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
Nigel, Food Waste, And Community
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Surprise is the secret ingredient that changes how a family cooks, saves, and connects. When Nigel first tried The Bread and Butter Thing during Covid, he wasn’t chasing a bargain so much as a better way to teach his kids about food, waste, and money. What he found was a weekly shop that stretched the budget, sparked curiosity in the kitchen, and opened the door to a community hub where everyone feels welcome—from teachers and key workers to parents juggling clubs and school shoes.
We unpack what truly makes an inclusive food club work: no stigma, no queues, just neighbours picking up surplus fruit, veg, fridge food, and cupboard staples for less than a tenner. Nigel walks us through the early hauls—five kilos of bacon, 36 eggs, tins of jackfruit—and how those “what on earth do we do with this?” moments turned into pasta nights, frittatas, and pulled‑jackfruit sandwiches. It’s diet diversity in action, with kids learning to plan, cook, and share, all while cutting waste and watching the food bill drop during a period of stubborn inflation.
The conversation ranges beyond the kitchen. We swap vinyl nostalgia for voice assistant slip‑ups, debate AI as a study aid, and land on a core truth: tools don’t replace thinking. Just as you shape a meal from raw ingredients, you still have to shape answers in a world full of instant information. That ethos returns to food waste, where our members’ lived habits—batching, freezing, neighbour swaps—often beat national averages. We set ourselves homework to gather data with WRAP benchmarks and spotlight the quiet expertise inside our hubs.
Looking to stretch your weekly shop, try new recipes, and be part of a warm, open community that hates waste as much as you do? Join us for a grounded, funny, and practical listen that might change how you see surplus and who it’s for. If the story resonates, subscribe, leave a review, and share this episode with someone who could use a little more flavour and a little less stigma in their weekly shop.
Hello and welcome back to a slice of bread and butter with me, Mark and Vic. We're from the Bread and Butter Thing.
SPEAKER_00: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_02:For less than a tenner, our members get bags packed with fruit, veg, fridge food, and cupboard staples. It's a weekly shop that helps stretch the budget and take some of the pressure off.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, our members are at the heart of everything that we do. They turn food into friendship and neighbours into community. And honestly, that's what makes us tick.
SPEAKER_02:It is, and today is uh well, it's Nigel. And let's have a listen to Nigel and we're gonna have a good chat.
SPEAKER_01:I live in Ultringham with um a family uh and far too many pets that I care to mention. I am an animal lover, so what pets? Oh, crikey, and we have a couple of cats, there is uh a tortoise, there's a slightly stubborn dash and a number of guinea pigs. I believe we're getting another one on Saturday, so we're kind of taking another one in, and there's a number of fish as well kicking about. So uh yeah. I'm just awaiting for my daughter to ask for like a pony or something like that, which I'll push back on quite quite clearly.
SPEAKER_02:So yeah, well, I I I I would tell us about your interaction with bread and butter then.
SPEAKER_01:During COVID, I I was furloughed and I was climbing up the walls, so I just wanted to try and do something just to either get myself out or kind of help out a little bit. And it was the hub that were looking at delivery drivers or going out and buying people shopping for them and dropping it off. So I did that for a little bit, and then I was just checking on their website and I saw like a little link through to bread and butter thing. At the time, I've got two children, but they were both looking at sustainability and becoming more environmentally conscious in school. Oh, and I'm not gonna lie, part of me went, you know, I I'd probably just spent about 80 or 90 pounds in weight rows that week, and I just thought, well, do you know what? I'm gonna have a look at this because if nothing else, it's coincides with pushing the kids into doing more stuff down that route.
