To think food banks aren’t fit for purpose

Download the Olio app - if there is nothing in your area then volunteer as a distributer as your can keep 10% of your collections.

Well. It’s a fair question. A few things really:

I have been doing this for four years now, and I have a good sense of how a legitimate service user approaches and engages us. I can’t explain better, but it’s a little like police officers sometimes knowing when a situation is likely to kick off. It has nothing to do with dress sense, iPhones etc. (That doesn’t mean I don’t get incredibly frustrated when our service users make bad decisions, inc financial ones.) I have discretion as to who comes in and if need be I will ask a few questions and suggest to people that it may not be for them, or ask for proof of circumstance.

We have very few walk-ins. Most people are referred to us by a local credit union, church, school and they undertake initial screening for us before referring.

We work with other local projects so people aren’t accessing multiple services each week.

We work really hard to destigmatise FB use so that people who do need it take that step and come in to use the service. We try to make it look like a shop. But the reality is a queue out the door each week and a wait of up to 30 minutes in whatever weather, sometimes with a bit of argy bargy, with everyone walking by knowing you were waiting to use the food bank. Would you do that, if you weren’t in need?

There’s two ways to join the paid one. A waiting list or have a child within a certain school academy. Pay your £3 entrance fee to sign up and that’s you for life.

They do take food bank referrals as well, as one offs. But it’s certainly the type of place you’d expect to see people trying to use if they were on the bones of arse getting close to needing a food bank, you can technically send someone else for you if you are working but that rarely happens, you can pay in advance or arrears so if your skint pay at the end of the month and whatnot.

Have you thought about a sharing shelf or cupboard, or posting it on olio.

Is that more of a Community Grocery style? Is it means tested to join your scheme? Im guessing not? Still.... not quite the same as Food Banks as you say.

I contact the local foodbank because we have an allotment and in the summer we have a surplus of fresh veg, so I offered it to them and they said no, they couldn't handle it and only dealt with shelf stable items. Very odd to me, all they would need to do is have a box of veg that people could help themselves to.

I know at our local £4.50 food club (the trolly of food including fresh meat etc) most have the latest iPhone and designer goods 60% seem to have a toddler and older children. Again 80% of those attending are women. Lots of chatter about holidays and such but not “posh” people.

These wouldn’t be people that need a food bank but effectively are using a cheap way to get food, it also unlocks cheaper mots and free christmas presents for children.

The free ones seem to have the same group of people attending. Basically all stay at home mums since it’s within working hours.

Not worked in an actual food bank for feedback on that one.

Why?

Hence "soft intelligence" not interrogation. You can get a feel for their lifestyle. Nowt wrong with a fray bentos!

Who do you think they are? The Stasi?

Do you really think that people living in the lap of luxury want a Fry's bento pie and some cup noodles?

Do you get soft intelligence on what their home life/standards are like? Do they have what could be considered luxuries, like netflix subscriptions, branded clothes, expensive smartphones or are they genuinely on the bones of their arse?

Some people's priorities are wrong as to what they spend their money on.
Some people are too lazy to cook and don't know how too.
Some people need lessons on how to create cheap healthy meals and then for example stretch the meal into making something else.
Here's an example, make a roast dinner, get other meals out of it and possible soup.
How to use leftovers that sort of thing.
We have a whole nation of people now, where these skills like your mum or granny had being lost.
Food banks should run classes on how to do this, instead of just giving out food.
Even it's a few volunteers giving advice.

My granny was a cleaner but only once her husband died before that she was a homemaker. Even then she only did a couple
of hours a day.

My MIL stopped working when she had her first (of 4) children. 1960s. They were working class and lived in social housing until RTB. FIL worked 3 jobs (painting/removals etc) 7 days a week.

My mum worked as a dinner lady and cleaner but fairly pt.

Nurseries weren't as prevalent so who would have looked after the kids

Apart from when they were really tiny, kids would have been a lot more self sufficient. Older siblings would have looked after them and relatives would often have lived close and kept an eye out.

My mil in the UK always worked, as a secretary, and in the family shop. A family friend looked after my DH.

My late aunt was indeed a local Authority home help she worked shifts and weekends

It depends really. As I said above, we have shifted from crisis response to acknowledging chronic need and most of our beneficiaries are weekly and long term. We do re-check their eligibility periodically.

My mother (b1947) and grandmother (b1924) both worked, as did my paternal grandmother. It is and was entirely normal for working class women to do so.

@Needanewname42 lots of these jobs were extremely part time- dinner lady for example is less than 10hours a week. Care workers/home help wasn't much of a thing, care was done more by families. School cleaners were caretakers who were usually male. And yes, lots of women did leave work when they married. Nurseries weren't as prevalent so who would have looked after the kids?

We get regulars but the rule is meant to be no more than 4 parcels in three months.

Wd have users who use a slightly different spelling of their name and register with several organisations who issue the vouchers.

We are a delivery only Foodbank so you get to recognise addresses.

Do you get regular users of food banks or are they more a one off kind of thing?

Just because your mum worked does not make it the normal thing for all married working class women in the uk

You only had one mother

The available data suggests your mother was unusual

Good grief OP you're sounding annoyingly entitled!

Food banks are not restaurants. They supply EMERGENCY provisions to tide you over.

Nothing wrong with soup or a pot noodle as a light meal now and then - certainly better than nothing!

Gurdwara temples provide hot meals for free every week, no questions asked. So do Salvation Army.

I completely disagree. I was born in the 1950s and my Mum always worked as did the Mums of my friends . Various jobs - nurse, doctor , teacher , shop assistant- that’s just off the top of my head.
Often it was part time but i don’t recall my Mum not working .