Coastal Food Deserts, School-Led Solutions

A postcard view can hide a quiet crisis. On the North East coast, we meet a village split between seaside tourism and year-round struggle, where high prices, long bus rides, and limited choice make a weekly shop feel out of reach. We sit down with headteacher Helen Isaac and volunteer Graham to unpack how Seton Primary turned its school hall into a lifeline—hosting a Bread and Butter Thing hub that brings fresh fruit, veg, chilled food and staples straight to families who need both affordability and access.

What unfolds is part logistics masterclass, part love letter to community. Helen shares how a three-class school builds confidence across ages, keeps the whole school moving with a daily mile, and opens its doors to neighbours beyond the school gate. Graham explains why the packing line feels like a party, how surprise surplus becomes a friendly swap, and why local volunteers—not just staff—belong front and centre. We explore the “portfolio shop” people wish they could do, the reality of a single convenience store priced for tourists, and the difference a consistent weekly hub makes when buses run thin and supermarkets are seven or eight miles away.

We also dig into the power of relationships. Our CDDOs show up week after week, learning names and stories, anchoring trust that turns a food bag into agency. Schools prove to be the beating heart of a place—familiar, walkable, and ready-made for partnership. The result isn’t just full fridges; it’s kids trying new foods, parents stretching budgets without fear, and neighbours turning a queue into a conversation.

If you care about rural food access, tourist towns, school-community partnerships, or practical ways to fight the cost-of-living squeeze, this story offers a clear map and real hope. Subscribe, share with a friend who’d love it, and leave a review to help more people find the show.

Transcript

Welcome And Mission Of TBBT

SPEAKER_01 0:11

Hello and welcome back to a slice of bread and butter with me, Vic and Mark, with from the Bread and Butter Thing.

SPEAKER_03 0:16

We run a network of mobile food clubs that take steppers' food from supermarkets, farms and factories. We bring it straight into the communities where families are struggling to get by.

SPEAKER_01 0:25

And for less than a tenner, our members get bags packed with fruit, veg, fridge food, covered staples and a little bit of frozen. It's a weekly shop that helps stretch the budget and take some of the pressure off.

SPEAKER_03 0:35

Our members are at the heart of everything we do. They turn food into friendship and neighbours into community.

Life In An Isolated Coastal Village

SPEAKER_01 0:40

And that's what makes us tick.

SPEAKER_03 0:42

And today we're hearing from Graham and Helen from Seaton Primary, all the way on the North East Coast.

SPEAKER_02 1:07

And Helen Isaac, headteacher of Seaton School, where the bread and butter is hosted. It's in a lovely village called State on the Yorkshire coast. It's about just less than 10 miles north of Whitby. So it's quite an isolated village, but is very scenic. Gorgeous coastal scenery around here.

SPEAKER_03 1:26

Yeah, I'm sure it is. Well, I know it is because I've been quite a lot. So um we have two problems that we talk about a lot, which is accessing food and affordability of that food. It's also the infrastructure around to be able to do that. If you wanted to go and get a big shop, what's the public transport like?

SPEAKER_02 1:47

Shall I I'll show you?

Transport Gaps And Price Pressures

SPEAKER_00 1:49

Well, I can just have a go at that. Well, there is a car in in the village, but to be honest, it's quite uh it's a convenience store. Exactly, yeah. But the closest shops and Astor and Aldi and things like BN and one of the other ones, Holombardian, that's about seven miles away. You can get a bus into Whitby and that would be probably every half every half hour. And you can get the same bus route goes to the in the other direction to it's actually skeletons where the shops are are are based. Um so you don't have a car, it's it's it's difficult to get to those places. In fact, you could get that by bus, couldn't you? But you'd have to have two or three and then frequent, isn't it? And you'd have to bring all your shopping back in there. Yeah. Tell me about your village then. Tell me about stage. It's a village of two parts, really. There's the older part, which is a down at the bottom of the hill against the sea, and there's the newer part, which is where the school is. And uh this uh sort of area is a lot of council houses, and there are a lot of people that that are really very cr close to the red line or thing, and there's a lot of people that are just a bit beyond things from the government, they're just beyond that space guard, so they are struggling. They are struggling. But at the older parts of the village, it's mainly tourists. I actually live down there. The majority of the property is people that don't have got holiday homes or they're rented out, and you tend to tend to get people that that go there that are from the from the southeast London area, and that weather prices are incredible, and they try that gets repeated up here.

