South & East Lincolnshire welcome award-winning affordable food scheme to the area – The Bread and Butter Thing

A UK community food organisation, The Bread and Butter Thing (TBBT) has agreed to open hubs in South & East Lincolnshire, with the first of these opening in Boston village Old Leake on 1st February 2023.

In late 2022 Angie Stuart from ukFPN Lincolnshire part of the Lincolnshire Chamber of Commerce, initiated meetings with Worldwide Fruit, Bread and Butter Thing and the growth and community teams at South & East Lincolnshire Councils Partnership to look at the potential of bringing this award-wining scheme to the South & East Lincolnshire area. Angie led discussions around how we as partners could support this food scheme to bring it to the area knowing the impact it is could make on our community.

TBBT offers weekly groceries at a fraction of high street prices. The hubs will provide access to low cost, nutritious food, as well as access to wraparound services offering advice and support on finances, employment and health. TBBT works in partnership with supermarkets, importers, packers, manufacturers and farms to redistribute surplus food that often ends up going to waste.

For £8.50 they offer roughly £35 worth of food each week including fresh fruit and veg, chilled food for the fridge and cupboard items such as pasta and cereal.

The first is set to open at Old Leake Community Hub on Wednesday 1st February with the intention of further hubs to open across Boston Borough, East Lindsey and South Holland in the near future.

Spalding-based Freshlinc have offered logistics support with its fleet of refrigerated trucks and state-of-the-art food storage facilities. The team will help with the transport and delivery of TBBT’s vital food supplies until the charity establishes its own warehouse locally.

Councillors Martin Griggs, Portfolio Holder for Communities at Boston Borough Council, Cllr William Gray, Portfolio Holder for Communities and Better Ageing and Cllr Elizabeth Sneath, Portfolio Holder for Health and Wellbeing, Conservation and Heritage, said: “We are very excited about TBBT coming into the South & East Lincolnshire area with the launch of these award-winning hubs.

“There are many families across our communities who are at present struggling to put food on the table with the cost of living crisis adding even more pressure to household finances.

“The introduction of these hubs will make a huge difference to those families, not only by providing nutritious and affordable food but also by offering other kinds of support and advice.”

Angie Stuart from ukFPN Lincolnshire said “Spalding based Worldwide Fruit is a key FPN member, it has supplied the award winning TBBT with fresh fruit for a number of years, and Rob King introduced me to TBBT’s CEO Mark Game. Our fresh produce network is concentrated in South Lincolnshire, we work closely with Michelle Sacks and her fabulous team at SELCP, and I was delighted to introduce TBBT in response to the cost-of-living crisis. TBBT is a well organised, national charity with a unique approach, offering vital nutrition and support to the community through its food clubs. Mark and his team were looking to open a depot and hubs in Lincolnshire, and as we have the largest cluster of food businesses on our patch it made sense to start in South Lincs. Worldwide Fruit, in partnership with TBBT won the ‘Supporting the Community Award’ at the South Holland Business Awards last November and the TBBT team is working with our members and others to set up a supply chain to benefit the local community.”

Mark Game, CEO The Bread and Butter Thing: “This is an exciting new chapter for TBBT. Funding from Comic Relief and Sainsburys is enabling us expand our service further across the UK and I’m delighted that we can start 2023 opening our first hub in Boston as part Phase One of our plans for the year. We are looking forward to getting to know our new community and are grateful for the amazing support that we are already seeing locally. The logistics support from the Freshlinc team is an invaluable bonus and we are thrilled to be launching with such strong and vital support in the region.”

Cllr Tom Ashton, Ward member for Old Leake, said: “Working with the parish council, we are pleased to be able to support Old Leake Community Hub with this new initiative coming to Old Leake.

“This project will make a big difference to families, and South & East Lincolnshire Councils Partnership will be working closely with TBBT team to help make this project a success.”

Ashley Holland, Commercial Director of FreshLinc said: “Getting good quality, nutritious and healthy food to our communities is a key part of FreshLinc’s operation and we know that the cost of living is hitting families local to our head office in Lincolnshire. We want to play our part in supporting them and the wider region by offering our specialist support to TBBT.”