30 May 2023 – Carly Burd radio interview Hi and welcome to the complaining cow consumer show on East London radio with me Helen Dewdney the complaining cow and today I have Carly Burd with me who helps feed thousands of people across Harlow and has quite a story to tell so Carly welcome and thank you for joining me Hi yeah, I'm so happy I'm on here I'll wait to get stuck in and for people to hear a whole story tell me what is it that you do Well basically last year I went without heating so this year it would have been I went without food and that obviously can't happen and I'm in a position that I can't change because I have multiple sclerosis and lupus, so I had no option. There's no extra money there's no okay I'll use my savings when you're on when you're on this level of money every single penny counts, and I panicked, and I didn't just panic for me I panicked for everyone in my actual area. I just knew that it would hit people hard so I don't know what come over me I have really no idea I call it the Noah's Ark phase you just all of a sudden I just woke up and I just wanted to feed everyone so I got my kids together I said come on let's rip the garden up so we started and we made plots all the way over the garden and we planted as much as we could to try and also cover different ethnic groups as well because we didn't want to single anyone out so trying to grow new plants okra like oh don't use that but it was fun to do you know and um we grew so much and it was brilliant we made them into parcels and I started building a list of people that needed help and it started to grow bigger and bigger like I thought it would So I just kept delivering kept delivering and then I thought right hang on the end of the season's coming I can't turn around to people and say I'm sorry I've got nothing now I need to do something, so I started contacting shops and everything and I asked for help I had someone that got me emergency supply boxes that I could put out, I asked for donations, I could ask people do a cupboard rummage, anything you don't use pass my way Shops throw so much food and why throw it when people are hungry and there's not enough money it's ridiculous it makes no sense, and it makes me so angry Like some of my customers one of my ladies she's waiting for a double lung transplant she can't go to the food bank because if she picks up a bug how's she gonna fight that it can't happen, so she's left she's got nothing so how she's supposed to feed herself I've been in a wheelchair for two years with my Ms so I know what it's like when you can't get out and do what you need to do I just thought right that's it let's do as much as we can I make these parcels well the parcels grew and grew I have a money donation box at Harlow train station so as the people going to London we try and nick all their cash off I put it in the box after they've grabbed a coffee but that money then I'd pick up and I go to take to a supermarket I transfer it into food I bring it home I pack it in bags and off it goes And just on food Parcels I fed 1 800 I think I'm up to 49 at the moment. I've got another 9 to 10 families to feed tomorrow but in each family you can imagine there's between one and nine people in a household so if I'm going shopping for a family and they've got nine people can you imagine how much shopping I actually have to get for like nine families But then I thought hang on a minute we need to sort this situation of landfill why are we throwing food away it's disgusting and so I begged and begged all different shops I've got shop across my road Nisa local I've got to say them they're fantastic I ask for any kind of leftover items You know give me a day at least just so that I've got one day on an item so I can get it out to someone I don't care if it's 10 o'clock at night I've got till midnight to get that food to someone and so I do that and as soon as I've got the food I put a table outside my front and I fill it with all the food I've collected from landfill and offer it out for free and within an hour the whole lot's gone And then something sort of pretty horrible happened this year didn't it Well yeah because I really wanted an allotment, but I couldn't get one and they're about an eight year waiting list if not longer so one of the councillors Nicola Purse approached me and said that maybe I'll be able to get an allotment if I set it up as a pilot scheme so I thought okay let’s look into that so basically it's a massive set of allotments and it hasn't been touched in eight years so it was 8 foot high with brambles front to back and there's just me who's never done anything like this in her live you know never grown a carrot before I've done any of this said all right I'll take it on And um what I've decided to do I worked so hard I really did and then I started to get volunteers and oh they're amazing they put their time in if you've got an hour free come and join us And it's to build that sense of community back up that we lost through covid mostly and then what I'm going to do with the allotments is I'm gonna give out 50% of them to the people that have been on the waiting list for over eight years waiting for one and then the other half I get to grow as much food as I can on it and do what I want so then I'd cleared oh I'd worked so hard the kids had dug and dug that's what we're so soul destroying. I had a lad down Zach hi Zach if you're listening bless him, he's autistic and it was brilliant for him because he could work with us but away from us slightly so it wasn't too overpowering That way I'm trying to bring everyone in you know people that have got anxiety depression and just spend a little bit of time with me, and we'll work together and then I can build that up to make a platform And we started planting the potatoes and onions and