SPEAKER_03 3:41

I think a lot of people sort of know about it, and particularly around housing with tourist areas, but uh I guess they don't necessarily think about the other wider cost of living things like your co-op being more expensive than other co-ops, and co-op are not the cheapest at the best of times.

SPEAKER_00 3:58

Yeah, that's that's true. What happens is that the very few people from this area that would really like to live down in the village cannot do that because of the situation of the southeast and this area and what a bank will actually loan on a property.

SPEAKER_02 4:14

There is high unemployment as well, isn't there? Yeah, and a lot of the work is seasonal, low-paid, yeah, linked to the tourist industry.

SPEAKER_03 4:21

Are there any industries, Helen, around?

SPEAKER_02 4:23

Quite near to us, there's all these. It's a potash mine. Um, some of our families do work there and have connections there.

SPEAKER_03 4:31

Come on, educate me. What's it what is a potash mine?

SPEAKER_02 4:34

Fertiliser.

SPEAKER_00 4:35

Fertilizer, that was the word. Fertilizer. So a lot of that fertilizer actually goes to China, and I think it that this fertilizer is better for that area. I know we've got my head right on that, but it doesn't tend to get used much in the UK.

SPEAKER_03 4:50

Is it underground then?

SPEAKER_00 4:52

Yeah, it's um Worthy mine actually go under the sea for about 11 miles.

SPEAKER_03 4:57

It's fascinating that you've got mining of sorts as well, because uh obviously so much mining has disappeared.

SPEAKER_00 5:03

Well, it used to be steel miners and that's normal. It's not we don't that's what we're gonna actually.

SPEAKER_03 5:10

So, Helen, tell us about the school then.

SPEAKER_02 5:12

Oh, the school is gorgeous, but I would say that, wouldn't I? It's small, just three classes. We cater for two year olds to 11-year-olds. We have really close links with the beach, so that's a huge part of our curriculum. We're for science lessons, geography lessons, and so on. We love our sports, we're really blessed, we've got a gorgeous playing field, so we have our daily mile exercise, which the whole school are involved with. At any given time, we will hold down tools, we'll go onto our running track whole school, bearing in mind that we've only got 55 pupils, so we do fit on the running track all together, and we learn for sort of 10 to 15 minutes. If we do eight laps of of our running track, that equates to one mile to the room.

SPEAKER_00 5:56

Come rain and shine, right?

SPEAKER_02 5:58

Yeah, absolutely.

SPEAKER_00 5:59

The youngest ones are actually just finishing off their circuits.

SPEAKER_02 6:03

Yeah, no excuses here. We've got one is we've got the lot, we get out there.

SPEAKER_03 6:09

Fantastic.

SPEAKER_02 6:10

Windows shine, yeah.

SPEAKER_03 6:12

So 55 pupils.

SPEAKER_02 6:18

It's more like a family kind of atmosphere here, although that sounds really cheesy. Our mixed age classes, just the children are working together a lot of the time. They take good care of each other, don't they?

SPEAKER_00 6:31

Well, you get the feeling that the children here it's like the second home.

SPEAKER_02 6:35

For others, they are grouped according to their year groups, they'll follow slightly different lesson plans, but it it only works because our children are also in that routine, so they are fiercely independent, they're very practiced and confident with working in their groups with their peers. That helps the teacher to be able to manage the class as if it were just groups of children in an ordinary single-age class.

SPEAKER_00 7:04

The children love it, but they're being pushed at the same time, very subtle about it. Yeah, they don't realise.

How The School Hub Took Off

SPEAKER_03 7:10

Helen, tell me about bread and butter then and how it's fit in and what what has it done for the school?

