Food bank for Christmas

[Didicat]

In usual primary school style they have told us late yesterday they are collecting for a food bank items to be in school THIS Friday.

My brain is already spent, Christmas holidays break needed already.... so I have a tenner to spend in Aldi....

What would you buy?

Interesting thread. I run a food bank, though I'm very new to it.

To answer the OP - with a tenner I'd go with tins of cheap fish, basic pasta sauces, instant noodles, cheap biscuits/jelly, tinned fruit, UHT milk, or any one of these.

To the wider debate - I hate that food banks exist. I moved to London from a 3rd world country and can't believe what I'm encountering here. There is clearly some (limited, ime) abuse of the system. There are also some people who would literally starve if food bank provision wasn't there and wasn't replaced by something else. Most of the people we support are somewhere in the middle.

It's a bonkers system. I am writing grant applications to get funding to buy food and train up/recruit volunteers to pack and deliver food parcels, and soliciting donations from my community, when really a centralised gov't facility for this sort of thing would be better, cheaper, more efficient (but when they did it for shielding people during lockdown 1 the boxes were generally poor and lacking in fresh produce round my way). So why are we doing it? To make the volunteers and donors feel cheery? There are so many better ways of doing things at a structural level, but the gov't needs to give a fuck.

Who are you asking for a grant to buy food or train volunteers?

Sanitary towels, tampons, flannels.

Who are you asking for a grant to buy food or train volunteers?

Large grant-giving organisations, just like most charities up and down the country.

It,s interesting out of some of those that have died from malnutrition, some were obese. For some it,s not because they can,t afford the food it,s because they idn,t choose the right food. Some may also had anorexia.

Anyway I would donate to food banks. I think that had them 20 years ago they still would have been used.

Not saying I am against them, but they are a sticing plaster over a problem and I am not sure if the rise in food banks = bigger prob or just people feel it is something they can do.

It's some of each. The problem has become much larger, furlough payments, zero hours contracts, delays in getting any benefits have all pushed people beyond their means.

And the protracted timescale of disruption to normal life has hit some who would otherwise have muddled through.

Add to that the additional advertising both for donations and deliveries of food banks and more people become aware of us, maybe the stigma of using us lessens.

We are already working on how to reduce reliance on us, the knock on effect of having changed our referral procedures to make it easier for people to self refer, many of our usual referral partners aren't operating as usual.

It's complex and I anticipate a lot of negative press when we start saying no! Maybe more people suggesting we kill people!! Maybe that will achieve some changes in government thinking??

@june2007

Not saying I am against them, but they are a sticing plaster over a problem and I am not sure if the rise in food banks = bigger prob or just people feel it is something they can do.

That is exactly the point I'm making.

I'm fairly sure the rise in foodbank usage has aided the government in it's introduction of Universal Credit.

That is exactly the point I'm making. Is it? Had you only said that there would have been agreement from everyone working in foodbanks. But you felt the need to add

You won't kill anyone - it's foodbanks that kill people.

People wont starve if you stop foodbanks - thats a strawman argument. Sure there will be short term hardship but ultimately it is the way to solve the problem.

If you think a foodbank is helping people you are sadly mistaken

Thrown in a few trust mes I can assure yous and I knows

That hungry people shou'd present themselves to hospital if need be.

I'm fairly sure the rise in foodbank usage has aided the government in it's introduction of Universal Credit. Again, what you are sure of is not a good argument. And stats, correlations, say otherwise!

A spike in food bank use was partially caused by the introduction of UC, 2009. UC came first, increased engagement followed! 26,000 in 2008/9 to 1/9 million 19/20 in Trussel banks alone!

But it isn't the only factor. It would be trite to say that!

