Colette Todd says she and children Henry and Mary don't waste any food - even crusts

Colette and Laura, our members at the Altrincham hub, were recently interviewed by BBC Cost of Living correspondent, Colletta Smith about how they manage their budgets during the school holidays. The Bread and Butter Thing was delighted to help organise the visit, and the brilliant ways families are making food stretch when children are home for six long weeks of lunches and snacks.

The challenge of summer holidays

With kids eating most of their meals at home, the cost of food quickly adds up. School dinners are often subsidised so replacing them with home-cooked meals can feel daunting, especially with food prices rising faster now than at any point in the last year.

But as the BBC found at our hub, families are meeting that challenge with our food bags plus planning, creativity and a good dose of resourcefulness.

Laura: Bagging up meals for the week

Laura Maggs plans her meals and puts each one in a separate bag

Laura, mum of three, knows all too well how quickly cupboards can empty when school’s out. Her trick is simple but effective: put each day’s food in a separate bag to make sure it lasts the whole week.

She even hides some of it away in the higher cupboards to stop the children from gobbling snacks all at once. “Sometimes we’ve got plenty of food, and sometimes we don’t, so you have to get creative,” she says.

Laura describes her local Bread and Butter Thing club in South Manchester as “a lifeline”. For £8.50 she gets three bags of food, always including fresh fruit and veg. “It means I can put something on the table that they are going to want to eat and that’s financially viable.”

Colette: No waste, not even crusts

For Colette, who juggles three part-time jobs alongside raising her two children, the summer holidays are all about being “clever and careful” with food.

Her golden rule? “We don’t waste anything. Even crusts.”

She has a simple but effective fridge system: food that needs using soon goes at the front so nothing gets forgotten. Batch cooking helps too. Her son Henry recently joined in to make a bolognese, with an extra portion set aside in the freezer for another day.

Five helpful hacks from our members

Here are some of the brilliant tips Laura and Colette shared:

Bag it up: Portion food into daily bags to make sure it lasts the week.
Out of reach: Store snacks in high cupboards so they don’t vanish too quickly.
Front of fridge first: Keep food that needs using up at the front so it never gets wasted.
Batch cook: Make extra portions of meals and freeze them for easy dinners later on.
No food left behind: From crusts to slightly tired fruit, get creative and make sure everything is eaten.

The bigger picture

Families across the UK are facing rising food costs, alongside higher rents, mortgages and childcare bills. It means many don’t feel better off, even with small increases in wages or benefits.

But as Laura and Colette show, with a little planning, creativity and community support, it’s possible to make food stretch further, avoid waste and keep children well fed through the summer holidays.

At The Bread and Butter Thing, we’re proud to stand alongside our members, sharing ideas and supporting each other through the challenges, one fridge hack, hidden snack and batch-cooked meal at a time.

A big thank you to Colette, Laura and everyone at The Hub Altrincham for their time.