Ending Food Poverty While Stopping Food Waste - Free My Meal Founder Hayley Steere | PEP Talk S2 E8

Key Takeaways

this week on pep talk wouldn't it be wonderful to kind of marry up food poverty and potential food waste like marry those up and see if there's a way that we can make that work it was all a bit of a blur because it was like surfing a wave that was getting bigger and bigger and bigger and i've got no idea how to surf you look at the pressure that middle-aged men are under at the moment and you see some of the stats with regards to mental health and things i just don't want anyone to ever feel that there's any stigma attached to asking for help don't think that the situation that you're in at the moment is your situation forever know that there is a way so i do genuinely believe that but i think you saying that if people are able listening now to say that then they're doing what they're supposed to be doing our mission is to help 10 million people start and grow a business for free we want nothing from you in pep talk we interview industry leading experts from around the world who share actionable know-how and life lessons that's why we're excited to partner with godaddy to power up pep talk i've been using godaddy for years and would promote them on this podcast even if they didn't sponsor us you can use their free website builder and start your online business at no cost and even get help these days with naming your business for 40 off go daddy tools click the link in the podcast notes below and use the code gdx pep talk [Music] hey welcome to the podcast thank you so much for joining us today love to start off by me perhaps telling the audience a little bit about yourself so my name is haley steer and i'm a mum of two and i started my meal at the beginning of lockdown august 2020 and we are currently a non-profit charitable organization and we help those in need find a meal well today um we're going to be talking about i guess work-life balance partly and how people manage to people like yourselves managed to do this passion and purposeful projects with no money and managed to build up something with huge impact as you have done there'll be a lot of people listening that want to do the same so we want to learn from you today i think we'll start off by maybe telling us a little bit about how free meal began how did it start the um the very first thought was basically the beginning of lockdown we would have um chats me my family and we'd be on uh you know the video call and everyone would kind of call in at six o'clock and i'd always be cooking and there i was one night i'd put the phone up and i was kicking away i was cooking chili and there's an ongoing kind of long-running joke in my family that i make too much chili but it stems back from when i was a single parent 14 years ago and it was cheap and it was nutritious and my kid basically ate it he's 18 now but he basically ate it like three or four times a week anyway so i'm cooking this chili up and i'm having the the usual six o'clock check-in chat with my family making sure my brothers and their wives all good all the nieces nephews my mum and that my stepdad and you know we're just we're just talking everywhere i'm staring the pot and my little niece and i are like having a chat and i just suddenly thought hang on a sec what on earth would i have done in this situation if i was still a single parent how on earth would i be coping now if i was in that situation well hang on a minute there's loads of people in that situation now and i'm looking at the chilean i'm thinking it wouldn't be amazing if anyone could get chilly so i'm talking to my little niece about it and she's laughing at me and i was like yeah let's do this let's call it chilly spot you can just look at a map and it can be a chilly spot and you can get chilly because it's so cheap everyone can make chili everyone's laughing at me and my niece says auntie hayley hold up there's a problem with that like not everyone likes chili who doesn't like chili you're right come on but she said she said that and i thought she's right she's onto something there not everyone does but actually wouldn't it be wonderful if you know your surplus meals or the meals that you make say you've got some surplus wouldn't it be wonderful if you could just go well there is a portion of chili there is a portion of sanya there is a pot like a spare roast dinner give it to someone in need wouldn't it be wonderful to kind of marry up potential food poverty and potential food waste like marry those up and see if there's a way that we can make that work and that night i started through my meal that was it it started and i think that night i i had about in my mind i thought would help maybe 50 people in my media area and i think within two days i think there was about i think it's about 500. i i it was all a bit of a blur because it was like surfing a tide that was surfing a wave that was getting bigger and bigger and bigger and i've got no idea how to surf it was it was that feeling and it just grew and grew and grew and grew and now we're at you know i think 28 000 members across all of our 70 geographically arranged groups but that's just the people in the facebook groups we have hundreds of people signing up by the website and that grows daily on on the way here you know i can see people joining um so it's just gone from a little chat with my niece about chile auntie haley makes so much chili all the time um to what it is now which i think is just mind-blowing so how does it work exactly people who are listening for example that want to be a part of this movement what what's the structure well let's say you are a cook we we refer to people as cooks and recipients okay you let's say you're a cook you've just made loads of let's use chili and you