SPEAKER_02 7:16

It has been amazing. I I knew from the first time I saw it up in Darlington, I I was just blown away by how it was run up there and inspired. So when I came back and spoke to governors here and staff about the possibility of us running our own hub, it was very warmly received, wasn't it? We were all really keen to get started, and we weren't sure whether it would be a really slow start or whether it would be successful ultimately, which we desperately wanted it to be. But in no time, it seems we were up to sort of in the high 70s packing for 70 orders. It's really popular. We have repeat customers don't we find it. Um, more than anything, to my mind, it's been a real feel-good resource for our community. Yeah, not just the family, the families come in to collect their orders, there's a lovely buzz outside while they're queuing and and chatting and everything, but also for our volunteers. So some of our volunteers were new to us for the bread and butter thing, they haven't been involved with the school before and we didn't know them. But there's a real core group now, a real solid team, isn't there? And if you go into the hall on a Thursday afternoon and see them packing, they've got music playing usually, it's wonderful to see.

SPEAKER_00 8:38

Well, Graham, you're chief volunteer, right? Well, not really. Because it's important that the community come in and be front of house and they're seen as doing the thing. Uh what whatever it says, signing by Gary, finding where Gary is.

SPEAKER_03 9:01

Gary's our C D D O, right? Yes, yeah, yeah.

Community Volunteering And Food Swaps

SPEAKER_00 9:05

Um but the the community thing for me was the thing that is really important for the school and for the village. There's something that's somebody said the other day that that we were talking about that we don't know until the van comes here just what we're getting. So I explained, well, nobody does. But what the village are doing, if they don't think that they can use a particular item, what they'll do is they'll speak to somebody in the QR afterwards and say, Well, should we do a swap? They're making the best of it, and I think some people what they're doing, they're not doing the shopping until last a Thursday when they come, and then they can shop and pick up the things that they haven't got to fit in with what they want. So it's those sort of things that it's real community bias, isn't it? It couldn't couldn't be faster, could it?

SPEAKER_02 9:55

So yeah, real feel-good vibe, that positivity, it's contagious. I think everybody really looks forward to being involved together. There's that real sense of community.

SPEAKER_03 10:23

Wow, you've gone straight in deep. I've gone deep. I've gone deep because I've been actively involved in setting these up over on that coast, and and it it really has struck me how so they talk about the co-op and you know it it is no offense to co-op, it is priced for tourists. Yeah. It's not priced for the local community. And six to eight months of the year they get the prices that they need for tourism, and I'm sure it covers the commercials or whatever, but the people that have to live in a tourist area like that have to deal with the house prices and they have to deal with the access to food that they frankly don't have. The affordability is really difficult for them. It's hard, right?

Affordability Versus Accessibility

SPEAKER_01 11:11

Totally. But I I take that to the next level and talk also about accessibility. So, what we're really talking about is these guys are living in a food desert where there aren't sufficient shops and there isn't the right kind of food. Because I'd guess, and you might be able to correct me if I'm wrong, that the convenience shop hasn't got a full range of fruit and veg in it. It's possibly got a few types of each tin or whatever. It's not, it's not going to have the full supermarket kind of experience where you've got choice and you can look for a bargain. You know, they're not got the access to the food and then it's really expensive on top.

SPEAKER_03 11:52

Yeah, it's not a tiny co-op, but it's it's definitely more like a uh a community co-op than it is a big co-op supermarket. So it's got, shall we say, a a small to mid-size range.

SPEAKER_01 12:04

Yeah. And what's the fruit and veg like?

SPEAKER_03 12:06

It's okay, but it's expensive.

SPEAKER_01 12:08

Yeah. Yeah. And people need choice. Loads of our members do what we'd kind of call, I guess, a portfolio shop. Makes it sound a lot posher than what it is. And you go and grab a bargain from all the places and you know that that shop's cheaper for that item. So on a Tuesday, when you're passing, you might pop in for that bit. And our members are really canny with where they're getting the food from based on they need to stretch the budget, and that's why they shop with us. But in those places, I guess we become even more of a help because they haven't got that at all. They can't be shopping in multiple shops because there's only one, or they've got public transport or a big old journey to get to the shop.

