Foodbank buying items from shops?

I judge people who are ignorant and selfish and who have no community spirit and who think the poor are somehow undeserving. Does that make me a 'do gooder'?

I'll have another t shirt made and add it to my 'proud to be a 'lefty-lawyer' collection.

You inow exactly what 'do-gooders' means - it's more than just doing goid things. It's having to be seen to do 'good 'things and also to judge those who don't do the same 'good' things as them.

1. you need to be able to get to the supermarket, that can involve paying for a bus and / or taking a couple of children out in the cold.

2. you then need to pay for the food.

3. you have to be able to get the food home. I gave a lift to someone from a local, not cheap, supermarket. She had 3 children with her and had distributed the food for them to carry. It was the youngest carrying a packet of cornflakes in a carrier bag that he had to hold the bag higher than his head and was trying to see through the handles where he was going that made me offer the lift.

4. you have to have the means to cook both physical things like a cooker, power and pans. You also need to know how to cook.

5. throw a disability, SEN or allergy in to the mix and all of the above becomes 10 times harder.

I think you lived a pretty comfortable life to have such a conception of poverty.
From your posts, it sounds like you imagine that users of food banks should only be people who are homeless, with no phone or access to the internet, and never on Mumsnet or other sites you entertain yourself on.
And, let's not forget, these people are only allowed to use food banks temporarily, while they fix their life, apparently...

I suggest you run a little experiment. Try and get a job offer without using internet or a phone. Try and apply to any service you are entitled to, insisting that you cannot provide a phone number, an email, an address. See how easy it is to get back on your feet when you have nothing to stand on.
If you ever land in dire straits, the last thing you should let go of is your phone and internet.

So many tragic misunderstandings derive from having never experienced the life of those we want to judge and dismiss.

@MaterCogitaVera a very interesting insult! Is the opposite and ‘better’ state to be a do-badder? A don’t-gooder?

I’d rather be a do-gooder than a thundering, judgmental arsehole without a shred of basic empathy. No doubt that makes me woke or ‘typical of a leftie’ which seems to be the next favourite insult.

“Do-gooder” is an interesting insult, isn’t it? Doing good. You’d think that would be… well… good. Funny old world.

And my apologies for not having read the entirety of your celebrated œuvre. Remiss of me.

I used to do a run to Tesco to pick up the going out of date food as an olio volunteer. To be honest it was a mixed bag of yellow sticker stuff going out of date that day. Random tins / packets that had six months left to go. Fruit/ veg and always lots of bread.

I used to freeze the ready meals and they were given out to folk via olio app. Tins and packets went in community pantry so did much of the fruit/ veg you can give out good after a best before date but not use by date. No one really wants a lot old bread so a lot of that was composted.

I did think it was a bit of a win winfor the supermarket as they got a writeoff for a donation. Kudos for giving and saved themselves waste disposal charges.

There’s one key thing that those being arsey or goady about food bank users are missing.

Most of us far closer to being food bank users than we are to being millionaires. A pandemic, an illness, bereavement, disability, redundancy, mental health issue or sheer bad luck can happen to anyone and burn through your safety net at any time. No one is immune no matter how clever or resourceful you think they are.

I grew up poor and though we didn’t have food banks there were schemes to help families in poverty with food. I am grateful for them but I will never forget the shame I was forced to feel when I or my parents did not provide the requisite gratitude dance to our benefactors. The only shame in that scenario belonged and belongs still to those who wanted payment for their help in tears and stigma.
And the irony is now I know many of those people are in far more straitened circumstances than I am due to alcoholism, DV, inheritance disputes or bad business choices. No one can afford - literally or metaphorically- to condemn anyone else.

If you don’t agree with food banks, don’t donate, shut your mouth and hope you never need the help you begrudge others.

I suspect you've not read all of my posts and have jumped to typical do-gooder concluding.

I suspect it’s easier to blame “bad decisions” for poverty than to recognise the horrible truth that poverty in Britain is, to a great extent, an inherited characteristic. You are more likely to experience poverty as an adult if your parents also experienced poverty. The effect is particularly linked to living in a single-parents household, or having parents who had low levels of education, were unemployed, or suffered long-term disability or ill health. People from non-white ethnic backgrounds are more likely to experience poverty. So are disabled people.

None of this is “bad decisions”. Of course there are people whose “bad decisions” lead them from a situation where they have a financially stable life and good prospects for maintaining it, to one where they are in poverty. But that’s not most people. People are far more likely to be in poverty because their childhood circumstances put them at a disadvantage from the beginning, or because accidents or ill health later disadvantaged them.

Useful thread. I never realised that it would be more helpful to donate cash than to put random items in the basket in Asda. (I say 'random', I always hope they are useful). I suppose it makes so much sense thinking about it.

One Christmas (quite possibly during COVID) I wanted to donate to my local food bank but was unable to physically get there myself; I managed to organise a Tesco online shop delivered to my local distribution centre. It only took one phone call to customer services and they were happy to do it.

I work as a delivery driver for a big supermarket. We deliver to a local food bank probably once a fortnight. A complete full van load of food. And I mean full van load. Takes 6 people to unload. At first I thought it was odd. But no. It’s normal

Don’t forget if you donate cash to a food bank they get gift aid too, so your donation goes further than if you donated food. You give £10, they get £12.50.

What planet are you people on ? Buy it for themselves ? Factor food banks in so they can buy other things ? Reliant on food banks for all the wrong reasons?
You sound so judgmental and snobbish. People who use food banks are largely working people on shit wages trying to feed their families. Who would want to have to go cap in hand to a food bank ?
Remember people that a third of households in the U.K. are only one pay check away from poverty . Hope that’s not you and you never find yourself having to use a food bank.

What if you're also disabled and working your arse off isn't actually feasible? What if you've got young children and you can't afford childcare? There are so many scenarios here that, because you've not lived them, you're too blinkered to even think about... It's not as simple as work your arse off and it's all rosey

The first line of your post is literally:

" I always thought that foodbanks were given out of date stock"

Zzzzzz

Is this a serious comment? Like people with allergies and autoimmune conditions, such as coeliac disease, can't be in need of the food bank? Also, how dare you judge someone when you've no idea what it's like to live on the breadline with no means to move away from it... The food bank allows people to not have to chose between heating and eating. That's the reality more and more people are facing in a far less than temporary basis... And dietary requirements aren't fads or something to take lightly, they can be life threatening, and the food is sometimes 5 times the cost! Just because you have not lived it, doesn't mean it's not the reality for many people, whether temporary or not.

I use this too. It's called You Give We Give. For every £ voucher a customer buys Ocado will match it and then allow the food bank to create a wish list of goods up to the price of all the matched donations.

When I get an ocado shop I quite often add a £5 food bank donation, at least then the food bank can buy what's really needed.

You cannot rely on food banks or factor them into your budget or shopping. I give out foodbank vouchers to families in need and am unable to issue more than 3 vouchers in a 6 month period.

Yes in date ones

No you definitely said ood

Who do you think you are? Google it if you’re genuinely interested instead of attacking people on this thread and being goady.

Exactly!!!