SPEAKER_02:Just don't have interest why weight rows, because obviously anybody listening would go, it's notoriously expensive.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, well, uh it was we've got our offices in Wilmslow, so I just nipped out after work just to pick up things. It was close to it. Yeah, but I mean it we we're we're just round the corner from Tesco in Altringham as well, and then you know, at the time there was a booth through in Hail Barnes as well. So booths for those uninitiated around the country is the weightros of the north. Waitros of the north, absolutely. Yes, started off as a tea merchant many, many years ago, but like you said, it was we were just really conscious as well that you know you you just saw the cost of the shopping just going up and up. So we went along, tried it. That first couple of weeks, there was so much stuff, and it was just a really good way of getting my kids into either embracing different ideas about cooking, different recipe stuff. So I liked it because I enjoy cooking anyway. And then at the time it was okay, well, there's there were a few little treats in there for the kids, might be the paper pringles or something like that. The kids thought it was great, and that's where we are. Say a couple of years down the line, we're regulars. I think we've missed maybe a couple of weeks, but other than that, yeah, we're right in there, and it's something that my kids look forward to. You know, what are you getting the bags today? Yeah, yeah, okay. What's in it? Well, I'll pick you up from school and we'll find out. Cool.
SPEAKER_02:We had a chat about generations really before we started recording. Interesting to hear again about what you were saying about the vinyls.
SPEAKER_01:I mean, look, I've I've tried to bring my kids up on a certain genre of music, you know, whether it is kind of you know rock, heavy metal, this, this, that, and the other. And I was trying to explain to them that back in the day, you know, people of a certain age, I just said to them, you know, you'd you'd have this thing called a vinyl record. They just couldn't kind of grasp that you physically had to put something on, a piece of equipment, put this arm on with a needle. And even when they were going, oh, you know, look, it it's scratchy and this, oh yeah, because you have to look after your stuff now. So, you know, like you said yourself, you know, you've still got some vinyl records, but up in the loft, yeah. Yeah, but there's but there's no record player. No. You know, so so that so that was what I I feel I can't get rid.
SPEAKER_02:I they they they just feel part of my childhood, you know.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, yeah, no, absolutely. You know, and and it's my dad's got some really nice separates that he's had for years, like separate hi-fi systems or whatnot, and you know, worth worth quite a bit. I spent a lot of money on them. I I did the same.
SPEAKER_02:I yeah, yeah, yeah. Again, I feel ashamed to say that I've got rid of it, but I had a nice Morance kit.
SPEAKER_01:Oh Morance, yeah, yeah. So dad, I think dad's stuff's Arkham. So like Audio Research at Cambridge and whatnot as well, you know, and um decent speakers and this and that and the other. And that we were playing, he was he was playing, I think it was it was like Led Zeppelin or or or something similar to that, Deep Purple or whatever. And my daughter, who's nine, so music's playing, and she actually looked at the record player and said, Alexa, stop. And and and you just think, right, yeah, okay. I don't know whether we failed as as a parent there or whether it's just that that that generation just hasn't just hasn't got a chance.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah. But and she was almost I mean, you need to give them a rotary phone next and make a chance.
SPEAKER_01:Oh, do you know there's there's there's videos of you know, there's videos on online where you know work that rotary phone out, what is it, or or the sound of the odd dial up modems.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah.
SPEAKER_01:Like when I go into moving off topic a little bit, but when I go into my kids' school now, like the amount of tech or kit or resources that they can access instantaneously through I think that's a really good thing from a generational perspective. I'll always think there's that piece where you need to try and keep the kids grounded about the amount of stuff that they've got, because they haven't got a reference point of 20, 30 years ago or whatever. But equally you need to make sure that you don't let them just get kind of like blase or complacent with it.
SPEAKER_02:So there there is a conversation going on about education at the moment, which is fascinating to me because what we were taught for was just in case knowledge. So you were taught things just in case you ever needed it. Whereas the shift with technology and large language models and all the rest of it is to adjust in time. So they're discussing whether or not they can actually allow people to have tech in their exams.
SPEAKER_01:What I do think is is good is the fact that if you're making them aware of things at an early age about look, here's how you can use it to your advantage, but here's here's scenarios or circumstances where it's just not gonna help you, so just don't be lazy. So you still have to have that ability.
SPEAKER_02:I can kind of describe it like butter paddies. You've got to shape the answer out. Yeah, of course you have to because the first answer typically isn't exactly what you want.
SPEAKER_01:It's a box of Lego. You know, I can give you a box of Lego, but you know, you need to build what you need to build, and you need to be certain that what you built at the end of it is gonna be fit for what you wanted. But I guess it's here to stay. It's here to stay, you know. We shall see. We shall see. We shall see. And as a and as a cynical man, I'll I'll just revert back to the you know, if you're ever in doubt, just go and watch Terminator 2. You know, and then just there you go.
