I manage a food bank. AMA

[Wetherforks]

I manage and run a food bank in a UK city. It's Saturday night and I'm bored. Happy to try and answer if anyone has any questions!

OP, would love it if you could answer this one, it got missed. Thanks

I'm shocked at whoever made the decision to reject items beyond their best before dates, as this is an ongoing battle to educate the public that best before means just that - it might not be absolutely optimal, but it's still fine - and is completely different from a use by date.

I also think it's disgusting that a lot of food banks are restricted/forbidden from giving baby formula out to service users. Is it the government that does this, or local/regional/internal policy?

Whoever it is - same with the ban on advertising/promoting/having offers on it in shops - it comes from a place of enormous privilege (worthy of Marie Antoinette) to decide to tell mothers who cannot breastfeed (for any reason), who have no other way of feeding their babies other than very expensive formula, that they are making bad choices and thus need to be discouraged and protected from their 'foolishness'.

I don't really see how it would be any different in principle from denying people with type 1 diabetes access to insulin via free prescription, on the grounds that it's much better if you don't need it, so therefore let's shame, belittle and punish those who do.

Sorry, didn't want to derail - and certainly not getting at OP personally; she's doing an amazing job.

Do you get any meals from the country food trust? They are a charity I donate to as they provide decent high protein ready meals and also supply community kitchens. It's food I'd have been glad to receive when we used a foodbank. I did find it difficult to make the food we got into proper meals.

https://www.thecountryfoodtrust.org/

I personally agree that some 'out of date' tins are perfectly fine to eat and we often put these items on the 'help yourself' table - people can then make their own decision but I find it sad that some donors seem to just empty their cupboards of food that they clearly don't want to eat themselves yet have the attitude 'but it's good enough for the Food Bank users'.

I would also like to know why some FBs refuse to give formula ... our FB doesn't ask fir it but if we receive it we will happily give it out.

Again, not the OP but run what sounds like an equivalent organisation.

Is the foodbank happy to take these items? And if yes, is it ok to leave the yellow sticker on?

We would, yes. We would reject things like jars where the seal was broken/ lid popped up or a product that was wholly open down to the ingredients, but neither we nor our clients mind what you’re describing.

Formula - in our case the London borough we are based in has a protocol that any requests for formula become an urgent referral to the HV team. (I’ve seen it work - urgent does really mean urgent.) I think what they are trying to do is reach and address people’s underlying needs - are they in the system, do they have access to Healthy Start and so on. So I understand the rationale. I have to say, if someone was in front of me with a baby and in need of formula, I’d likely just go to the nearest shop and buy it for them while making that referral.

Again, can’t speak for other projects.

BB dates - we take loads of stuff past BB, especially from charities like FareShare. We spend a fair amount of time educating volunteers and recipients about the difference between BB and UB.

I also think it's disgusting that a lot of food banks are restricted/forbidden from giving baby formula out to service users. Is it the government that does this, or local/regional/internal policy?

Two pronged I think. Firstly there's the international policy, broadly followed across the whole of both the developed and developing world, with the aim of preventing baby deaths. It's been in place in UK for over 25 years.

Secondly, as mentioned above, formula is available under other schemes, typically accessed through HV. And it's right that HVs are aware when there is a family struggling when that family has a very young baby. Families who breastfeed might fall outside that safety net

best before is often close to use by though and it’s a bit disrespectful as it often tastes gross/isn’t at its best is it? depends on the product but I don’t think it’s fair to give them out at a food bank unless they really can be eaten immediately.

@FatherJackHackettsUnderpantsHamper

babies are usually on a specific formula most parents wouldn't just give their baby "anything " .I think there is other services that like HV that parents can contact, where I volunteer we sometimes get formula sometimes it goes especially the stage 2 or toddler milk but sometimes we bin it, it's a total waste of time and resources for foodbanks to actively stock formula,

also if Foodbanks are involved with Fareshare or other food organisations they follow guidelines for BBD food and food rotation. "we" are not just wasting food because it has a bbd. foodbanks /pantries are feeding people we have to be safe in doing so.

best before is often close to use by though and it’s a bit disrespectful as it often tastes gross/isn’t at its best is it? depends on the product but I don’t think it’s fair to give them out at a food bank unless they really can be eaten immediately.

@Newsenmum they are usually two separate categories.

