:I don't think I've got a thing about it. I'd just maybe prefer a packet of crisps if I'm I'm gonna say I've never seen you eat cake. No. It just yeah, I don't know.
SPEAKER_01:So you've got a thing about cake, come on.
SPEAKER_02:Okay, if you want me to have a thing about cake, I've got a thing about cake. Cake is not my favourite.
SPEAKER_01:I just need Tracy not to be on her own blessing.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah, no, I would prioritize other things over and above cake every day of the week. But cake is for some people.
SPEAKER_01:It is. So I know the bit of the world they're talking about. Obviously, you do as well, and you've been there. Uh have you come across this before, Vic? Um exes living with the exes living together. Yeah, exes living together.
SPEAKER_02:Um, no, I can't say I have. Have you?
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, I've I've I've seen it a couple of times with uh Hubs etc. Defo. I don't know whether it's a growing thing or or one to keep an eye on, but it it definitely makes a lot of economic sense.
SPEAKER_02:Oh yeah, for sure. Yeah, you can see financially how that's definitely an answer. But um, you know, I think Tracy's really lucky to say that they're better friends than they were when they're together. Like that's a good thing, right? That they've got relationships.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah.
SPEAKER_02:And nice that you know the kids are, you know, it feels like a real family uh community with everybody living literally a house or two away.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah. Yeah. And in Laws with Tina as well, that was quite funny.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah. I know. But the communities that the communities that we work with are so like family and so interwoven and so tight and supportive, yeah. It doesn't really surprise you. You can see how it would end up like that.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, and I've I've done interviews online like that before. You can tell there are other people in the room, but they don't typically heckle. Whereas um I I just picked up on the audio that I could hear Tina sniggering when Tracy said she lived with her ex. That that was it then she we she was away. And then Tina's doing the same, she's with her ex as well.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah. There's there's lots of parallels going on, I think it's fair to say.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, yeah. Which almost takes you back as well to Sam and Jackie and i peasing a pod again. Tracy and Tina were teaching peasing a pod again.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah, no, I was definitely thinking about Sam and Jackie.
SPEAKER_01:Twenty years on, maybe.
SPEAKER_02:Oh, rude. But you know, Tracy and Tina and Sam and Jackie, all of them just really like lovely and funny and feisty and just got got something about them, you know, like you start listening to them chatting and you're drawn in and you're captivated, and they're just a good sport about life, aren't they? Which is yeah, you know, which is tough nowadays because life's hard.
SPEAKER_01:But it the common threads that keep coming up again the ready, steady cook, the volunteering, I'm I do this, I do this every week sort of thing. But yeah, you know, Tracy crossed the line, she went, she went from ambient onto the van.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah. Yeah. Although people do quite a lot of people do progress onto the van. It's quite a tough one to go straight onto. And then if there becomes a vacancy on the van, then somebody needs to fill it. So I think the van's the van's more high pressure than ambient for sure.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, you have to start it last because everything else comes off and it's the last to finish because it's an awkward space. So you get double pressure, don't you?
SPEAKER_02:Yeah, you've got to be super organized to keep that van working while you're packing. It is funny though that people have their little stations and they're not wanting to change out of them. And I think people underestimate, you know, the the volunteers, they put in a shift, it's a bit physical, you know. There's lots of bending and lifting and twisting and stuff, and there's a lot of people that come and say, Oh, it's my weekly workout.
SPEAKER_01:And how many times have you turned up, Vic, and they're like, right, I don't care who you are, I'd get stuck in.
SPEAKER_02:Oh no, I love that. I love that. I'm all for packing a bag. I uh brilliant. Yeah. Tend to do fruit and veg because it takes a little bit more effort than the ambient. So if you're gonna help out anywhere, fruit and veg is the place to go.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, absolutely. Because when you when you are the uh newbie coming in, nobody throws you on the van anyway.
SPEAKER_02:No. No, and you'd be depriving people like Tracy who are like, I've got to be on the van. There's only me that can do that van right.
SPEAKER_01:Yep.
SPEAKER_02:So we wouldn't be trusted on the van.
