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
Culture shock, corner sofas and giant sausages
Twenty years ago, single mum Aga made the brave move to relocate from Poland to the UK in search of a better life with her children. After a 26-hour bus ride, a brief stint in South Wales, she eventually moved to Oldham. Join Mark and Vic as they chat to Aga about the challenges of adjusting to a new culture, dealing with grief and depression in a new country. But don't worry, there's a very happy ending!
Welcome back to A Slice of Bread and Butter with Vic and Mark from the Bread and Butter Think. We're a charity that delivers affordable food to the heart of deprived communities and acts as a catalyst for change.
Speaker 2:We provide access to a nutritious, affordable range of food, which basically means that you can save money on your shopping, feed your family, as well as access support too, right in the heart of your community.
Speaker 1:And this is where we share a slice of life with somebody involved in the bread and butter thing and hear about how they connect with us. So, mark, you went out to see Arga, I think.
Speaker 2:What an amazing woman. So, yeah, let's have a listen. And then there's lots to chat about.
Speaker 3:My name is Aga. I live in Oldham. I'm a single mom. 19 years ago I came over to United Kingdom from Poland and I have never left, and this is my home now.
Speaker 2:So what brought you over?
Speaker 3:A job search and it just worked. I didn't do at first what I wanted to do, but then it just got better, ended up for the first year in South Wales it was a place called Newbridge, and then after a year I migrated up to Northwest.
Speaker 2:You know, as you said, that I heard a slight Welsh twang in your accent. No way.
Speaker 3:It's Polish and everything else probably mixed up together, so it was Oldham, Ashton, Oldham. Before you settle, it is trial thing. Before you find the right place to stay.
Speaker 2:So tell me how you got involved with us then.
Speaker 3:Well, it was a rough time. I was depressed. There was a bereavement going on as well. My family member passed away and I was out of work, medication for my mental health, working closely with the job centre and work and health programme I think it was at the time, is there?
Speaker 2:much privileged community around here. Did you have any support?
Speaker 3:Quite a lot and First Choice Homes was one of them. It was a job centre in Gies that helped me, first Choice Homes, where they supported me in a job search, in getting better. I had group therapy, individual therapy meetings. When I felt poorly I started to search for help at some point and I picked up a leaflet about the bread and butter thing, volunteering service and I didn't bring straight away. It took me about two to three weeks. At some point I thought if I'm not going to do it, I'm not going to know. I need to try to get out.
Speaker 2:And you came on your own, no friends or anything.
Speaker 3:Yes, I was so desperate to get out of the house to start doing something.
Speaker 2:Kind of brave as well, right.
Speaker 3:I think I was already brave when I came to this country, not knowing anyone Tra my own 26 hours on a coach.
Speaker 2:Yeah, it was a journey, that was a journey yeah and I've not left ever since.
Speaker 3:So you started by volunteering with us, yes, and one day a week, or I do two, mondays and fridays, yeah, and a team beautiful, warm welcome. I realize that most of people that volunteer they usually have stories themselves they will share with you. You know a little bit and then you get close and it's like a little family there. It's really lovely and the people you can rely on and you can just talk to. You know, it's the thought of them being there.
Speaker 2:So would you call them friends.
Speaker 3:Yes, yeah, I'd call them friends. I feel being looked after there. That's why I never left, despite getting a job.
Speaker 2:So tell me about your job and how you got that.
Speaker 3:Someone told me that there is a volunteering officer position. We'll be going. It's for Action Together, the charity and all them. At first I was scared. I was like I don't have any experience. I've never done it before I. I was scared, I was like I don't have any experience. I've never done it before. I was a chef all my life, so. But I wanted to re-qualify. I didn't want to work in a kitchen anymore and I thought God loves a trier Come on.
Speaker 3:I went for an interview I think it was the day after I had a phone call that I've got the job. Turned out that, whatever I've been through all that journey, I had from the very beginning and my involvement in volunteering services and stuff that was the fundamental thing that actually helped me to get a job so volunteering with bread and butter was something they saw as a really good thing for you to get the job.
Speaker 3:Yeah, that's fantastic and the story, how it all happened with me, you know from the very beginning. So I can actually be an inspiration and help others because I've lived it.
Speaker 2:You strike me as somebody that's lived.
Speaker 3:Yeah, don't we all live?
Speaker 2:Yeah, but we don't all get on a bus for 26 hours to come to a foreign country on our own to find a job, though.
Speaker 3:Yeah, I must have been brave. I look back now and do you know what? That was the best thing I ever done in my life. It was a great turnout for me. I was 14 or 15 years old when I said to my grandma God bless her, she's passed away years back. I said one day I'm going to be living in England and I'll have a house with the stairs up to my bedroom. That's what I told her, and I don't know where all that come from. I have no idea, but it happened.