realize i've made far too much here i can i'm gonna i feel like you know i'm gonna give this surplus to someone that needs it you can go to our facebook group our main facebook group or one of as i say um one of the geographically arranged ones which you can find on our website there's a meal map on there and you can join up and you can post that meal on there you put the first part of your postcode on there never your full address never your full postcode and then a recipient will see that and they'll dm you or some recipients will comment on the post in the same way that um you might see something that's for sale on facebook for example you'll comment and then you'll get in touch to arrange that delivery or collection the groups are private everybody on those groups has to agree to a specific set of rules we are so incredibly strict i feel like safeguarding is super important so everybody is you know entitled to their privacy on those groups um but the other side of the token is if you're a recipient let's say and you know there is so much talk right now about eating or heating there is so much food poverty going on at the moment and it's it's absolutely rife i think and it's actually happening to people that you might not necessarily think that it would be happening to let's say you're a recipient you can go on that group you can use the spyglass tool to to um search for your area and you can see those people that have offered food you can get in touch with those or you can use the meal map see where food's been offered or you can message us directly or both cooks and recipients can do all of that at our website as well so i hope that explains it i know that it's a bit of a it sounds like a bit of a clunky process but because we have to use free technology or make use of the cheapest technology that's what we've this is the way that we've had to do it so i think it's a great lesson actually for people listening because sometimes we think oh i've got an idea i've got to build an app oh yeah sometimes you know when you're building something let's say that's free to people yeah you're trying to actually literally create something that doesn't have cost for people you've got to think of inventive ways to build things that don't cost a hundred thousand pounds plus to build an app and so by leveraging existing tools out there like groups that's pretty smart i mean why reinvent the wheel exactly and if they provide value to uh the people that you're trying to serve then and that's fine isn't it so i think people listening get it and i think people listening have also got a lesson right there you know you can just sometimes start by building a group and go from there right i'm sure one day there'll be an app but um step by step step by step so so you have this idea i love the story um with the whole chili concept but then you know a lot of people listening might be saying right it's great you do the groups i can see you know how that works but how are you funding this how are you able to actually do all of this and survive great question um i have a very understanding husband and an incredibly supportive family i have four girls that work alongside me every day who have full-time jobs who are just incredible they do so much it sometimes feels like i throw the mud at the wall and they make it stick um but i also do lots of other jobs as well i work as a teaching assistant a music teacher um i dj i have lots of income streams that i have to carry on with and sometimes it does feel like i'm spinning a lot of plates but i know full well that i can't stop doing that i know that i have to contribute to our household bills you know i can't just expect my husband to just take it all on the chin and whilst he's incredibly supportive you know we have to put food on the table we have to pay our bills energy bills are going to soar at the end of the year you know it's going to go crazy so i'm incredibly conscious that i need to continue with that as well however i'd say that this takes up the majority of my time um i'll be sat on my lunch break at school and i'll be constantly doing free my meal stuff i call it free my mealing um and the girls as i say they all work around their different jobs one of them's a carer so she does like night shift so she'll sometimes do a bulk of admin during the day for free my meal we're just incredibly lucky that these people um vicky cath and mars have basically taken it taken it on as a second job because they just believe in the project listening and again i just think my listeners will feel the same it's like how do you find the time to be a mother of two i mean one one of your children is 18 the other is four i believe so you know how do you balance balance all of that out i mean it's it we're trying i'm trying to understand something i'm sure the audiences too what is there i mean it sounds like you for example ironically you're not eating lunch you know in an ironic twist um that that's one way to save time you work through your lunch time yeah i am i definitely am struggling with spinning the plates but i i won't stop and i'm very stubborn and i will i will um i won't ever give up i think being a single parent to my kid when you know he was really little i think you when you've gone through that experience and you realize you just have to carry on it doesn't matter how many times you get knocked down doesn't matter how many times you're told no you know i i am i'm incredibly um i suppose pig-headed really i just won't stop and and i know that that doesn't work for everybody and there's no doubt you know i'm not i'm not sugarcoating it i'm not saying it oh look you know just work really hard and it'll be great for you and there are times when i'm sat in my bed at night still doing free my meal stuff on my phone and my