I thought brilliant we're at that stage now I was so excited I planted the potatoes with Plan B Management Solutions they came down for a day and we we dug and dug and got them all in but then the children came down a day two days later and I spent uh two and a half hours with them one's five and one seven um so Rory hiya and oh my goodness I forgot your sister's name but I love her loads MS moment but they came down and and I had a five-year-old for an hour and a half solid planting onion I'm explaining to him and he's asking me what's this going to do what am I actually doing and I explained to him and said to him you know what your plans here is going to go to a family and they can make that into food and he was so proud and he's only five and uh he spent that whole time you know really putting it into it to give back to someone So, when I came down a day two days later and I walked in I was absolutely soul destroyed I was just I can't even put words to it I just literally felt like someone had just kicked me in the face For people are not who who haven't sort of heard the story what was it that you faced? I walked in and as I got nearer to the actual place where we were planting I could taste salt straight away I could taste it in the air and I I looked over and at first I thought I'm trying to work things out like what's going on because I could see this white stuff but I'm at a distance so first of all I thought it was maybe a fox that attack something and then I'm trying to work it out in my head as I'm getting closer and as soon as I've seen its granules obviously with me tasting it I've just went that salt and I've just collapsed I was just like why why would anyone do that isn't it like even now like it brings me to tears It's only because the kids and you know it was they spent so much time and I think of Zach with his issues bless him and you know for him to spend the time doing it it was just soul destroying and then that 300 onions that would have fed 300 families in a parcel and all the potatoes that would have gone too and the whole lot just ruined I can't then trust it I can't then say they might grow they might not so I know some vegetables grow in salt but I'm not 100 I don't know what's going on and what if I want to replant there because you can't you can't plant potatoes season after season you've got to move your space so then what can I use that I was just gutted absolutely gutted and I got everyone to run around I said don't touch anything look for a bag look for everything and I found a footprint on the actual my front barrier where they jumped over but later on the police said it was actually a handprint but oh it was awful absolutely Were the police able to find out anything? They contacted me yesterday and they said you know I understood you know that they're not going to get anyone unless someone had a video doorbell something like that which they checked, and I'd already checked But it you know it's oh gosh disgusting literally Me and Rory were laughing because um we were talking about the worms, we could say look how fat they are they're like snakes and we was having the right chuckle and he was picking them up and stuff and they're not there anymore you know the whole lot got shrivelled up and destroyed It literally broke me really did break me and then all of a sudden, I um thought to myself do I post this because I post everything about what we've been doing from the start You know from the very first putting the vegetables in my garden all the way through the volunteers helping out and look how far we've gone the first potato going in the ground you know and I thought I've got to post it because everybody that's come down needs to see how or someone needs to see I don't know what to see how soul destroying it is and how someone could do that And I get bad comments of course I get bad comments you know it goes over my head to be honest with you I haven't got time for it but um I thought to myself I don't care if I get bad comments for writing on there, I need to show people because because it's awful I thought to myself do you know what I've just got to post it because it's um part of everything we've been doing and I was absolutely gutted and I thought you know what bad comments or not suck it up and put it on with the rest of your stuff so I'll put it up and to be honest with you I was at the point I just wanted to give up I just didn't want to do it I didn't want to I felt like someone hated me so much to do something like that and then you think what I have done to someone I only try to help people and I think why would someone do that not just to me but everyone that needs it and I don't think it's anyone in my community because I feed most of them Yeah, it's just it is absolutely incredible isn't it I mean I would have thought they could have caught something I would have thought somebody would have dobbed somebody in or they would have been able to find out somebody who bought that amount of salt in one go That's why I don't think it's a person it's something that I don't know about I don't know trust me I'm still going around it and I will find out one one day I will find out that is my aim I literally won't stop until I find out but I don't think it's a person I don't think it's anyone in my community I think it's more than that and uh it is just disgusting I mean if it's because of money or I've destroyed anyone's idea that they wanted to do because these allotments haven't been touched in 10 years eight years so if it had gone on longer they could have taken it to court and then argued it and said right we can use it for this we can use it for that Because I've taken it over as a pilot scheme and I put hours hours and hours and hours months of work into this it was like they are you stuffed us up, so