How A Belfast Tenor’s Son Became The Best-Dressed Volunteer In Town

A sharp suit, a warm voice, and a life spent in service: meet Tom from Altrincham, our front-of-house dynamo who turns a weekly affordable food shop into a community ritual. We dive into his unlikely route from military discipline to infection control and finally to the Alti Hub, where he keeps the line moving, spirits high, and dignity at the centre of every interaction. What begins as surplus food distribution becomes a story about purpose, neighbourliness, and the hidden need that lives behind the gloss of an affluent town.

Tom opens up about advising hospitals on hand hygiene and sterilisation, then shows how those habits—clarity, care, and process—translate directly to a bustling hub. He started by helping elderly neighbours collect bags, then stepped in when volunteers were short, and never really stepped back. Along the way, we unpack a bigger truth: food is the hook, but connection is the glue. Young families, refugees, and people between pay packets come for fruit, veg, and cupboard staples; they stay for the welcome, the advice, and the sense that someone’s got their back.

We also zoom out to the system level. Volunteers contributed 183,000 hours last year, the equivalent of twenty years of effort, proving how central they are to the Bread and Butter Thing. Roles flex for every ability—bag openers, lifters, sorters, greeters—and each hub shapes its own culture. Alti has Tom’s “stand to” theatre. Others have their own touch. Together they create a network where members are treated as customers and neighbours, not numbers. And when we ask the tough question—what if it all stopped?—the answers range from emptier cupboards to lost friendships and harder access to vital services.

Press play to hear how one person’s steady presence can anchor a whole room and why affordable food, delivered with respect, changes more than a shopping list. If this story moves you, share the episode with a friend, subscribe for more conversations from our hubs, and leave a quick review to help others find us.

Transcript

SPEAKER_02 0:12

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

SPEAKER_04 0:18

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

SPEAKER_02 0:26

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

SPEAKER_04 0:34

Yep, and our members are at the heart of everything we do. They turn food into friendship, they turn neighbours into community, and that's what makes us tick.

SPEAKER_02 0:41

Yeah, and today it's Tom from the Alti Hub. Are you gonna give us an explainer before we uh chat to Tom, Mark?

Meet Tom: Role At Alti Hub

SPEAKER_04 0:48

Yeah, yeah, I think I should. So uh Tom does introduce himself, but not quite what he does for us. So Tom is the Maitre D. He is front of house, he's the one of the hub leaders at Ulti Hub. He's a great volunteer, and yeah, let's have a listen to Tom.

SPEAKER_00 1:22

I live in Altringham. Uh we have uh several small businesses, but they're all based around infection control, which is my clinical background. We work mainly for the companies that supply the like of alcohol gels that you see in all the hospitals and the buildings and the soaps, and we also do work um w within theatre complexes in disinfection of instruments and the like of that. We work for all of the blue chip companies within the UK. Of course, they do their business with the um health service. They will say to a hospital, well, we'll supply you with alcohol, gel, and hand soap and the like of it. And we get a phone call. And we go along to the hospital, and of course, we're used to it because we we work in them all the time, and I have a clinical background, so I'm able to advise and help uh educate the staff. It's a fact that most of the inf cross-infections in hospitals are carried in the hands of the staff. But infection control has grown in status over the years, particularly since COVID.

SPEAKER_04 2:25

I think everybody likes to think they're in that proactive preventative space nowadays, don't they?

SPEAKER_00 2:30

There's not many hospitals in this country that we haven't been around or walked the floors off. And it's really nice to do that, and it's really nice to stop and talk to the staff and they say, if you want somebody to talk to you in the hospital, all you have to do is walk about with the clipboard. Good to know. Absolutely. What are you doing? Yeah, yeah. What are you on?

SPEAKER_04 2:50

Now you you have I have to say you've thrown me with this, because I thought you were a military boy.

Family, Rugby, And Life At 76

SPEAKER_00 2:54

I was a military boy before this. I was uh in the airborne start, and then I moved on to uh the uh intelligence branch. And then when I finished with that, I moved on to the medical branch, which was the Air Force site, and uh that's where I did my SRN, and that from there on in I moved into infection control. So I had the military background first, and then when I came out from the services, then I I went into commerce and I I I worked for good corporations who taught me a lot, but I worked for Johnson ⁇ Johnson back in 92. We set up on our own and we set up the right impression, and from that we developed good enough services, which are uh is our installation wing. You're obviously a Belfast boy, but um tell us about your childhood. Tell us about growing up. Growing up was interesting because my father was in the military as well. He was a sergeant major in the Royal Star rifles. Yeah. Hard as nails. Hard as nails. Absolutely. Semi-literate, very good at being a sergeant major. He was an Irish tenor, and he sang like John McCormick, if anybody these days knows who John McCormick was. And he always had a joke to tell, you know, and he was always the life and soul and the pub on a Saturday night, you know, and whatever else. But I'll tell you something, Mark. Nobody upset Johnny Brady. Nobody. Now my mother read books. She walked three miles to the school in Tamla Moor in her bare feet when she was a wee girl. As did all the other children. But she taught me to read and write early. So I had a semi-psychopathic father and a literary mother, and that got me to where I am now.