husband will just take my hand and go it's time to sleep now haley you just have to sleep you just have to switch off um but i'm i i do switch off obviously when i'm asleep but my first thought is right free my meal let's check all the groups in the morning before i go to work let's make sure that i've done everything i need to do answered all the emails i've needed to answer um the only real struggle was when either i get sick or a member of my family gets sick that i need to take care of that is when everything has to stop you know that's the only thing that kind of stops me in my tracks but apart from that you know i'll be cooking and and looking at free my meal stuff i'll be i don't really watch much tv um [Music] yeah i just kind of shoehorn it in but i'm not making it sound like it's easy because i have genuinely struggled with it i just want to take a moment to thank taylor brands for sponsoring this podcast have you ever been told you can easily start a business that will make money while you sleep only to realize it takes a ton of work to get a business started tailor brands make starting a business easy with its ai powered platform you can get your business a logo social media designs printed merchandise and so much more all in just a few clicks that's why i love taylor brands whatever your idea is you can make it look legit in a day and actually start selling through the taylor brands platform for 40 off your first order check out the links in the podcast notes below and use the code pep now let's get back to the podcast this is the thing that strikes me listening to you and i i don't know people listening now if they're on spotify or apple or they're actually watching you on youtube you have the most amount of energy anyone i ever met but though i'm saying there what i think is interesting about this is that people listening might be saying wow that you know that takes a lot of energy to do all that but what i'm noticing is that probably feeds you energy doing all that you're doing helping those those 70 000 people doing doing what you're doing almost like gives you the energy you need to push through because when people are listening you must be like wow how are you being a mother a partner working all those different jobs running this organization and and people aren't looking at youtube they won't say you've got a lot of energy which sounds like you shouldn't but i feel like the passion and the purpose of what you're doing yeah i think you're right and i think when you get that um i've never really thought about that actually but it's it's interesting to consider when you realize you've made one iota difference in in a strange's world your life's it feels complete and to be able to do that over and over and over again constantly maybe you're right maybe that's like um that is what is making me so motivated i think you're right i've never considered that before before like i said it was just being on a surfboard just learning to surf as i'm surfing and the tides the waves getting bigger and i'm thinking i've just got to stand up and carry on but actually you're right it's the actual project is fueling me somehow to continue growing it the other thing is you're on that wave already so if you don't learn to surf if you don't hold that line then you crash and burn so you're holding the line i mean what you learned to surf on because you've got no choice yeah absolutely i and again i've got to keep relating it back to my experience as a single parent it would have been very easy to have become a victim and to say you know the world's against me this is not fair i haven't got enough money i can't pay my bills i mean i was three and a half three and a half months behind with my rent i had bailiffs at my door i remember talking to a bailiff through my window and just going i can't let you in you know i can't i've seen on the tv if i let you in you can come and take my stuff and i haven't i didn't even have a tv you know and i remember those days and i just think you know you can get through that and get up every day for your kid and carry on then who am i not to be able to carry on for you guys who need this service you know so you're right i've never really considered that but i think it definitely stems from having that experience for sure yeah definitely yeah the other thing it gives you is um you know the pain of going through that yourself you can relate to the people you're trying to help for sure there's the relatability there's a lot of talk about that in the news at the moment i know and then i feel like who if this is my personal opinion but how can you know or have empathy with someone's situation unless you have lived it and i i read um lots of things about people's polites and their you know different different passions and projects that they've put in place but unless i've been in that situation how how can i understand that you're choosing between heating your home feeding your kid and feeding you paying your rent paying the bills that the bailiffs are knocking on the door for if i've not had those experiences myself you can't imagine having to make those choices if you've never been and it's grim but it's amazing that there's someone like yourself trying to solve at least one part of that which actually is the most important well you're not gonna hopefully not have any food to eat i wanted to just i know this is quite personal but i wanted to understand a little bit about you know the home life dynamics you know you've got a four-year-old i've got a four-year-old so i know how demanding of four years oh they do frankly sometimes quite manipulative too and they make us feel guilty for working but um do you think that they're seeing you work you know your 18 year old for example it must also educate them in a way what's important