I'll stuff you that's actually what it felt like And that Tik Tok video that you did showing people what had happened what happened with that and how many views did it get and Um it was such a weird experience because I was so broken and I posted it and I went to bed and I woke up the next morning and I went down the allotment thinking what am I gonna do and um I put my music on and all I could hear my phone kept interrupting and I it was annoying me because I wanted to listen to my music um so I carried on and then I went home and my son walked down the stairs my eldest son he’s 22. he walked down the stairs and said mum have you hit every platform Well, I'm an outside girl I I don't deal with what I do now because I've had to learn but yeah, I don't deal with zoom meetings and all of this and you know all of it you know I didn't understand any of it and I said what do you mean and he went look and looked on there and I was like oh my God it was such a weird experience because I was so broken but at the same time I felt like everyone was holding me up and I was at the point where I didn't want to do it anymore because I obviously what had happened but with the support of everyone behind me actually turned me around and made me keep fighting and uh I thought no you know the comments that were coming in were unbelievable they meant the most to me it was all the wording you know the fact that someone sat there and actually put their time in to write things that's what meant the most to me I was overwhelmed absolutely I just didn't know what was going on I mean I'm on low income so when you get money like that coming along when I look at it it looks like 250 quid I can't get my head around the amount that's actually in there it's like it's nothing that I deal with so it's been a big pressure to make sure that I've got it in the right place It's away from me it's going into a cic I'm trying to wait for my driving license so I can get everything set up because I'm on like a three-year thing because I've got MS so they have to check I'm okay to drive and so as soon as that comes back I can set that up get the money all in there and it's done I could take a big sigh of relief How many views did the did the tick tock get in the end Five million wow wow five million I had messages from all over you know countries Germany France New Zealand Australia America it's just everywhere and I it was just incredible no other words for it it's just absolutely imagine if it was you I don't know it's just it's just it's just mad isn't it it obviously then went viral, and it got picked up in the media didn't it where was you where was your first sort of media appearance As soon as it went on Tick Tock that night in the morning I woke up and obviously went down there and come back home all of a sudden, my phone just went loopy literally every one of my Tick Tock my Facebook was absolutely crammed my messages my LinkedIn that was all crammed and then my phone would not stop ring in for two days, so I thought I just answered it and then everyone was talking to me and I was just telling them what happened you know they're asking me I'm just explaining and I didn't realize how actually many I'd done in two days Where had you done Oh my goodness radio stations podcasts live Sky News Good Morning Britain the one show I think but I have to double check on that you did do the one show yeah the newspapers just endless and but you know they're asking me I'm just telling I'm just because it was appalling and you know I it's just awful I just I there's no other words it's just diabolical And then from that well how did the the fundraising come from that It just started going up Did you set up the page or did somebody else do it I set it up back in September last year oh right oh right yeah when I was doing my garden obviously I've got no money so I needed things like seeds and things like that and Only The netting to cover it all so that it wouldn't get eaten uneasy soil and stuff so I did a little GoFundMe for that which everyone put into our was so grateful and we managed to feed more people without money as well and then that was it it was left So someone picked up on it on one of my and that was it it just went so it's actually been running since September last year and then yeah it's for it to go up and up and up and up like and we all kept looking at it going I was pacing around my room I was holding my head, and I was going oh my God oh my God what am I gonna do Um well that's the next thing isn't it because I mean you had some famous people put money in as well didn't you Yeah Gary Lineker bless him um he put into it I'm so grateful Stephen Bartlett he I read that he woke up at three o'clock in the morning and decided he had to help and I am so grateful because this isn't for me and this is why I can do all these interviews and everything because I can take myself out the equation It's not for me it's for my community and everyone in my community that needs it When all this money started coming in and you thought I need to do something with this what did you do where did you start It was mind explode didn't and I just asked I was panicking I had anxiety I was like oh my God then someone messaged me you better watch your house now and I was like oh my goodness so I was freaking out so yes I had to go through all my stuff make sure my address was off everything change all my stuff around so it was a bit of a panic but um it's just the most weird experience ever it was just unbelievable like you're in a dream literally and you're it it's just one of those dreams that you want but at the same time it's so overwhelming And I thought right now I need to get my act together, but I thought no Carly take a deep breath and think about this You want this going in the right place