SPEAKER_01:No, not at all. The other thing that Tracy we talked about, again, working families, working people coming and feeling a bit awkward because maybe it's not for them, and the fact that it's not means tested, and it just keeps going back and forward through this food club food bank analogy, and and it's so I don't know, last century a food bank in comparison to how it feels for a upstream preventative food club model. And I know they're still around and I know they're needed as crisis right, but something's gotta shift so that everybody starts to look in this preventative space more. We've proved it time and again, amongst many others, that actually you've got to go upstream and do this stuff.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah.
SPEAKER_01:And so sorry, that soapbox came out of nowhere, but it just yeah, it soapbox did come out.
SPEAKER_02:And I think you know, we've got to see that life isn't a race to the bottom. Why do we have to wait for people to get really into crisis and have all of the damage that comes with it when you're kind of in crisis to then try and have to work their way up? Why can't we stop people you know from getting there and actually being able to make a real positive choice?
SPEAKER_01:What I don't get, the sheer stupidity of people that think about this and think that actually it's the right thing to do because why should I help them when they're okay? You know, let them hit crisis. The number of people that talk this way, and it's just like, for Christ's sake, don't you realize how much it costs in comparison to actually try and fix something that's broken rather than well-maintained.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah.
SPEAKER_01:So it's the same principle, right? If you invest up front in support mechanisms that can actually spot issues for people and soften the blow of them and help them get by and help them remain stable, that is mentally, physically better for the individuals and economically better for the entire society. So why people don't get that, I I don't know.
SPEAKER_02:Okay, well, our members do. So I've got two short quotes that are bang next door to each other in my little quote list that talk to this really brilliantly. So the first one is since being made redundant after 29 years and struggling to find employment again at 63, it's eased my anxiety with cost of food while sorting my new financial situation. So why would you want that person to have to be on the floor before and then not be able to sort their new financial situation? Yeah. Surely it's better that we were there and could be utilized in need. The next one is since I am working and on a zero hours contract, bread and butter is invaluable as a backup in months when I know I really will struggle. Since I don't overuse it and never get a bag when I can afford my shop, it's good to know that I need it if it is there. A couple of times in the past three months, I've got extra hours at work. So I've contacted you to cancel as I was not in need. But it's been very close to the bone sometimes, and he's literally heating or eating some months again.
SPEAKER_01:Speechless. Yeah, he's just uh tell me what people aren't getting, tell me why. Everybody is demonstrating that they're actually trying their best. Yeah. And they develop coping mechanisms and all the rest of it. But for whatever reason, whenever we talk about people that are struggling to get by, everybody thinks that they're bloody useless, that they don't know how to organize, they don't know how to budget, they don't know how to cook. And that's why they're where they are, because they just can't. But actually, life has dealt them a blow and they're doing the best they can.
SPEAKER_02:I think they're doing amazingly. It's not even the best they can. They're doing better than more people would in their situation.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah. No. Yeah. I stand corrected, and you're absolutely right. Bang on for that. I just wish. people get that and see it and they don't.
SPEAKER_02:No, but hopefully listening to people like Tracy because she's more powerful than us two banging on, right?
SPEAKER_01:She is, she is. No, no, she she absolutely is. I I I I'm I'm looking at the uh photo of the new life hub tree and just thinking about how she would just take it in a stride, you know, and I'm seeing relaxing atmosphere and no judgment. Well I I'm judging because I'm not judging our members. I'm judging everybody else that judges them.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah. New friends we didn't know we needed. I love that.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah.
SPEAKER_02:It's fantastic.
SPEAKER_01:Make someone smile.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah we'll post it on socials.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah.
SPEAKER_01:But it's no wonder they won. And I'm glad they got some celebrations for it. Because that's not cake. Yeah. 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 Teen TBBT on Instagram, TikTok, Twitter, on LinkedIn or online at breadandbutterthing.org.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah and if you've got any feedback or thoughts on the podcast, come and join us while we get on our soapbox. Uh drop us a line at podcast at breadandbutterthing.org.
SPEAKER_01:And 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 you can find your nearest hub on the Become a member pages of the website.
SPEAKER_02:And please do all those 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.
SPEAKER_01:And we'll see you next time.
SPEAKER_02:We will