SPEAKER_00:There you go. Yeah.
SPEAKER_02:Let me bring you back to bread and butter. So obviously, you're working, you're living in Ulti, you've got a decent life. Why do you use bread and butter?
SPEAKER_01:Having done it, there's three main points for me. So you can't ignore the financial aspect of it, and that enables us to free to free up a little bit of cash to maybe do something else, whether that's you know, family activities or or help or help my kids with some after school clubs or whatever. So my daughters have started playing netball. I think the second piece is I just agree with and like the principle of what of what you're trying to do. You know, so I've worked in restaurants before when I when I was growing up at university, and the amount of food waste that we were just wheelie bin at the end of the night, it was crazy, you know, and we couldn't give it away, I couldn't do this, that, and the other. Just look behind me at the warehouse now. There's so much food, there's a massive Morrison's man in the car park. There's so there's pallets and pallets of stuff coming out, so that's going to go to people of all shapes and sizes and all backgrounds, and this, that, and the other who are going to use it. And then thirdly, I like cooking, I like getting my kids to try. Every week, the kids, what's in the bag, what's in the bag, what can we cook? So I said, you know, last week it was five kilos of bacon, or there's been some butternut squash, a tray of eggs, 36 eggs, or something like that. So we can make pasta or we can make omelets or fritatas or something like that. So it's bringing my kids involved into it to get them thinking about what they can use with produce that we might need to cook something with in the next couple of days.
SPEAKER_02:Even though you're on a decent salary, got a comfortable life, it's still giving you that access to a affordable, decent ingredients.
SPEAKER_01:Absolutely. You know, and and then you know, I'd never cooked with jackfruit before. And there was a couple of tins of jackfruit. So, into work, guys. Anyone cook with jackfruit? Oh, yeah, yeah. I use it like a pull the pork equivalent. Oh, right, okay. You know, different things, it you know, it broadens some stuff that we would never go out and buy. I'm still going through your your five kilo gnaw beef demiglass pot that that arrived in a bag, you know. So I'm so I'm still going through that and whatnot as well.
SPEAKER_02:So I love doing this podcast because the number of people that sit where you are, Nigel, and tell me these things and expect me to remember it, and it's just like so um I would imagine a number of people listening to this, Vic, would say Nigel's pretty well off, and why on earth does Nigel need a food club?
SPEAKER_00:I'd agree with that. Um, and I think my first thought is that people like Nigel are relatively few and far between in our hubs, but are really important members because they show that our food is available to everybody, and in turn, by doing that and showing that people can benefit for lots of reasons. We're talking about diet diversity, helping the kids cook, saving waste, all of those good things that actually it makes our hubs not stigmatized, it's not a room full of poor people that traditionally would be queuing up for some kind of handout. And so people like Nigel actually help create the inclusive vibe that bread and butter has.
SPEAKER_02:Because it's a it's open to everybody in the community, right? It's not like Nigel drives 20 miles to come and get cheap food, Nigel's part of that community, and we do the same with um the uh teaching staff when we go into schools as well, right? So we always ask the headmaster or the headmistress to be one of the first to register because it it just shows that inclusivity.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah. So uh lots of people say, I was worried about coming, I'm in work, I didn't think it was for me, there's someone worse off than me. And actually, most people that come can find, you know, have a reason to be to be coming, and we're not there to judge, are we? That's part of who we are.
SPEAKER_02:Well, let's go back to last week, shall we? You were t telling us all about the Joseph Rountree number of measures, and if you tick two of them off, you're in poverty. And I just wonder whether Nigel could apply to that as well, because he was also saying about when he when he's uh saved a few quid on his food like that, he's still using those savings to help with extra curricula for his kids and stuff. It's not like, yeah, he he wasn't just simply saying that's saving me a few quid, he was basically saying this is helping me fund my kids. Yeah. So as much as he sounded affluent, should we say, he's still struggling.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, or being shrewd with his money, yeah, trying not to get to a place where he's struggling, that's okay. Yeah, I don't think anybody's got loads of cash to waste, you know, and food inflation's continually going up. And um yeah, if people can treat the kids for saving some cash with us, then that's okay.