take a massive deep breath and just wait let the madness happen do the interviews do everything you need to do and just wait and then once I can have a bit of time out away from it and got my head around everything I thought right now I can come up with a plan so I decided that's it we're going to do the allotments we're going to get them up I'm going to need taller fencing at the front I need gates at the front I don't want to pound loads of money into the allotment because it's a community thing and people in my community come down to actually do it so if I get a company in to do all the work well you've taken away what I'm trying to accomplish which is get people out their house I need the people to be able to be involved with it so that they can come in and help do all the work I have adults who learning disabilities that come down and help me and they're fantastic you know they love doing the Dig and it gets them out for the day And I've got people that haven't got much Mobility but just want to get out and come and have a chat so I've decided that the top end where it all got sorted I'm gonna make into a cafeteria kind of area with a seating area next to it so that people that are walking us and I do get a lot can come in for a cup of tea and chat You know get the elders out the house get them being involved by teaching that the young children all the information they need to grow that Vital Information we're going to lose soon if it's not passed on and if you ask children now how do you grow carrots how do you some of them don't even know where vegetable comes from Tesco's you know and that's diabolical We were shut down and covered so much and those children suffered beyond belief I've got three of my own one two three of them suffer anxiety problems because we were locked in so much, I'm obviously on high risk so we had to be extra locked down and it affected them I noticed by doing this with my boys getting them out digging come and do this for someone else it brought them out and I then thought to myself right right we can make a bigger change here I can incorporate schools into this I can ask schools if they've got pieces of the land where I can go along and we can teach the children how to grow how to use their emotions by digging into the ground and you know taking your anger out and all these weeds and everything You've got to work blinking hard for to get out and then grow beautiful vegetables as a result for somebody else and it gives you such an uplifting feeling because it puts your own situation in perspective I mean my own situation is bad yeah obviously it's bad I'm a single mum MS and lupus and I'm I've had it since I was 16 and I'm 43 now so I have lots of issues with it but even then, me handing it over to somebody else who I could I've had ladies cry at the front door because I've handed over food you know it's been hard and for me to be able to do that and want to smile on someone else's face oh my my God, it makes you feel so much better it's such an uplifting feeling and it makes you want to accomplish more It gives you more drive you think right what other ideas can we do here so I want to get Elders - I call them Elders because it's more respectful oap sounds diabolical pensioners I think sounds awful. There are Elders they've got all the information that they've gathered over the whole years of their life and if we don't use it, it's gone So I want those Elders down the allotment teaching the kids obviously I know there's checks and everything else right ignore all that part I'll deal with that but the actual part of it is that the elders come down and teach the children how to grow, teach them all the information you know it will bring the kids out it will uplift There's so many kids out of school anxiety depression because of what they've been through and you know the only way we can change this is to literally pull everything out get all the root problems out and start from scratch which is learning the basics you know getting back to doing what we're supposed to do hard work graft grow be with each other talk to each other be a community you know incorporate everyone into that build your community better I want to sort out the landfill problems because of obviously all the food wasted is diabolical but that in turn will help our community as Harlow you know our landfill will go down if I manage to accomplish this and get different tables set up all around to get as much food wastage out for free that will make a massive impact not just on people's pockets it makes you feel uplifted We've got the highest amount of male suicides I think it's between us and Basildon or we're level in the whole country and that's diabolical, but I can see why I can see why I can see the money issues I can see the fact that nobody's talking to each other and being a community, I can see the fact that you're locked down or locked in because of covid and all the issues and anxiety people have got now Some people can't even stand in a queue because the pressure becomes too much of being around people and you think all the time I'm going to be infected so you know it's limited people and I want to bring that back I want to bring it where we're all starting to build up together and helping each other I want adults without learning difficulties joining in I want children with no problems at all I want children that have got problems I want every single bit incorporated as a community like we're supposed to and once we do it starts working and then someone will be down there oh I need my flooring done oh I know so and so he can do oh brilliant blah blah blah oh I need oh that works oh here's bill drove there he's a Before you know it everyone's working together and you've got food coverage you've got your community coverage you've got your