Hi everyone I commented earlier with my suggestions and can see this has turned into a wider debate and want to add something - theories about poverty and how we can end it and rising up and protesting against the ‘man’ are all well and good in theory But in reality who would actually want there family to be that badly in need of food that they have to present themselves to hospital? No sane person.

birds you come across as incredibly naive and foolish, you sound like a wealthy middle class sixth former who has just discovered that poverty in the UK exists, I imagine that you think that your ideas about food banks which are formed through reading, research and your own opinions are very morally correct and make you quite educated on the subject of how to tackle poverty, I am here to tell you that your research means absolutely nothing in the face of actually living in poverty. Stop reading and theorising and thinking your education in any teaches you about real life (it doesn’t!) and actually engage with people who use food banks and listen and take on board what these people say.

And food banks were indeed a ‘thing’ as far back as the early 1990s as my family had support from a church run one. Wonder how ill and miserable we would have been if my parents had refused help ‘because the government should be sorting it’ .

@TriflePudding

Hi everyone I commented earlier with my suggestions and can see this has turned into a wider debate and want to add something - theories about poverty and how we can end it and rising up and protesting against the ‘man’ are all well and good in theory But in reality who would actually want there family to be that badly in need of food that they have to present themselves to hospital? No sane person.

birds you come across as incredibly naive and foolish, you sound like a wealthy middle class sixth former who has just discovered that poverty in the UK exists, I imagine that you think that your ideas about food banks which are formed through reading, research and your own opinions are very morally correct and make you quite educated on the subject of how to tackle poverty, I am here to tell you that your research means absolutely nothing in the face of actually living in poverty. Stop reading and theorising and thinking your education in any teaches you about real life (it doesn’t!) and actually engage with people who use food banks and listen and take on board what these people say.

And food banks were indeed a ‘thing’ as far back as the early 1990s as my family had support from a church run one. Wonder how ill and miserable we would have been if my parents had refused help ‘because the government should be sorting it’ .

I did say earlier I have first hand experience of this.

I appreciate you don't share my view but please don't run away with the idea that I'm some wealthy middle class individual.

I can assure you I have been very much at the sharp end of this problem.

Can I ask a basic question please? Say I was going to spend £10, is it better to buy 10 basic items at £1 each, or say 4 quality items at £2.50? So quantity versus quality? I usually go for the first option on the assumption that this will feed more people, but some of the responses here suggest that a 'Treat' would be better (although I always include a packet of KitKats for some reason).

lydia at my food bank we'd prefer the former. Tbh a lot of the time there is no difference between branded items and non-branded as to quality or taste, so just as I buy Sainsbury's basics pasta sauce for my family's dinner I'd ask for the same for the food bank, so it stretches further. And if you'd like to contribute a cheaper treat little multipacks of sweets can go quite far - after Halloween all our parcels had Haribo!

I imagine that you think that your ideas about food banks which are formed through reading, research and your own opinions are very morally correct and make you quite educated on the subject of how to tackle poverty, I am here to tell you that your research means absolutely nothing in the face of actually living in poverty. Stop reading and theorising and thinking your education in any teaches you about real life (it doesn’t!) and actually engage with people who use food banks and listen and take on board what these people say.

Good advice for many areas of life I'd say. There's far too much theorising without taking into account the views and experiences of the people who will actually have to live with the results.

If your plan to fix something involves harming the people you say you're trying to help then it's not a solution.

@Didicat

they both decided to donate.

Ahh, what lovely children.

And food banks were indeed a ‘thing’ as far back as the early 1990s as my family had support from a church run one. Wonder how ill and miserable we would have been if my parents had refused help ‘because the government should be sorting it’ .

And of course before welfare state provision you had charitable care for the poor - a mish mash of charitable bodies, local charities set up by individuals, almshouses, church charities, (and the dreaded poorhouses). Go far enough back and you have charity directly given out in alms. The window of time in which we haven't needed charities/individuals to fill the gap in state provision is tiny - a couple of decades (if it ever existed at all). To rise up and protest to get the government to fill the gap would require an overthrow of hundreds of years of precedent...

Unfortunately, I feel like the current government are probably quite happy with the prospect of a return to Victorian individual charitable support for the poor rather than the state taking responsibility.