TBBT opens first hub in Yorkshire

The Bread and Butter Thing brings its award-winning affordable food service to Yorkshire in conjunction with Kirklees Council and Cummins Turbo Technologies Ltd

 ·     Weekly service launching on Thursday 24th March at Chickenley Community Centre, Princess Road, Dewsbury, Kirklees, WF12 8QT

The Bread and Butter Thing - one of the UK’s leading community food organisations - is bringing its innovative affordable food service to Yorkshire in partnership with Kirklees Council, and with support from key funder, Cummins Turbo Technologies Ltd. The project will launch at Chickenley Community Centre on 24th March providing access to low cost food plus a programme of wraparound services offering the likes of financial, employment and health support. Four further hubs are planned for Kirklees during 2022.

Councillor Paul Davies, Kirklees Council’s Cabinet Member for Corporate Services, said: “I am very excited about the partnership with The Bread and Butter Thing and the launch of the first TBBT hub here in Kirklees. I know that some families across our communities struggle to put food on the table and the pandemic has not helped the situation.  This project will make a big difference to those families, not only by providing affordable, nutritious food but also by offering other kinds of support and advice. We will be working closely with The Bread and Butter Thing team to help make this project a success initially in Chickenley with the aim of then expanding the offer across the district”.

For just £7.50, TBBT members’ shopping bags are filled with a minimum of £35 worth of items made up of quality nutritious food. Each week members access three bags of produce including fresh fruit and veg, chilled goods for the fridge, as well as cupboard staples such as pasta and cereal. Families can use their NHS Healthy Start vouchers and low cost period products are also available.  

The service is created from surplus food: the sorts of produce that often ends up going to waste because it’s wrongly labelled or there is simply too much of it. TBBT is expert in working with supermarkets, factories and farms in providing a reliable service to redistribute these surpluses - helping reduce their environmental effects whilst increasing their positive impact in communities. As a result, the food available varies from day to day and week to week offering TBBT members plenty of variety and the chance to try new foods.

With its community-centred focus, the charity supports other vital local work and works to provide wrap-around support with experts in other areas such as debt counselling, housing advice, mental health support and grant applications.

Mark Game, TBBT Chief Executive explains: "TBBT is about creating routes out of poverty and creating resilient communities. Our members tell us that over 80% of them have previously had to skip meals to feed their families. By using TBBT, most save £25 a week on their food budgets with the added benefits of better quality and a bigger variety of food. This leads to healthier lifestyles and puts money back in people’s pockets. We also build bespoke eco-systems of support for each hub, bringing in experts to offer help and advice in everything from housing to health, ensuring that we are maximising people’s opportunities locally. And the icing on the cake is that we save tonnes of surplus edible food from going to waste."

Within the last year, TBBT has doubled its reach from its Trafford origins. A second TBBT warehouse opened in County Durham in November 2020, new vans have taken the fleet to 13, and over 50 hubs are now operational across the North of England including 17 in the North East, 2 in Cheshire, and 36 in the Greater Manchester area.

How to join:

Joining is simple. There are no joining criteria. People interested in using TBBT’s affordable food service need to register as members and should contact TBBT by email at hello@breadandbutterthing.org or text 07860 063304. There is also a sign up form and more information at www.breadandbutterthing.org/contact. Once registered, members receive a weekly text offering the food service which they can then collect at 1.30pm every Thursday.

Want to help?

The service is reliant on the dedication and enthusiasm of its volunteers, with over 300 people giving their time each week to the charity which won the Queen's Award to Voluntary Service last year. Anyone interested in volunteering can find out more and get in touch through TBBT's website www.breadandbutterthing.org.

Further hub details will be announced in coming weeks.