SPEAKER_02:I would say as well that from experience I know that if Nigel wasn't part of that community, he would never get those bags either, because I know how protective our commun our food clubs are when they come to random strangers just turning up to buy a bag.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, that's so true. That is so true. But I think you know, I hear a lot about people saying, Oh, I'm not gonna go because there'll be someone worse off than me, and all of this, and then they're in crisis, or they're getting close to crisis, or they're definitely ticking off two of those measures regularly, and they don't need to wait, you know, they don't have to come every week. People can come once a month, they can come you know, when the kids need new school shoes, when the bus for you know the quarterly bus pairs due, whatever that might be. And I think there's the more people that realise that in our communities, the better, because whilst we know that, maybe we don't get that message across brilliantly. And Nigel's a really helpful example.
SPEAKER_02:He is because he's doing one of the things that we are seeing more and more of working families, and it is trying to create stability, right? So he he is finding every which way to get by, as we would say, trying to make his life affordable. And who knows what troubles he's got? We don't know, but I just think because we open it to communities and we go into communities that we know that are struggling, then it should be for everybody.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, that's what makes bread and butter what it is.
SPEAKER_02:Definitely.
SPEAKER_00:There's such a unique vibe, I think, at all of our hubs, and you know, I'm saying that and I'm biased, obviously, but I'm only saying that because lots of other people tell me uh that it feels different, and I'll never forget years ago when um Patrick Butler came from The Guardian, and he was expecting it to be completely different, and he turned round to you and said, Wow, Mark, you told me it was going to be different, and I didn't believe you, and it actually is. I'll never forget that.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah, it was a it was a glorious moment, wasn't it? When he he was expecting not to get eye contact and uh struggle to find people to talk to him, etc. Whereas everybody was nosy about Patrick. And and as he as he walked through the door, one of the volunteers just went up on it.
SPEAKER_00:It was you then nice.
SPEAKER_02:Oh tech, it did take me back. The tech.
SPEAKER_00:Well, you were you were having a right, old chat. You were loving this.
SPEAKER_02:We we could have just gone on for ages with tech and 80s movies, so kind of niche for many of us nowadays. I know, but what wasn't is uh I I can just picture uh the granddaughters standing in front of the turntable going Alexa stop. That was hilarious.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, that that was very funny. And then, you know, it's kind of nice to reminisce, isn't it? Because the world back then was completely we were we wouldn't have been having this conversation.
SPEAKER_02:No.
SPEAKER_00:You know, when you were actually playing your vinyls on the whatever it's called.
SPEAKER_02:Yes.
SPEAKER_00:She says doing a turny hand movement that turned out.
SPEAKER_02:Turntable Vic.
SPEAKER_00:Okay, there we go.
SPEAKER_02:God, you're not that young.
SPEAKER_00:I was too young to like like have my own.
SPEAKER_02:Really? That's fascinating. That it we're clearly on the cusp of who had what.
SPEAKER_00:I was the tapes, the tapes.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah.
SPEAKER_00:Can't come down for tea because, you know, or got to eat your tea really quickly because you shh I'm taping. Yeah, I've forgotten that. It taught it picks up all the noise, doesn't it? Yeah, I'd forgotten. Wow.
SPEAKER_02:Takes you back. Anyway.
SPEAKER_00:So I think one of the things that Nigel picked up that we see a lot and interesting to hear from Nigel is the diet diversity piece. This is stuff that I would never buy. Yeah. And I try it, and we think about how we can cook. And like, I've got 36 eggs, so I'm making pasta. That was bonkers. I would never think of doing that. But shows how creative our members are, and actually, making your own pasta is pretty cheap, isn't it? It's only like add some flour.
SPEAKER_02:Flouring eggs in there, that's it.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah. Understanding that it applies you know for different people in different ways, and that he's trying to teach his kids to cook creatively and not waste things and be able to use you know, surplus bits.
SPEAKER_02:I like the fact that they're selecting a kind of waste reduction model in their shopping as well. You know, and he we and and that was clearly something that it he felt was important for his kids as well. Because he as much as they like the diversity, that it was important to them that they were stopping food waste.
SPEAKER_00:Well, and that exciting thing, like what are we gonna get in our bags?
