The Bread and Butter Thing: Feeding people on the cusp of crisis

Huw Llewellyn-Waters

20 September 2024

This week, I sat down with Mark Game, Founder and CEO of The Bread and Butter Thing, to learn more about the UK-based food club he set up with his partner, Jane in 2015, after working in food and stopping food going to waste for over 20 years.

“It was one of those times where I just said, ‘I really want to do this’,” he tells me. “Jane and I managed to shuffle things around to afford me two years to really give this idea a go.” Nearly a decade later and The Bread and Butter Thing has grown from one van, to a charity that provides food to 8,000 families every week, with 100,000 families registered across a network of 120 food clubs across England. Finding new contacts in these communities as well as using Mark’s existing contacts helped to create a model that hit the right price point and would best serve the towns they were entering.

“We scrutinise the area rather than the individual,” says Mark. “A lot of feedback we received from people in the communities we were serving was that they found it demoralising proving that they were a low-income household and in poverty. So we try to make the experience as positive as possible.”

“When people are on really tight budgets, the variety in shopping bags gets less and less and beige foods make up the majority.”

Think of The Bread and Butter Thing as a community click and collect model. Users register by sending a text detailing their full name and the hub they want to be associated with, and then, once a week, they will receive a text message notifying them when a food van will be coming to their area. All they need to do is reply ‘YES’ to the text to confirm their spot and they are added to the list.

When a member comes to collect their food, they will be given three bags – fruit and vegetables, cupboard goods and chilled goods – that are packed by volunteers. The bags are worth around ￡40-￡50 combined but members pay just ￡8.50.

With such discounted produce, it’s clear the service couldn’t exist if it was buying food at full price, so The Bread and Butter Thing uses surplus from retailers owing to the diversity of food they can provide. Mark explains, “When I engage with a factory, or when they reach out to us, they will say to me ‘Mark we’ve got the food here, but you’ll need to come and get it’. So, we don’t necessarily pay for the food, but we do pay for the logistics.”

Because of this, whatever’s in the bag is what members take home. However, Mark says they do encourage people to swap products and ideas. “I like that it’s also a bit of a community engagement piece. There might be something in the bags, like celeriac, that some people may not want, but others may know a good recipe for, in which case, they can swap with each other.”

This system has been a success with over 80 percent of members reporting they’re eating better, cooking healthier at home and eating more because they have access to ingredients they would otherwise have been unlikely to buy. “When people are on really tight budgets, the variety in shopping bags gets less and less and beige foods make up the majority,” Mark explains. “People with less to spend on food don’t want to riskily spend money on a dragon fruit for example, because if no one at home likes it, that’s food wasted. It’s a vicious cycle which we’re trying to help to break.”

“It’s not one culture or ethnicity either – the common bond they all share is that they’re teetering on a cliff edge, trying to find a way not to fall.”

So, who’s using The Bread and Butter Thing? “’JAM’s’, or what we would describe as the ‘Just About Managing’,” explains Mark. “These are people who are not in crisis yet but are on the cusp. They’re not quite at the level of going to a food bank but they are struggling to put healthy, varied and nutritious food on the table.

“It’s a fascinating demographic because it’s people you think are doing okay, like teaching assistants and cleaners, but in reality, they need our help to get by. It’s not one culture or ethnicity either – the common bond they all share is that they’re teetering on a cliff edge, trying to find a way not to fall.”

Over the years, The Bread and Butter Thing has brought in service providers alongside their food deliveries to give advice on debt, energy, welfare and other areas that can help maximise people’s income. “It’s not just about collecting food, when people come to the community space, there’s the opportunity for them to have a brew and talk to volunteers, other members or a service provider if they’d like.”

These initiatives align with Mark’s clear passion for raising the profile and improving the circumstances of the working poor. But what more needs to be done to ensure they’re getting the support they need? “It’s difficult because despite all our help, the majority of working poor households still have what we call a negative budget, so there’s more going out than coming in. Free school meals are far too low, healthy start vouchers are still too low and there’s something out there called the low-income scheme to help people in low paid work pay for their optometry, dentistry etc. but no one knows about it. Something’s got to change to address this, but I don’t quite know what that is yet.”

Alongside his passion, another thing that Mark does have in abundance is data, and he’s keen to use it to help inform reform. “We’re painting a picture of what low-income households look like in the UK by surveying our members. We’re not necessarily looking to lobby and campaign, but, because we’re so trusted, we get a huge response rate, so we’ve got a really strong data source for policy. My real hope is, as a society, I’d like us to recognise the work these individuals are doing simply trying to get by, because frankly, it’s far more expensive to support them once they’re in crisis.”

There are a lot of other wonderful food waste initiatives supporting those financially struggling, but many are focused on inner cities – particularly London. The Bread and Butter Thing has not only sought to address those potentially forgotten in smaller towns and rural areas but also presented a novel concept removing the social stigma of food banks and promoting community relations. Are these food clubs the future when it comes to the sector supporting low-income families? I’d love to hear your thoughts. [email protected]?|?@TheMBSGroup

If you, or your company, would like to support The Bread and Butter Thing in any capacity – please reach out to them directly here.