in life i mean do you feel that do they make you feel guilty because you're not there how does it play no not at all like i've worked since i was 13 i had a paper around at 13 and i've never ever been unemployed i've continually worked whether i'm self-employed whether i was you know check out iceland or whether i was you know running my own business i have never i've always worked and i think my son has grown up watching me watching me do that and really knowing that there's no other choice you know i'm proud to work i i will never rest on my um what's the word forget that is that rest in your laws and i think that that's definitely definitely helped him although i don't want to take credit for his amazing achievements but i think what his life could have been and i think the paths he could have chosen you know he's 18 they're ex they're exposed to an awful lot of different paths different lifestyles um and you know i'm not a particularly strict parent you'll laugh at that but i can see him commenting down below yeah i like that whatever whatever um but i think that he's you know i'm so proud he's just got some offers to university he's doing his a levels he's he's achieved so much in his life and i just couldn't be more proud and i and i would love to think and you know his dad where credit is due his dad works really hard and i think that he's probably seen that there's there's no other option the world's not going to give you a living you know you've got to go make that yourself nobody is going to pluck you from obscurity and go oh here you go he's a million pounds you go and live your lovely life it's not gonna happen so i i would like to think that there's a little bit of influence there and i would argue by the way it's not even good if that happened yeah given been given money that's lottery winning silver spoons i'm sure this would be a lottery winner listening right now that's quite happy thank you on my cruise but yeah funny i was talking to my mum about that the other day actually like what would we do and i was like i didn't would you still be happy i don't know i mean yeah it would be great to have the mortgage paid but actually i wouldn't stop doing what i'm doing well that also is a very good lesson for the listeners that you know if someone came along and gave you a million pounds a day would you still do what you're doing yeah i think categorically but i think you saying that if people are able listening now to say that then they're doing what they're supposed to be doing because it wouldn't change everything about your day and everything about your life you probably can change it anyway you probably should so you're living proof of that you've kind of you've taken an idea you've made it happen and now you feel this purpose and of course a million pounds into the business i'm sure you know wouldn't it wouldn't hurt but at the end of the day you wouldn't do something different i think that's a really important lesson and yeah in the conclusion i wanted to just see if you agree with this because we're talking about work-life balance i want people to pick up on this it's like yeah there is no uh separation between work and life if you're doing what you love i think you're right there and um you know my my my daughter sees this logo and she knows exactly what it is oh you're helping people with the food mummy you're like you're four years old you're grasping that it's just wonderful and i love that she gets that she i mean all right at four years old she can't help even though she thinks she can cook and she thinks she can do everything but i'm really pleased with the the values that she's going to grow up with hopefully seeing this grow she'll know that actually it's important to do what you can to help it doesn't matter if you start an initiative or if you offer some food or it doesn't matter how small or how large it is if there's something that you can do to help today just do it even if it's just being kind to the person sat on the checkout you know just just do what you can do that's incredibly important that my kids know that lesson i hope they do the other thing i take from what you're saying and there's someone with a four-year-old myself is that a lot of people might be listening thinking well i've got kids i can't go do something i love i've got yeah i've got to feed them and that makes you know that makes sense but i would argue that there is a counterbalance that children can actually pick up on whether or not their parents are happy and yeah maybe if they have one less toy um they're actually happy if their parents are happy so and i and again i feel like i'm getting that energy from you um maybe i should have your kids on an interview and check this out my feeling is that they they are happy that their mum's happy yeah considering you're doing something purposeful which also teaches them an important lesson it's not just about take it's about give like i think so so i think that um yeah i think that's really interesting and so yeah i don't know what your feelings are i'd like to think that that's the case for sure i'd yeah i mean feel free my my son would love to be interviewed by you i'm sure comment below let us know what you think but i think sometimes people do use their kids as excuses for not doing things i agree there's i think you know what though i think when my mindset when i was i you know going back to when i was a single parent would be i think that it would have been so easy it would have been so easy to have fallen into a very safe um everybody can look after me environment and i never was like that and i've spoken about this before i didn't use food banks i didn't ask for help and i and i should have done but it would have been easy to have just stayed where i was you know um i don't mean