This week saw the return of TBBT – The Bread and Butter Thing – to its new and permanent home hub at Partington Youth and Community Centre.
Pre pandemic the Partington provision was held at our building when it was known as ‘Ear4U’ a furniture recycling project and the numbers of service users was high. Due to the closure of this building and several subsequent moves around the community, numbers have dropped significantly.
Partington is situated in the Trafford Ward of Bucklow, the most deprived area of Trafford with high levels of poverty. We at Greater Manchester Youth Federation, understand the necessity of removing as many barriers for our community as possible. This includes improving access to quality youth provision, outdoor education opportunities and good quality healthy food provision.
By working in partnership with TBBT Partington families can come to our building each week to pick up pre-ordered bags of reduced price food including fresh fruit and vegetables, ambient food and a frozen food bag. The above left photograph was the contents of this weeks 3 bag provision, where 14 kilo’s of food was available for £8.50.
This food is surplus and is donated from large supermarkets and warehouses and would otherwise go to waste.
Its important for people to feel that they are able to provide for their families and can do it well, the cost of living crisis has put huge pressure on family budgets making it challenging to make ends meet. Joining TBBT combats food waste and helps our community to make their money go further.
Along with TBBT comes a small, dedicated group of local people who volunteer 3.5 hours per week at the hub to bag pack all of the produce from the back of the van, they prepare each bag and then collectively clear all of the debris, while welcoming service users into our building and leave our building spotlessly clean. The connection of local volunteers with residents is vitally important to growing hubs and making certain all are welcome to use the service. Their input is priceless.
Our building will now host TBBT and future partner provision such as ‘Your Home, better’ a service supported by The Greater Manchester Combined Authority to assist people to insulate their homes and get the most from their energy providers.
There will be sessions with Citizens advice, Greater Manchester Poverty Action and other similar welfare and life skills support. We would like to support a project to demonstrate the cooking of the food provided in the near future to help people get maximum value for money and we are keen to build our partnership with TBBT to serve the community as fully and effectively as possible.
If you or someone you know would like to sign up for free with no obligation to TBBT simply text 07860 063304 with your full name, postcode and the name of the hub you will be collecting from ; Partington
Select the size of the order you want to receive: family – £8.50, individual- £5, large family-£17. A vegetarian option is also available.