Speaker 2:I probably somewhere subconsciously whatever all that come from, I have no idea, but it happened. I probably somewhere subconsciously, whatever you call it I made it happen somehow. Everybody's feeling things are more expensive the food, the energy. After housing costs and energy costs, how much do you normally have left in a month for you and your lad?
Speaker 3:I don't think I can say that there is anything left. To be honest, I could never manage good with my finances back in the day, and COVID and everything that started the crisis got me to tie things up and like just spend for my essentials. I'm not going to lie. The bread and butter thing saved my life in many ways as, first of all, I started to volunteer, so that got me out with whatever happened with my mental health at the time.
Speaker 2:Medical professionals would say it's more dangerous than smoking being on your own.
Speaker 3:It's probably they're right. Yeah, they're probably right. And you search for excuses not to go out, not to see other people.
Speaker 2:There is quite why do you think that is?
Speaker 3:That's people that got mental health issues like depression, anxiety. There's plenty of reasons for you not to do anything, and any reason is good for you. The first thing I did after joining the Bread and Butter as a volunteer I have thrown away my corner sofa I had in my living room because I spent on that sofa nearly two years and I didn't want to look at it anymore. I didn't want to do it anymore. So I was nearly a month with no sofa. I didn't care. I thrown away what was bringing me bad memories as well, and then, joining the bread and butter, started to use a service myself and that's I got sent. It saves me a hell of a lot of money to live on the bags I get from the bread and butter.
Speaker 2:So how much do you think you save?
Speaker 3:I will give you a small example on fruit. Fruit is not cheap. The box of grapes will cost you between one and two pounds itself, and you sometimes get a couple of boxes in the bags and then you've got everything else.
Speaker 2:So it's not just the price, it's also being able to get fruit and veg. Yes, so what's the strangest thing you've ever had?
Speaker 3:The huge sausage thing, it was first of all, it was funny because your expression, when you said that yeah, I didn't. I gave mine away. Even if I want to use it, it's too big. When I looked at, it was a over a meter long. We had a day then it was funny, it was great.
Speaker 2:I don't want to know the jokes that came out of that.
Speaker 3:No, you don't want to know the jokes? Yeah, they were. They were nasty.
Speaker 2:That was unusual, I'd say so what's the nicest thing that you've had?
Speaker 3:the. The nice thing can be just a joint of meat, a box of chicken breasts, you know, like a little tray, because you'll go to the shop you'll spend on the item itself about three, four, maybe five pound, being a cook, in all the bags that you've had.
Speaker 2:have you got a moment where you actually thought you know what I've just made the best thing there?
Speaker 3:It wasn't once, it was several times times. I am a cheese lover, so anytime I've got cheese I'm over the moon. Quick thinking right. So what I'm doing? I prepare a meal portion.
Speaker 2:It freeze what is next, then, for agar?
Speaker 3:I'm not planning to change anything. I'm absolutely happy at the moment that's lovely to hear I'm happy the volunteering continues. I'm not gonna leave this. At my interview I have warned and the potential employer that I'd love to get a job. But I'm a volunteer, I do my two days and I would love to continue and that wasn't an issue, it wasn't a problem.
Speaker 2:It all worked really well at the end just to finish off then, are there any things that you think that we could do to improve bread and butter?
Speaker 3:I hate waste, so sometimes we have to send things back because it was too much or people don't pick up their bags.
Speaker 2:I can tell you what happens to that food. So if it's on date, so if it's today's date, on the way back to the warehouse we give it to domestic violence shelters oh, lovely but if it's tomorrow's date or whatever, it'll go in bags tomorrow.
Speaker 3:To another hub. Oh brilliant, yeah, being poorly, it was a rough time and I was also thinking like oh my god, am I going to be able to feed my kid For the next month and stuff. So thinking of that and I know that there's people that struggle, even I. When I get my bags, I'll pay for my bags. I come home and I know I won't use everything I share.
Speaker 2:You're an inspiration when you've come from as well, and those dark days. And then you've volunteered and got out of your shell, got rid of your sofa. Credit to you. Love you for that.
Speaker 3:There was no other way. It happened in the best possible way. Really, you have to go down to be able to go up as well.
Speaker 1:I'm up now, so it's all good okay, we're gonna have to get sausage gate out straight away.
Speaker 2:Oh, I laughed out loud, really loud, about those sausages. Did you see them? I did.
Speaker 1:I wouldn't have described them as sausages, but I knew exactly what she meant they were huge and I remember the team's faces when they saw them come in and didn't believe that we were going to share them with members.
