One slip on black ice can flip your whole life, and that is exactly what Vicky’s story shows. We sit down at Broomwood Community Centre in Altrincham to talk about hearing loss, the strange shock of getting hearing aids, and how quickly “normal life” can become appointments, recovery, and making tough choices just to keep the bills paid.

Vicky shares what it feels like to go from a decent wage in hospital work to relying on benefits after breaking her back, while her partner is also unable to work due to long term illness. We unpack the cost of living crisis as it is actually lived. The stress that builds slowly, the sacrifices you never expected to make, and the frustration of feeling unheard by systems that set the rules.

That leads us into housing problems, repairs that drag on for years, and why confidence and know how can decide whether you get help or get pushed to the bottom of the pile.

We also get practical and political. We explain the poverty premium, the extra costs that hit hardest when money is already tight, from insurance and credit to travel and everyday contracts. Then we explore what fairer policy could look like, including default social tariffs and a wild thought experiment about MPs rotating more like jury service. Alongside all that, we come back to what keeps communities going. Surplus food turned into affordable meals, neighbours having a natter, and a place where you can belong.

A steel beam, one split-second accident, and four and a half years spent shut away from the world. That’s where Kieran’s story could have ended, but it didn’t. We sit down with Kieran from Broomwood, a fitness trainer and wellbeing coordinator, to talk about what recovery actually looks like when you are living with PTSD, anxiety, and depression, and how volunteering can turn into a lifeline rather than “just helping out”.

We talk honestly about growing up on a council estate, being on free school meals, feeling out of place, and learning to back yourself even when you keep to yourself. Kieran shares how he rebuilt his routine from the ground up: running again, doing small exercises at home, and then showing up to volunteer at the hub until it became community, confidence, and eventually employment and new qualifications. It’s a reminder that mental health support is not always a single service, sometimes it is belonging, purpose, and someone recognising your effort.

Food runs through everything we do, so we also get practical about healthy eating on a budget. We explore why high fat, salt, sugar food is so easy to fall back on, how an affordable surplus food scheme can make fruit and veg more reachable, and why the “lucky dip” of a food bag can nudge creativity in the kitchen. We share early survey insights and the thinking behind the Nourish project with Sheffield University, plus a sharp look at how HFSS advertising follows us around in ways we barely notice until we do.

Ten years can disappear in a blur, unless you stop and look at what it actually took to keep the doors open. We’re marking a decade of The Bread And Butter Thing with a proper origin story, the uncomfortable money truths, and the moments that turned a local experiment into a national affordable food network. Jane, our co-founder and the numbers brain behind the operation, joins us to talk about the early gamble: cutting costs, losing a salary, and giving the idea just long enough to prove it could stand on its own feet.

We get into the mechanics of a social food redistribution model that protects dignity. Think fresh fruit and veg, a family-sized shop, and a small weekly payment that helps create an independent income stream. We unpack why a hybrid approach matters, with roughly half the income coming from bag sales and half from grant funders, and why some institutions still struggle to understand a charity that behaves like a business. We also talk honestly about holding prices at £8.50 during the cost of living crisis, even when the break-even price would be far higher.

Then we zoom out to the bigger UK food insecurity picture: why good calories often cost more than bad calories, why food budgets get cut first, and what policy could do differently. From business rates that make fresh food easier to sell than vapes, to the “tell me once” idea for accessing support, we explore how prevention beats crisis response and why joining up services could reduce stress, duplication and unclaimed entitlements.