SPEAKER_04 4:43

And you are the product. I'm the product. And what about yourself, Tom?

SPEAKER_00 4:50

Have you got family? I have three grown-up children, three boys. So I have, and uh they all live down in the West Country because I was down living down there before I moved up here 30 odd years ago. But they're all grown up now, and they all have their own families and they all have their own children. You know, I'm a big rugby man. I've always been rugby. There's nothing I like better than going to watch Harlem play rugby at Lansdown Road. And um I took them down the rugby club and rugby training and all the rest of it. Nah, they'd have none of it. They all headed the Swindon Town Football Club. I'm afraid not. It's like I went to school at the Royal School Dungell, and then people say, What did you learn at the Royal School, Tom? And I said, They taught me to play rugby. That's what I got out of it, you know. How old are you now, Tom?

SPEAKER_04 5:41

If I was a girl, you wouldn't ask me that. I don't know. In this world of equality, I might. Well, you might, this is true. I'm 76 now. 76. Aye. And you're still going strong and still running this business.

Why Volunteer And How It Began

SPEAKER_00 5:54

I am, and uh two reasons. One, I enjoy it. B, I still have a lot to offer out there. In the development and the educational side and the support side, and we enjoy that. And C, what would I do if I wasn't doing it? I'd be bored to death. That's fair. That's true. You see, a lot of people they say, Oh, I'm gonna retire, you know. And the next thing you see them, they put ten years on them in ten months, yeah, it it happens, you know. And I still go down and unpack the wagon when then when it's broken a day.

SPEAKER_04 6:26

I was gonna come on to this, Tom, because it y you you clearly got a nice little successful business going on. But how the hell do you find time when you're running a business to come and volunteer in the middle of a day?

SPEAKER_00 6:37

If I'm rounding about, uh I'll go into the office in the morning and have a cup of tea and a sandwich, and then I'll get in the car and I'll drive down to the hub. And um there I am for the afternoon. I do have a reputation for being the best dressed fellow at the bread and butter thing because like this I come straight from the office as I did to you this morning.

SPEAKER_04 6:57

You are doing me. I know that.

SPEAKER_00 7:00

But it it's just habit. I've always dressed like this to go to work. You know, and and I'm not changing now, it suits me nicely. And I'm not going home to put rags on to go to the bread and butter.

SPEAKER_04 7:09

Well, it suits you as well.

SPEAKER_00 7:10

Well, thank you. That's very kind of very well. Yeah, yeah. And uh we have two groups at the hub at the bread and butter thing. And one of them is the volunteers, and the other one, and I like to call them our customers.

SPEAKER_04 7:22

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 7:22

Yeah. Because that's just what they are.

SPEAKER_04 7:24

No, no. I I we although we call them our members, they are customers. We like to see them as part of us and create a little community. We always talk about customer service levels.

SPEAKER_00 7:35

So you should. Absolutely. On the customer side of it, you know, w all the girls know that I'm Tom and I call out the numbers and I always speak to them before we start, and and and they're they're good fun. And I've been there and you project very well. Yeah, well, thank you. Thank you. La last week I said to them, right, we're gonna get started, stand to. And they all do that, right. You can't go wrong when you've got that sort of environment with your customers. You really can't. And and the the grand. The the the grand, you know. Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_04 8:08

So I think I know, but I have to ask. Why'd you do it?

SPEAKER_00 8:11

Um I enjoy it. It it's nice to help. I got into it. Shall I tell you how I got into this, Mark? Do the thing. There are some old ladies who live round and about me, and one of them said to me about this bit and butter thing, and I said, Yeah, yeah, well. She said, I quite like to, but I can't. I said, Well, that's all right. So I looked it up.

unknown 8:29

No.