SPEAKER_03 12:50

Well, what was it? Eight miles, seven, eight miles to the nearest supermarket. So if you haven't got a car and the bus is once an hour because it's out of season.

SPEAKER_01 13:00

Have you been m looking at the bus timetables as well?

SPEAKER_03 13:04

I might have been.

SPEAKER_01 13:05

Wow, that's extra geeky.

SPEAKER_03 13:07

Yeah, but it it may well be. But you know, the whole point of this podcast is to walk in the shoes, right? And talk about the communities and the people in those communities. And this is tough. Yeah. This is a beautiful bit of the world, right? But if you want to live there and you're a low-income family, you're gonna struggle.

SPEAKER_01 13:24

Yeah, for sure. And I think I've seen in something recently that it's meant to be one of the best villages in the north of England. But all that's gonna do is raise costs and attract more tourists.

SPEAKER_03 13:37

I was gonna say it's just gonna attract more people that from outside that can afford more to buy the houses and therefore housing prices are gonna go up.

SPEAKER_01 13:45

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 13:46

Okay, well, I'm gonna change the tone. Do you do the daily mile? Oh my god. That was very shamed.

SPEAKER_01 13:54

That was both brilliant and terrifying in one. Yeah, I'm not going for daily mile time.

unknown 14:00

I bet.

SPEAKER_03 14:01

Helen is formidable. I I I don't think there'll be a child in that school that gets away with it. And I'm sure there'll be a few that hide.

Daily Mile And Small-School Strengths

SPEAKER_01 14:08

We were saying this like two-year-olds upwards, and I've got I've got visions of these little tots kind of working the way around and almost getting mown over by some of the big kids. But I think what was brilliant in that is the phenomenal sense of school community across the ages. Because when you go to a big school, you just don't get it the same, do you? But uh, you know, to have three classes in a school just goes to show, doesn't it?

SPEAKER_03 14:37

It really does. Because I I was uh saying to Helen my local secondary comp it's like the second biggest in Europe or something, and there's like 2,000 kids there. Yeah. So compare and contrast.

SPEAKER_01 14:48

Yeah, yeah. The village school, there's something quite romantic about that, isn't there?

SPEAKER_03 14:52

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 14:53

I don't know whether there is if you go. I mean, I'm sure that Helen makes it brilliant for all the kids.

SPEAKER_03 14:57

Honestly, I love going there. It's an an amazing place, and it is literally in the heart of the community. There's like a road that's almost like a track, okay, and that's like the new bit of the village where the locals live and the old bits where everyone else, the tourists, can afford to buy sort of thing. And it's smack in the middle of there, and it's just a wonderful feel every time you go. And Helen is infectious. Every time I meet you, she's just smiling, and you just end up smiling no matter how crap your day is.

SPEAKER_01 15:27

Perfect, Tonic. That's great.

SPEAKER_03 15:29

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 15:30

Sounds like Gary uh is also got a bit of that going on. He's a bit of a superstar, isn't he?

SPEAKER_03 15:35

We're clearly gonna have to have a massive shout out to Gary.

SPEAKER_01 15:39

Yeah. Yeah. I think our guys, the team, C DOs, it's so hard to say. C DO's, community development delivery officers. Yeah. I mean, that was a title that you made up a long time ago, Mark. And we've I don't know how to change it now.

SPEAKER_03 15:57

I was gonna say you're just stuck with it.

SPEAKER_01 15:59

I know. So I always kind of go team TBBT, which is also a mouthful. But hey, so yeah, the guys that go out and help run the hubs with the volunteers. I think that that's it's really great because we try and keep it the same person every week and they build a relationship with the volunteers and the members and they know people by name and what's going on in their life, and that adds a huge amount of value.

SPEAKER_03 16:24

And they've just demonstrated that and then some, haven't they?

SPEAKER_01 16:28

Absolutely.

