Mark Butcher and the Story of Amazing Graze

In 2012, Mark Butcher began an initiative in Blackpool that would develop into one of the town’s better-known organisations supporting people affected by homelessness and poverty. Butcher had experienced difficult periods in his own life involving addiction and had subsequently become an evangelist and street preacher. Having turned his life around, he channelled those experiences into helping others, establishing what became Amazing Graze.

Beginning as a Christian community initiative, Amazing Graze initially concentrated on providing hot food for people sleeping rough. It grew rapidly, with contemporary accounts suggesting that within its early years hundreds of meals were being provided each week. By 2016 it was operating from Bethel Church at Kingston House on Boothley Road, where volunteers provided not only food but showers, clean clothing, haircuts, advice and practical support. That year Amazing Graze formally became a registered charity, although its work had already been underway for several years.

The organisation increasingly found itself dealing with some of the more difficult social problems affecting Blackpool. Homelessness, addiction, mental health difficulties and poverty were frequently interconnected among those arriving for assistance. By 2016, Amazing Graze was reported to have grown from serving around 30 meals a week to between 300 and 400. Its work was supported by volunteers, local churches, businesses and members of the community.

A major change came around the end of 2018 when Amazing Graze had to leave its Boothley Road home. By this point it was estimated to be providing around 15,000 hot meals each year. New premises were found at 44 Bolton Street in South Shore, but considerable work was required before the building could fulfil its new purpose. Volunteers rallied around the project, helping transform the property into a permanent base for the charity.

The Bolton Street premises also allowed Amazing Graze to experiment with different ways of supporting its work. One was Pizza Grazie, drawing upon Butcher’s earlier experience working as a pizza chef in a Blackpool Italian restaurant. The pizzeria was intended to generate income for the organisation while its Pay It Forward scheme allowed customers to purchase food for somebody experiencing homelessness.

Another ambitious project was the Big Red Emergency Night Bus, created to take support beyond the charity’s premises and reach vulnerable people across Blackpool and the Fylde Coast. The converted bus provided a visible mobile base from which assistance could be offered to people who might otherwise remain beyond the reach of conventional services.

The Covid pandemic brought another change. Amazing Graze had largely been associated with homelessness, but Butcher began seeing people seeking help who would never previously have expected to need a soup kitchen. Families, workers whose livelihoods had disappeared and people struggling with rapidly changing circumstances joined those already experiencing homelessness. The organisation consequently broadened its approach towards anyone facing food poverty or serious hardship.

After more than a decade of community work, Butcher moved into local politics. In 2024 he stood for Reform UK in the Blackpool South parliamentary by-election, receiving 3,101 votes and finishing only 117 votes behind the Conservative candidate. When the constituency returned to the polls at the general election on 4 July, Butcher stood again and increased his vote to 10,068, or 28.6 per cent, finishing second to Labour’s Chris Webb. His political involvement continued, including standing in the Claremont council by-election in October 2026, where he finished 39 votes behind the successful Labour candidate.

Politics represents only the latest part of a much longer Blackpool story. What began in 2012 as an effort to provide food and support to people living on the streets developed into a registered charity with permanent premises, volunteers and a range of community projects. More than a decade later, Amazing Graze continues its work from Bolton Street, while the experiences that brought Mark Butcher into contact with some of Blackpool’s most vulnerable residents ultimately also led him towards a very different role in the town’s public life.