Unwanted items from food banks

[AisleAltarHymn]

Just canvassing opinions here, if someone got a food parcel from a food bank and it contained an item that they weren’t going to use, what should that person do with the item?

Do you think it should be re-donated to the food bank? Or offered on a local Facebook page to anyone who wants it?

I'd give it back to the food bank

I would offer it back to the food bank.

We tell people to pass it on to anyone else in need, offer a replacement and make a note on their file for next time.

But we are a small community charity with a good bank, not a national one.

That’s what I thought. On my local Facebook page this morning someone was offering flour that they had received from a food bank to anyone who wanted it (for free, not asking for any payment). I suggested they might like to donate it back to the food bank and I was met with an absolute torrent of abuse from being called a dickhead, helmet, bellend, moron, twat, c**t, and being told that I smell of piss.

I was seriously doubting myself.
I donate to food banks and like to think that my donations reach those who really need it.

Ah well, good job I’m thick skinned!!

How do goods get allocated at food banks anyway?

Choice of the packer?

Or do you say 'I need shampoo and pasta etc' when handing in you voucher?

I think these people had a parcel delivered to their house where you get what you’re given.

I suggested they might like to donate it back to the food bank and I was met with an absolute torrent of abuse

I find it very hard to believe that you were called a cunt and that you smelled of piss after making a polite suggestion to pass food to a food bank.

I think you’ve missed out quite a chunk of what you actually said op.

I don’t see either option as superior tbh

They weren’t charging for it on Facebook so I don’t see the issue

I work at a nationwide foodbank chain. At the moment we just say gift it to anyone else and we would not accept it back.

I think you took it upon yourself to tell someone what to do with food that was rightly theirs to pass on in whatever way they wanted. It was absolutely none of your business and I can see why people would have told you so in quite forthright terms.

If they got it delivered, how would they be expected to get it back to the food bank? I dont see anything wrong with offering it free on fb tbh

Ouch - there is usually a picking list for the amount of people in the household and you pick what is on the list. There are sometimes donations received that aren't on any of those lists, which are added to a parcel at the pickets discretion.

I don't think you did anything wrong Aisle, they didn't have to name call for a perfectly reasonable suggestion.

@LuminousAmber I swear to god I literally said “Maybe you could donate it back to the food bank?” and that’s what I got. I replied to the OP and apologised if I’d offended anyone and got a message of thanks from her but I promise you I wasn’t rude/offensive/goading at all. It’s really not in my nature.

Easier for them to give it away I should think than try to get it back to the food bank.

Unless you were offering to help OP, why comment at all?

@WitchDancer thanks

You jut shouldn’t have said anything at all. Why on earth did you think it was any of your business?

@CaryStoppins fair comment

I work for a charitable organisation working with vulnerable people. We get fair share deliveries every week. It is very variable as to what we recieve. We try to allocate what we recieve based on what we know about our service users eg one might like cooking from scratch & another may have substance misuse issues & prefer food that's ready to eat. They can request rice, pasta, loo roll etc but it's all dependant on what's available. All those who ask for fair share tend to get a bag of food each, a bit more for households with couples. We also get surplus KFC chicken that we collect from our local branch on a weekly branch when its open.

It took me a minute but I got your user name, Aisle. V good!

Thanks all for your feedback, I recognise I should have just kept my opinions to myself on Facebook! This bloody lockdown is getting to us all in different ways.

I should have added that our service users normally collect from us but with the current restrictions we deliver to their home on the proviso that they are at home to recieve. We knock on the door & leave it on the doorstep to try & maintain social distancing. Anything they don't want they tend to give to their friends or give it back to us. Many of the traditional food banks local to us are currently closed due to them being based at churches which is an unfortunate downside to the restrictions

Why would you doubt yourself? For a person to come out with an outburst like that about a perfectly reasonable suggestion, they clearly are either not a nice person or they are troubled in some way.