The Role Of CDDOs And Relationships

SPEAKER_03 16:28

So it's made me think that because we did, if you remember, some time ago, we did Jenny and Sue as CDDOs, and maybe we ought to throw a few more in because there's plenty more of them.

SPEAKER_01 16:40

There are, and that would be great, but actually one of the other CDDOs reminded me of this literally this week, Dan Hatton. So Dan was saying, Vic, remember when we did that podcast, and I was really nervous and you made me do it, and then it was alright. So we've kind of had one where we got a lot of the crew together. That was carnage, but kind of fun.

SPEAKER_03 17:03

It was, it was, but I I I I think it's really nice when you can actually just do the one-on-one and hear their story. Because uh as I say, if you haven't found them, go back and listen to Sue and go back and listen to Jenny because they're they're great. The backgrounds and Jenny's stories around swimming in spring onion juice just continue to make me giggle.

SPEAKER_01 17:26

Yeah, yeah. Not the highlight of bread and butter life, but you know No, but it just shows.

SPEAKER_03 17:32

We say it to all the CDDOs when we recruit them, right? It's tough, it's a hard job, but it's so rewarding from the kind of value that you get back from the community.

SPEAKER_01 17:42

Totally. So should we chat about schools?

SPEAKER_03 17:45

Sure.

SPEAKER_01 17:45

We've got quite a few school hubs.

SPEAKER_03 17:47

How many have we got?

SPEAKER_01 17:48

26. And that includes youth clubs and family hubs.

SPEAKER_03 17:52

If you think about how we actually approach a place, we always talk about wherever we open a hub needs to be the beating heart of that community, right? Yeah. And so many times the only place that we can find that is in the school.

Why Schools Are Ideal Community Hubs

SPEAKER_01 18:04

Yeah, and actually more and more schools recognise the value of being open to the whole community and want things that bring different people in rather than just having the tiny school community. So they're happy to have that ripple effect and help other people in the community. I think it's really powerful. The other thing that we get from it is kids are growing up with more food in the fridge, amazing, and we're empowering mums and dads, brilliant, but we're helping to diversify the food that people are eating. So, you know, if you're on a really tight budget and you can only afford some staples every week, are you ever going to go in and go blueberries are in season, celeriacs in season, whatever? You're not, because it's too expensive and it's too risky to spend a bit of your cash on that. You know, what we're enabling mums and dads to do is help the kids try lots of new foods, which is really important, I think, that diversity.

SPEAKER_03 19:00

So I would like to shout out to Food Cycle because as much as we do schools, they also do schools now. Okay. And they've got a strategy where they're recognising the same thing about schools wanting to reach the wider community. And for what Food Cycle do with the community dining of an evening, they are the perfect places for them.

SPEAKER_01 19:21

Yeah, do it in the canteen.

SPEAKER_03 19:23

Yeah, exactly.

SPEAKER_01 19:24

Perfect kitchen, all the tables. I can so see that working.

SPEAKER_03 19:28

Yeah, yeah. And may that grow because that's a great idea. It's another way of utilising community assets, right?

SPEAKER_01 19:35

Totally. I think that's absolutely brilliant. And we work really well alongside food cycle anyway. Yeah. And the other thing is if people are struggling, let's give them choice, right? Let's let them go for a hot dinner once a week and get some bags from bread and butter. That it's not one or the other, is it?

SPEAKER_03 19:50

No, it's not. Never.

Partnering With FoodCycle For Choice

SPEAKER_01 20:02

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 TikTok, Instagram and Twitter, on LinkedIn or online at the breadandbutterthing.org.

SPEAKER_03 20:12

You getting back in the swing with this TikTok thing, well done. So And if you have any feedback or thoughts on the podcast or would like to come and be our guest, drop us an email at podcast at breadandbutthing.org.

SPEAKER_01 20:24

And we're always open to new members at all of our hubs. So if you or someone you know would benefit from our affordable food scheme, you can find your nearest talk on the become a member page of the website.

SPEAKER_03 20:33

And please do all those things that podcasts ask you to do. Like us, subscribe to us, leave us a review or share us with your mates, and chat about us on social. See you next time. See you next time.