children covered they are our future adults We can't keep neglecting our kids if we keep going like this our future doesn't look good you know it's okay if you can go to a top school but the majority of the country can't it's us we are the roots of the whole building of our government We've got the top of our government but mate without the bottom you're not at the top anymore so if you don't start putting the effort into the bottom your whole top will crumble Sort the basics out once you've got the basics then the whole Community can grow but without the basics sorted the Top's gonna crumble and there's led to communities to try and build those communities without any resources isn't it people like you and if you're trying to build build it up so how did you how did you start your cic Um well I didn't have a clue over any of this and so I managed to get an accountant a really good accountant and spoke through it all with him first of all what I did is I put it in a limited company and that's because I haven't got the contract set up yet to get the actual allotments I'm on a two-year pilot scheme I am not going to pile loads of money into that on a two-year pilot scheme I want that extended so once all those things are in place I'm very cautious when I will try my hardest to make sure everywhere is covered so that I don't fall and fall flat on my face once I have got my business bank account set up which I can't do yet until my driving license is back which should be any day now, I can then use my driving license to also set my cic up Once that is done everything's done and I'm ready to go How many how much help have you had from like the community and organizations and businesses after your Tick Tock went viral and you had more volunteers come down because believe that if you even the police came in and did some voluntary work didn't they No, the police haven't done voluntary work here he lists in that Essex police it was reported that they had no no they haven't they haven't put one single minute in um no they came down and they spoke to me, and they said they would but I haven't heard anything as of yet but this is what I mean I single-handedly have worked my butt off covering all of the aspects I do get volunteers my community volunteers would you without them we're not a community you know we work hard together but the whole route of it I've had to deal with basically on my own because I haven't got any you know you need advice you need I if I go to my community they don't necessarily know that sort of stuff but for me to be able to broaden that and try and speak to people it's hard You know it's hard to speak on a speak to people that are on a high level than me because I don't know how it works or what they do you know I live in my sector which is what we do and it's it's just it's a different ball game you know I'm not at work so I don't have to deal with my phone and laptop and everything else and it's having the context of help and trying to get people in it So yeah, pretty much like hand on heart minus my flipping fabulous Community when they come down to help me I've done it on my own and it's been hard but my God have I loved every blinking second Well yeah, I mean it's just been that you can hear how rewarding it is what would be your advice for anybody who sort of wanted to do what you're doing in their community I would say go for it and give it your all you're going to fall flat on your face I don't know how many times do not let it stop you you think of your aim and you go for your aim if you know your aim is Right correct fair then go for it if there's oh I could uh earn a bit by doing this on the side and I'm sorry I won't support you because it's not about that if you have set for a charity to become a charity then you flip and go for it and you don't stop till you get there I can advise that if you're new like me to go for a cic rather than a normal charity because then you need to set up trustees and there's endless paperwork like endless paperwork so if you're like me go for a cic um simple straightforward get yourself a good accountant and as much advice as you can If you ever want to message me if you ever want to ring me anything for you're more than welcome you know I'll take your call I'll answer your messages emails whatever if you need advice to step forward but yeah that's the best advice I can give You don't trust anyone watch your friends make sure you keep your important friends close to you and just analyze everything don't rush sit back take a deep breath and take your time That's brilliant thank you so much for a positive note to end on there thank you so much so where can people find you They can find mostly I work with my Facebook it's a group not a page I have got a page but I don't really use it it's a bit head throbbing it's too much for me I use my Facebook group and it's called a meal on me with love and I have also got Tick Tock which is Carly bread 43 and I'm on LinkedIn as well that's it that that's my little three areas that I cover but I run everything off my group I'm constantly updating I'm telling you I'm showing you the food I'm giving out I'm showing you the food growing I'll give you videos all the way along of what my money's going to I'll also ask for people to join in You know give me your advice I love advice and I do really take it on board some are disregard and I think well no I don't really agree with that but others you do though don't you, other times you're the boss You're the boss what a fabulous idea So I do take the ideas on even if I write them down and maybe use them later but I'm open to messages phone calls and I'm an open book say you're more than welcome to contact me any way you can Well, that's brilliant thank you so much for coming to talk to us on East London radio