Speaker 2:If only we had TikTok back then.
Speaker 1:I think we failed really badly on all the photo opportunities that we could have had.
Speaker 2:I think we did.
Speaker 1:Possibly a good thing. The slogans that could have gone with them might not have been bread and butter friendly.
Speaker 2:This is a great example of how we actually talk to members and how amazing they are, though, because if you listen to Arga's story, her face just lit up when she started giggling about the sausage. It was genuinely a purely human moment. I loved it. She was brilliant, but 19 years ago came over on her own from Poland I asked her afterwards about how she found out about it, et cetera, and there was a job center in Poland that was actively offering roles in England. But wow, 26 hours on a bus.
Speaker 1:That's a schlep.
Speaker 2:What a strong individual. It's a really, really brave thing to do.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I enjoyed when you said that she was brave for coming for the first time to bread and butter thing to volunteer and she corrected. You said no, I've been brave for a long time. I did that journey. That was when I was really brave yeah, she was a formidable woman. I'd say phenomenal. She sounds amazing both.
Speaker 2:I'm going to compromise on both okay let's pick up on some of the things that she mentioned there. Covid and loneliness really really bit hard for Aga. Socially isolated out of work, really did a number on Aga for her mental health. So she's a First Choice Homes tenant and it was great to see that First Choice actually did reach out with some suggestions around bread and butter and other support mechanisms. But that very fact that she managed to make that first step again massively brave. But just thinking about how that actually helps with making friends stepping through the door for the first time, it's like first day at school, almost, isn't it? Yeah, when you've got all that anxiety and I just want to be at home. And she was saying that any excuse would do just to make her stay at home. But she clearly decided that day she was going to step over the line and go and volunteer and, oh my god, look at her now yeah, she's not looked back, which is fantastic.
Speaker 1:And then jumping towards the end of your conversation with her, when she's talking about getting a job and then wanting to negotiate that around her volunteering good for her, that was great it's fantastic.
Speaker 2:She does see it like really close friends and family now at the hubs where she volunteers. So it's fantastic for that. And again, we know this because so many of our members the vast majority or 83 to be really anal about it of our volunteers have said in recent surveys that they make new friends by volunteering with bread and butter.
Speaker 1:Yeah, we see that across all of our hubs the volunteer teams. They're literally the lifeblood of those hubs. They make the hubs, they give them the personalities and no hub is the same because of the volunteers and you see the friendships and you see the camaraderie and how somebody's not been for a week and they get a massive greeting from the other people. Yeah, it's priceless, it's really great, it's genuine community.
Speaker 2:I would say so and I have to say I was going to say proudly, but I don't know whether it's proud or bragging rights or what, but honestly, I've been to over a hundred of our hubs, I would say nowadays, and I've never once felt unwelcome. The warmth as you walk into those hubs with the volunteers is just second to none.
Speaker 1:It's amazing what community volunteering does and that warm bubble that it creates yeah, and I think the best thing about bread and butter volunteering is the people that volunteer are part of our community. They want to be part of the community. They'll shop with us. They want to give people a virtual hug when they come. They want to be really warm and genuine. Nobody's doing it because they want a prize at the end of it. People are doing it really for genuine reasons and that makes a huge difference.
Speaker 2:It does, doesn't it the way that they build that community spirit and, as a result, community resilience, because they are looking out for people? I was at Ridge Hill this week and the hub leaders there were saying we have our regulars and if they don't show, we're calling them to make sure they're okay. Yeah, that's a beating heart for you. Smack in the middle of the community saying are you okay? It doesn't matter if you don't need bread and butter.
Speaker 1:But just checking in, yeah, and we've seen people that have a bit like aga really, that have gone on and felt the confidence to get work and when they started volunteering would never have dreamed that they'd be able to. Well, one volunteer but then keep it up and then move into work. And watching people's confidence grow through them doing a brilliant thing, it's really good, nice to see there's a secret sauce to community volunteering, for sure.
Speaker 2:Yeah 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 instagram and twitter, or on linkedin or online at breadandbutterthingorg or on tiktok or on tiktok and if you have any feedback or thoughts on the podcast, you can get in touch with us by email at podcast at breadand butter thingorg we're always open to new members at all of our hubs.
Speaker 1:If you or someone that you know would benefit from our affordable food scheme, you can find your nearest hub on the become a member page of the website and please do all those things that podcasts ask you to do.
Speaker 2:Like us, subscribe, leave us a review, share us with your friends and chat about us on social well, should we do it again next week? Yeah, sounds like a plan. All right, see you next week, see ya.