UB - relates to safety - appears on meat products, dairy products (generally things that are hiughly perishable, would be refrigerated or frozen in the home)
BB - relates to quality rather than safety - store cupboard items generally.

Things past BB really won't taste gross, and I'd wager that for the first few months after the BB date wouldn't taste any different. Thinking about our own service this week we have crisps, baked beans, lentils, pasta, chocolate past BB. We don't hand things out past UB, that isn't safe (this week for us that's yoghurt, cheese, some ready meals, a few xmas turkeys that we froze - we wouldn';t go past the UB on any of that).

At home I am fairly easy and just "sniff test" anything except meat but we can't do that professionally.

some BB things can be eaten as long as they are unopened no broken seals obviously months past the date. use by is totally different.

sorry I meant to quote a poster not just randomly say something!

I agree that it's deeply unpleasant behaviour to clear out your food cupboards at home and just give anything past its best before date to the food bank, figuring that it's not good enough for you, but it is for them.

However, I'm mainly thinking about supermarkets, shops and other organisations who may have surplus supplies that have passed the BB date, but which are totally fine. In fact, it could be that the existence of the BB dates in the first place could yield a lot more food that now can't technically be sold and thus could provide a lot of otherwise-unavailable food to donate.

It's not even illegal to sell food that's past its BB date - it's just that the big supermarkets prefer not to except our local Asda, whose stock control is shocking and I frequently see packs of meat that were USE BY several days previously; but a couple of smaller shops near us will happily put a box of reduced chocolate, crisps, pop or whatever on the counter, labelled 'best before two weeks ago', and if the price is right, it always sells.

yes that is what happens through organisations like fairshare Foodbanks get near BBD or sometimes on date fresh food to give away.

and they also have "help yourself " areas with stickered reduced food so users can make up their own minds if they want to take it.

True, but there aren't that many different brands that make up the majority of formula sales, for babies who don't have allergies or other special requirements.

Of course, the food bank very well may not have ANY formula available to give, let alone the brand that the baby needs/is used to.

However, having to say "I'm sorry, we don't currently have any Aptamil in that we can give you" is worlds apart from actively making it known that you don't give formula to needy parents, because of an official policy giving the clear message that they are being bad/irresponsible/neglectful parents by not giving their baby the breastmilk that they simply may not have available to give. Of course, more privileged parents, who can afford to go and buy it, can just get it from their local shop without any judgment at all.

When people are underprivileged and already down on their luck, it's just another kick in the face to a loving mum who cannot produce breastmilk, or a devoted widowed dad - to effectively tell them that the only way they can keep their baby alive and thriving is bad parenting 'choices' - and, at the foodbanks, akin to them asking for 20 Benson & Hedges.

Incidentally, I wonder if the recent policy adopted by the supermarkets to deliberately obscure the best before dates, by using a (usually not too cryptic) code, has helped or harmed food bank donations at all?

I know their line is that they're trying to reduce unnecessary food waste, by labelling something with 'A13' rather than 'best before 13th January' or even 'first displayed on 13th January', but I do suspect they may also have at least half an eye on their bottom line as well.

Our local food bank has an initiative where they put aside baking ingredients, and have a team of volunteer bakers who turn them into cakes and biscuits for the service users. Is this something you’ve considered? It goes down really well!

Incidentally, I wonder if the recent policy adopted by the supermarkets to deliberately obscure the best before dates, by using a (usually not too cryptic) code, has helped or harmed food bank donations at all?

It’s been neutral in our case. We have noticed lots of higher-end stuff coming in though - blueberries, asparagus from Peru - which I attribute to the CoL crisis and ordinary consumers tightening their belts. So supermarkets pass these things to us. Obviously that’s not forever, but it’s notable at the moment. See also, more from high-end bakeries, meat.

@FatherJackHackettsUnderpantsHamper

foodbanks are not a cure all and they certainly are not supermarkets, you seem focused on the formula it isn't a foodbanks responsibility to provide formula milk most FB families will be in receipt of healthy start vouchers or equivalent where they can use them to buy formula and most foodbanks will signpost parents to relevant sources of help.

ive worked in a charity shop before and some of the staff definitely had first dibs on donations coming through the door.. no payments made, just went straight in their cars. I think it’s just considered a perk of the job, especially if they’re volunteers( but some were paid staff).
I am very conscious this may happen, and tend to just donate to one shop in particular now( because they have great, reasonably priced stuff).