geographically i mean mindset wise but i always knew and i think that probably comes from my upbringing actually thinking about it now my mum's always worked my mum worked incredibly hard she's never been out of work i've had that role model in my life and i think that that definitely helped me realize the same things i'm helping i'm hoping that my children have realized that it's important you contribute you you become a contributing member of society you do what you can do whether as i say it is giving some food on an initiative like free my meal or whether it's just being kind or whether it's just doing really well at your job or you know i do understand you know mental health plays a massive part in that if you feel as a single parent or you know someone that's in need i get that sometimes it's not as easy to go well actually what i want to do is um start a business um or whatever it is i can't think of anything off the top of my head but whatever it is i get that but i think that you know if especially maybe even if you're listening to this podcast know that there is a way know that your passions don't just stop because you're in that situation financially or mentally your passions are like they're forever they're not gonna it's like water it always finds a way through no matter how if you try and stop it's still there you know so i do genuinely believe that oh it sounds really cheesy to say but if that's what you're thinking about every day then there will be some way to achieve it and i i don't take it lightly i'm not saying it's going to be an easy path but don't think that the situation that you're in at the moment is your situation forever because if you met me when i was a single parent you'd have taken one look or spoken smith and probably you know i'm a very different person but i always had the sort of passion and to succeed and to carry on and i knew my life eventually would be different how i don't know so many important points you're making there but i think passion can almost give you the energy to go and be happy and that's a very broad term be happy isn't it somehow if you have that northern star that is bigger than yourself you don't wallow in your own yeah yeah absolutely and you almost see that actually you've got it good if you're actually eating today anyone listening you're actually able to eat today you're pretty lucky yeah you are because there are a lot of people that can't right so so i think that's remembering that and being being grateful for that but having that purpose and passion i think so right and i and i can relate to it so i mean i also want to just say i think you said something just a moment ago that really resonates too which is you didn't want to ask you didn't you didn't go to the food bank i actually think the strongest people ask for help i actually think i've been in this illustration where i'm weak by not asking i'm embarrassed to shameful and and so actually there's something really amazing in people that are able to put up their hand and say actually i wouldn't mind that food today if that's okay you know i wouldn't believe the the people that are contacting us it's um not necessarily uh the people you might assume it is people in fact on the way here i was talking to a friend and we're getting a lot of middle-aged dads contacting us and just saying look i've got to hold it together um i'm the main provider you know i've got i'm i've got a house i've got a job i've got a car but we're cash poor at the moment and i just need to put some food on the table this week and that is from from all the different demographics of people that i would have assumed would need free my meal that probably would have been the last sort of demographic demographic person that i would have thought would needed it however when you look at the pressure that middle-aged men are under at the moment and you see some of the stats with regards to mental health and things i totally understand it if you need that help there's no judgment here i understand it i get it and i just don't want anyone to ever feel that there's any stigma attached to asking for help we had a mother who was feeding her kids um bread and and you know bread is still food it's it's something on the table but she said they've eaten bread for three days can i use your service i'm like of course you can use the service there's people you know that are willing to help you in your area she's like yeah but i i drive like a nice car and i don't want anyone thinking that i'm not hanging a second you can't just sell your car like that it doesn't work like that like it's okay use the service get your kids fed tonight get a decent meal to them tonight and you know because your box tips you're touching another point here which sometimes people get into debt and get into structures absolutely they might on the surface look like they've got money but they can't feed themselves and i and i blame the debt system in the credit system and so there's all sorts of things like that that's another podcast i'm with you on that yeah but haley um thank you for doing what you're doing thank you for coming and sharing your your story and your knowledge and i feel motivated i'm grateful and i'm sure my audience will too thank you so much [Music] thanks for listening to pep talk we hope you enjoyed it don't forget to follow the purposeful project on all our social media channels where we're giving away even more free business secrets and entrepreneurial value again we'd like to thank our sponsor godaddy for powering this podcast from naming a business to buying a domain name to building your website for free godaddy has you covered for 40 off go daddy tools click the link in the podcast note below and use the code gdx pep talk see you next time entrepreneurs and remember you're not alone