SPEAKER_00 8:30

And then I registered and um and I registered one of the old ladies, and I thought, well, you all don't need to register, you know, because you all aren't going to use that much stuff. Started off, I would I would get two packs, and I went and I collected it for them. And then I would take it home and divide it into three and give it to the old ladies. And then you get to know, oh, I don't like that. Oh, can I have more of that? That's how I got into it, collecting for the old ladies. And then I was down there one day and uh I heard this voice shouting at me from the distance. I said, Tommy, so we're absolutely pulled out here. He said, Several people haven't turned up today. He said, Would you would you ever give us a lift? I said, Of course I will. And that was three years ago.

SPEAKER_04 9:12

Alti Hub really throws me because uh it's in the middle of Altringham in Cheshire and it's affluent. Yes. Why is it needed there?

Reflecting On Tom’s Impact

SPEAKER_00 9:21

Ah, you see under all the affluents that are the poor who keep the affluent going. They turn up there because they need help. And I have to say that the bread and butter thing is absolutely invaluable to them. And this is where we have regular customers. And I see people in there with young children, and I I see others from abroad that need a bit of help. And some of our volunteers are also helping with other aspects of emigration and refugees and all this sort of thing, you know. And and it's good to see. So we we we have a big picture. Because it's altering in Manchester and well to do, which it is, the fact of the matter is that we're not catering for them. So what you're doing is invaluable for those people. And I tell you, if you stop tomorrow, they'd be lost without your marker.

SPEAKER_04 10:12

That's a really interesting one because one of our funders recently asked that question, that very specific question, and said if we stopped funding you and you stopped doing what you're doing, what would happen?

SPEAKER_00 10:27

A lot of people would go hungry. Or have an awful lot less to eat than they do now.

SPEAKER_04 10:47

Okay, so I know Tom likes to say his dad was a bit of a terrifying individual, but um if you ever meet Tom, he he can be foreboding that he's still got the sergeant major in him.

SPEAKER_02 11:00

No, I just think he's brilliant. He's doing everything. Like, how has he not stopped? How does he just keep on doing everything?

SPEAKER_04 11:07

He does. And he's such a smart, well-turned out guy. He gets up clearly every day, suited and booted, and that's what he does.

SPEAKER_02 11:15

Brilliant. Yeah. And you know, we need all types of characters in our hubs, don't we? That's what makes that's what makes the hubs what they are.

SPEAKER_04 11:23

Well, I I love that because he started just by grabbing a few bags for some of his elderly friends, and then evolved into what he is today, and his role within bread and butter. And he he's just a fabulous guy and clearly his community focused.

SPEAKER_02 11:43

Yeah, and wanting to keep busy.

SPEAKER_04 11:44

Yeah. Yeah, and we do see that a lot with uh quite a lot of our volunteers. And why wouldn't you?

SPEAKER_02 11:51

Yeah. Like the hub starts to feel like family, don't they? And you get the social and you see the same people week in and week out. And so whilst people are volunteering for us, they're also making friendships and helping other people and and all of that. So it works both ways for people.

Who Volunteers And How

SPEAKER_04 12:07

Okay. Well, have you got any stats to hand that might help with that?

SPEAKER_02 12:11

Well, last year in uh 2025, our community volunteers alone contributed a whopping 183,000 hours supporting bread and butter hubs. That's fantastic, isn't it?

SPEAKER_04 12:27

Yeah. I can't do the math. I'm gonna try and do the math. That's 7,600 days. Wow. Yeah. So that's 20 years.

SPEAKER_02 12:37

20 years of volunteering, we crammed into one.

SPEAKER_04 12:41

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 12:42

That's fantastic. We talk about bread and butter years, we do, but now we've got like this is like light years.

SPEAKER_04 12:51

That is a lot of community volunteering time. And doesn't it show just time and again we couldn't do it without them?

SPEAKER_02 12:58

Oh, absolutely not. No, volunteers are our hubs, they are the community. They're they are bread and butter, aren't they?

SPEAKER_03 13:04

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 13:05

It's brilliant. Having all the characters, I love meeting the volunteers. All got the different personalities, and they're all characters, and they all own it, and it's fab.

SPEAKER_04 13:14

Ulti Hub's got quite a mix, hasn't it? So we we've done a few from Ulti Hub and you do tend to find a mixture of people that are volunteers, they're kind of faith-based, or because like Tom, they just want to keep going and they they're community focused. Or then you do actually get the members that are com uh volunteers as well. There's a really eclectic mix at the Alti Hub.

Measuring Impact Beyond Food

SPEAKER_02 13:38

Yeah. I think that's representative of many of our hubs. So not everybody that wants to feel an inclusive vibe has to go to Alti. There's lots of places for people to go.

SPEAKER_04 13:48

Um and oh, was I showing too much favouritism there?

