Meet the Fleet

John

Jane’s dad and an education professional who spent his career working to improve the education system, including alongside influential educationalist Ted Wragg. His commitment to making things better for people is very much at home in our fleet.

Roy

Roy was a long-standing volunteer who gave countless hours to Bread and Butter, helping at hubs and driving vans on collections across Manchester.

He eventually had to step away because of ill health, but not before becoming one of those dependable people who quietly helped keep Bread and Butter moving.

Hoppy

A Cheshire philanthropist who believed in what Bread and Butter could become. Hoppy helped raise the funding that enabled us to launch in Warrington.

Sadly, he died before the first hub opened, but his contribution helped make that possible.

Mary

A senior finance professional at Durham County Council who played a pivotal role in bringing Bread and Butter to the North East.

Mary helped build the case, secure the funding and create the conditions for our expansion into County Durham, opening the door to what became a major new chapter for Bread and Butter. 

Stephen

Stephen was the lollipop man at Corporation Road Primary School in Darlington, home to our first Bread and Butter hub in the North East.

Quiet by nature, he loved his job and gradually became part of the fabric of school life, volunteering more and more and joining in with trips and activities.

When Stephen died in 2019, the whole school felt his loss. At the school’s request, his funeral cortege passed the gates, where children stood holding homemade lollipops they had created to say goodbye.

His name now travels the roads of the North East with us.

Elaine

Alongside Michelle, Elaine ran the Compassion Food Bank in Moss Side and helped us establish our very first hub.

She supported the organisation through its earliest stages and later became a Bread and Butter trustee, continuing to help shape the charity as it grew.

Natasha

The brains behind quite a lot of Seth’s work, although we probably shouldn’t say that too loudly.

As a policy researcher at Darlington Council, Natasha examined community food models from across the country. She brought Seth to Manchester to see Bread and Butter in action and produced much of the research and internal work that helped secure support for the Darlington pilot.

She has since gone on to work in policy research at HM Treasury.

Thomas

Father of John Hammond from Hammonds, one of our long-standing farming suppliers.

The Hammond family have supplied Bread and Butter with root vegetables for years and have consistently recognised the value of getting good surplus food to people rather than allowing it to go to waste.

Thomas represents the farmers and growers who have made redistribution part of the way they do business.

Isabel & Phil

Isobel Brockelbank and her husband Phil discovered Bread and Butter during Covid and, rather wonderfully, never really left.

They became long-standing volunteers in our Trafford warehouse, regularly giving several days a week to help keep the operation moving. Phil also supported us with driving, helping get food where it needed to be.

Like so many of our volunteers, what began as helping out became part of the rhythm of Bread and Butter life. Between them, Isobel and Phil have given an extraordinary amount of time, energy and quiet support to the organisation over the years.

Their generosity has gone beyond volunteering too, although they would be the last people to want any fuss made about it.

Grayson

Son of Rachel, Bread and Butter’s first Head of Region. Rachel helped shape our early regional growth, which means Grayson became part of the family too.

Paula

Bread and Butter’s founding Chair of Trustees. A corporate lawyer who grew up in a single-parent household where money was hard earned, Paula brought both professional expertise and a deep understanding of social mobility to the organisation from its earliest days.

Shireen

A brilliant volunteer from one of our Warrington hubs and a fantastic advocate for Bread and Butter, including sharing the story of the service on TikTok.

A single mum raising two children with additional needs, Shireen brought huge energy, character and determination to her community. We have since lost touch, but she remains an important part of our story.

Chris

Mark's dad. A character, to put it mildly, with a fondness for cigarettes, whisky and doing things his own way. 

Rita

Bread and Butter’s very first employee. Rita is now the business manager at one of our School hubs and volunteers with us every week. 

Megan

Professor Megan Blake is an academic, friend and long-standing critical thinker alongside Bread and Butter.

A Professor of Human Geography at the University of Sheffield and creator of the Food Ladders framework, Megan has helped shape our surveys, our understanding of food insecurity and much of our strategic thinking since the early days.

She has helped us understand not simply whether Bread and Butter works, but why.

Steve B

Steve was one of the first people outside the immediate Bread and Butter circle to hear the thinking behind the model.

A trusted friend of Mark and former Head of ESG at Morrisons, Steve helped turn an idea into something practical. He helped secure support for our first vans through the Morrisons Foundation and introduced us to the Morrisons supply and operations teams.

Those introductions became relationships that have supported Bread and Butter for years.

Darren

Darren Nugent spent his career in operations within Morrisons manufacturing and has championed Bread and Butter for years.

He helped us identify and unlock food from the sites he worked with, bringing operational knowledge and a determination to stop good food being wasted.

Chris Kitchen founded Kitchen Garden Produce in 1979 and ran the farm alongside his wife, Anne.

Chris became a valued supplier of fresh produce to Bread and Butter and a genuine supporter of what we were trying to achieve.

He died unexpectedly in late 2024. Naming a van after him is our small way of remembering both the food he helped put on tables and the support he gave to our work.

Super Jasper was Mark and Jane's family dog and the star of graphic novels created by Tani, complete with heroic adventures and arch-enemies including the dastardly Pongy Pigeon.

Frankly, a character like that was always going to need a van.

Michelle

Michelle was a long-standing supporter and volunteer at our first hub in Moss Side. Alongside Elaine, she supported Mark through those very early days when Bread and Butter was still more idea than organisation.

Finbow

Steve Finbow helped keep Bread and Butter running during one of the most extraordinary periods in our history.

During Covid, while furloughed from his day job, Steve became volunteer coordinator at our temporary operation at Bowlers Exhibition Centre. At its height, around 250 volunteers a day were coming through the site. Steve somehow kept them organised, what a star!

Chris K

Thelma

Jane’s aunt from Wallsend and the definition of a community person.

Thelma’s door was always open. Family, neighbours and anyone else who needed help knew they could knock.

Rachel

One of Bread and Butter’s longest-serving members of staff and, for many years, a familiar face as a Community Development Delivery Officer in Trafford.

Seth

As Director of One Darlington Partnership, Seth helped take Bread and Butter from a Greater Manchester idea into the North East.

He brought local authorities together, built support for the model and helped raise the funding for our first pilot in Darlington. That first step ultimately opened the door to a much bigger Bread and Butter presence across the region.

Judy

Former BBC PR professional, award-entry wizard and long-standing Bread and Butter supporter.

Judy has been cheering us on for nearly a decade and has written many of the award submissions that have helped tell our story to the outside world.

Ronnie

An Interserve supervisor extraordinaire and a brilliant supporter of Bread and Butter.

Ronnie immediately understood that volunteering with us could deliver benefits both ways. His volunteers helped us get the job done, while the experience gave them purpose, skills, confidence and the chance to be part of something positive.

Rob

Rob is the dad of Will, one of Bread and Butter’s former Chairs, but his place in our story is very much his own.

A grassroots theologian, Rob spent his life alongside communities experiencing hardship. During the formative stages of Bread and Butter, he became a thoughtful critical friend, challenging the thinking behind the model while remaining a passionate believer in the power of community.