SPEAKER_02:Like you know, everybody talks about their lucky bug, right?
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, totally. But I was looking into food waste today because I know that there's kind of lots of people like rap.
SPEAKER_02:Um you're gonna trigger me this week.
SPEAKER_00:If you no, I'm not triggering you. This is good. Kind of concentrating more on household waste because we know that there's a big problem with people being in lots of food and actually what can we do in the home to save more. Yeah. But I went back to some slightly older survey questions, and 98% of our members are sharing food so that they don't waste it. And that's a staggering number, and I'd just forgotten how big it was. Yeah, and so it just goes to show that people are consciously coming to us to stop the waste, but then when they've got it, if they can't use all 36 eggs, the bloke across the road's getting them, or grandma's getting them.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah. I have raised this recently with rap because rap are quite focused on domestic food waste. And I say, well, you need to do a demographic study of this because I don't believe our members waste anywhere near the volume that middle classes do when it comes to food waste. Because quite frankly, they can't afford to.
SPEAKER_00:No, exactly. And it's it's really it's a financial thing. So they're not putting, I don't know, a kiwi in the bin, they're putting for I don't even know how much a kiwi costs, what a stupid example. A banana, 20p or whatever. You know, they know how much it is because they've they've thought about buying everything that's in the basket.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah.
SPEAKER_00:So yeah, people are just wired differently with that. But maybe we need to have a little waste warrior project going on with some of our members.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah, I'd love that.
SPEAKER_00:I think we need to think about our living library, the people that are kind of sharing their stories, and we need to have the the waste warrior. I'll think of a better title because warrior sounds a bit aggressive, not exactly the best uh optics, but um, yeah, I think we should do that.
SPEAKER_02:You see, I I'm gonna say I I I've got kind of brave art in my head now with the painting themselves blue in the face and wearing kilts and screaming at people, running at them when they're throwing food in the bin.
SPEAKER_00:Not the imagery I was wanting to put in people's heads. It's like it's like we need the banana suit. You know, like you wanted to wear the shark suit, yeah. You need the banana suit, we've already got the sausage suit. The hot dog.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah, but you need something that represents food waste, right? So rather than it being a a piece of food, it needs to be a piece of waste.
SPEAKER_00:Or just a bin.
SPEAKER_02:Or a bin. Yeah, nice.
SPEAKER_00:These are ridiculous ideas. I think my starter for 10 was more sensible, but yeah, we so I think we can do a I think we do we should do some work with our members.
SPEAKER_02:I I think we should definitely do some more work in this space and definitely share it wider to say if we can get some average national benchmarks as to what the uh average UK home waste from a food perspective. Because there'll be some boroughs that you'll be able to do that in where they're collecting food waste separate to other stuff. So there will be some data, and we could compare against that against our members and see how that looks. Because I I'm utterly convinced um we need to get the data behind it that our members, frankly, don't waste anywhere near the volume of food that anybody else does.
SPEAKER_00:Well, I'm guessing that if rap have this as a focus, they've already got the evidence base. So, how about you do some homework to see what rap are saying on this? And then once you've got the baseline, I'll do some homework to find our members that can be our waste brilliant people.
SPEAKER_02:I will ask my friends at RAP whether they have the data, because I'm going to say up front, I don't think they do yet.
SPEAKER_00:Okay, well, maybe we can help them get that.
SPEAKER_02:Yes, exactly.
SPEAKER_00:Good. Well, we've got homework after this episode. This is good.
SPEAKER_02:Perfect, like about homework. 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 TikTok, Instagram and Twitter or on LinkedIn or online at breadandbutterthing.org.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, and if you've got any feedback or thoughts on the podcast, you want to come and help us talk about how our members don't have lots of food waste or chat about anything else, drop us an email at podcast at breadandbutterthing.org.
SPEAKER_02:And we are always open to new members at all of our hubs, so if you or someone you know will benefit from our affordable food scheme, you can find your nearest hub on the Become a Member pages of the website.
SPEAKER_00:And please do all of those things that podcasts ask you to do. Like us, subscribe, leave us a review, share us with your friends, and have a chat about us on social.
SPEAKER_02:See you next time.
SPEAKER_00:See you next time.