SPEAKER_02 13:51

I don't know. I don't know, but Alti's fantastic, but so are the other 154 communities that we work with.

SPEAKER_04 13:58

Nice plug.

SPEAKER_02 13:59

Yeah, I think it's um really important that anybody that wants to volunteer recognises that you know, literally you can just go along and go, Oi, can I how you know can I help? How do I help? What can I do? And anybody's welcome and anybody can fit in, and there's jobs for everybody. So there's people that are in wheelchairs that open plastic bags for the rest of the team. There's people that are doing heavy lifting, there's people that are breaking down cardboard, there's all different kinds of jobs that everyone can do. And what amazes me is every community has a different type of job to suit the skills and the needs of the people that are working there. And obviously, Tom, as chief bingo caller, you know, has got a unique, a unique role there.

SPEAKER_04 14:47

He does, he does.

SPEAKER_02 14:48

Not every hub has a bingo caller, nope, not at all.

SPEAKER_04 14:51

And like we always say, we we like the hubs to do it their way, they should own it. We we just give some core guidelines of how it should, but they make it their own. And clearly bingo calling's the way for Tom and Alti Hub.

SPEAKER_02 15:05

Yeah, love it.

SPEAKER_04 15:06

Love it. Speaking of loving, rugby a football.

SPEAKER_02 15:10

It's a tough one, that I mean, neither, really.

SPEAKER_03 15:15

Do you know I hate to say it we're as bad as each other, I was gonna say the same.

SPEAKER_02 15:20

Neither really. I mean, I can hold my own with a football chat. I was brought up as a football daughter, I can do this, and then I've been a rugby mum, so I've had it both ways. Yeah, yeah. So I can kind of do the basic chat and look interested for maybe five minutes, and then that's my limit.

SPEAKER_04 15:42

Wow, particularly with football, uh, whenever anybody asks, because being Manchester based, I I just say uh because of what we do, I'm an agnostic and don't comment on football.

SPEAKER_02 15:53

Yeah. Yeah, it can be uh divisive, can't it? Depending on who you're chatting to.

SPEAKER_04 15:58

For sure. Around here, for sure.

SPEAKER_02 16:00

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 16:01

So then I guess the uh the million dollar question that I asked Tom at the end as well about what would happen if we stop. It was timely because I uh uh we'd had a conversation just before then, Vic, about it, because one of the funders was discussing that about and not just to pull pull the rug, but actually it's a good academic challenge, isn't it, to actually look at it and say, well, would life change for people if we did stop what we're doing?

SPEAKER_02 16:28

Yeah, I mean, just to be really clear, there are no plans to stop what we're doing. Like you say, it's a it's a question to help almost frame how useful our support is, I guess.

SPEAKER_04 16:40

Yeah, exactly. It's that. It's just to try and understand what we can try to measure as impact.

SPEAKER_02 16:47

Yeah, and I think do you know what? I think we can ask a lot of people, and our answer would be different because food's a hook, right? It's it's like the thing that everybody comes for, everybody needs to eat. People want a canny shop, but then some people would say, Well, I'd miss my friends, some people would say, Well, I'd miss doing my volunteering.

SPEAKER_00 17:06

Yeah.

How To Connect And Get Involved

SPEAKER_02 17:06

Some people would be like, Well, you know, I'd wouldn't eat as much fruit and veg. Some people would say I'd have less Scotch eggs in my life. We can debate whether that would be a positive or not.

SPEAKER_04 17:18

Or we get people like, I don't know, talking therapies or pay plan or Anglian Water, etc. etc., that would say, Well, actually, you've just made my work, my job, a lot harder because I can't reach the people that you do.

SPEAKER_02 17:31

Yeah. And when you package all of that up, it's kind of like quite a nuanced answer, isn't it? It's not just a straightforward thing.

SPEAKER_04 17:38

No. But we never said bread and butter was straightforward, right?

SPEAKER_02 17:41

Although it implies it from the name mark. One of my favourite quotes, actually, was you call yourselves bread and butter. I get all the bread. I hardly ever see any butter.

SPEAKER_04 17:54

That's brilliant. Right, we'll have to do something about that. Get get Justin onto butter.

SPEAKER_02 17:59

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

SPEAKER_04 18:21

And if you have any feedback or thoughts on the podcast, or you'd like to come and have an attack, you can be a guest. Just drop us a line at podcast at breadandbutterthing.org.

SPEAKER_02 18:30

And lastly, we're always open to new members at all of our hubs. If you or someone you know would benefit from our affordable food scheme, you can find your nearest hub on the Become a Member pages of the website.

SPEAKER_04 18:40

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