If you have used a food bank

[12Thorns]

Please would you mind telling us about it?

how did it come about? What were you given? Did you eat it? Was it helpful?

im asking because so many opinions and experiences if food banks on MN come from people who donate, or distribute the food, but not from anyone who actually eats it

Whose us?
And what are your opinions?

us as in people reading the thread.

my opinion is I find the whole issue very confusing. I work in many soup kitchens, and support a lot of homeless people but have never witnessed a food bank functioning in the way people seem to think it does, ie food being given to hungry people, and them eating it

what I do see is a lot of food bank - ticketed food being passed around and around and eventually going into the bin

I get given quite a lot. I don’t need it or ask for it. But get given it by the recipients, or if it’s past it’s eat by date, the food banks often pass it on to charity offices

so im just confused about the whole set up. And don’t feel that information from the food banks or the donors is especially enlightening.

hence I would live to hear from any recipients who are willing to share anything about the experiences

Which rag pays you?

There is currently an AMA from a person who works/volunteers in a food bank. It's very interesting.

What is foodbank - ticketed food?

Our local foodbank doesn't mark the food it gives out in anyway. It's donated from shops and then given to those who need it. You wouldn't be able to tell the difference between foodbank food or shop bought food, it all comes from the same place - the shops.

Yes it is interesting, and I don’t want to derail, or appear negative on their thread, hence starting my own. Aldo would like to hear from recipients, rather than organisers or donors. I think it would be more informative

Our local food banks put stickers on the food

Right, so what you mean is that you think food banks aren't being used that much because the food they get given is often sent on to your soup kitchens/homeless shelters as it's about to go out of date. Is that about right?

No it’s given to my lodgers who give it to me.

Or it’s just passed and thrown away

or it’s given to workers in charity offices by the food bank when it’s out of date.

and it’s not that I think they don’t work effectively.

it’s that I SEE them not working effectively and feel very confused, because they are such a big thing in the Uk. How can all that generosity and effort and conviction be failing to actually give hungry people food that the hungry people then eat???

so there must be more to it somewhere, somehow.

that’s why I’m asking

Right. Well I know that food banks rely on what people donate and often what is donated is not really what the food banks need. They need long life stuff that doesn't need to be refrigerated/frozen and that can be used without needing an oven/hon due to lack of cooking facilities.

What kind of foods are you seeing given away?

Our local food bank writes the dates in permanent marker on the top of tins so I can tell when something's come from a food bank and I know a few families that have used it and I always end up being given the tins they never use them. I give them back to the food bank
Tin tomatoes
Tin kidney beans
Soups
Tin macaroni
Tuna

Sometimes the food bank gives one of my clients stuff like crisps and biscuits, which is lovely but he has no teeth. They don’t accept them back so we find other uses for them

Our food bank has a tick list the clients are given so they have as much choice as possible. We do try to taylor what's included in food parcels to the clients needs.

I used to volunteer at a food bank (8 years ago). The set up was that the volunteers had a set shopping list to bag up but that would be times for however many people were in the family. We’d have a checklist the family would tick regarding if they had cooking facilities/allergies.
essentially:
pasta/rice
pasta source
3x meat/fish
3x tins of soup
sandwich bag of tea bags or coffee (squash for kids).
sandwich bag of sugar
3x chocolate bars
3x Crisps
One box of cereal
carton of long life milk
3x tins of fruit
2x ready ‘meals’ (I.E. super noodles)

I always thought but what if this person doesn’t like prunes/Smokey bacon crisps/tuna. If the family had chocolate the bag would be filled of jelly/sweets (is that really what a kid needs!)

Well lots of things. Some mainstream, some more exotic.

tinned fruit

tinned sausage

other things in tins

jam lots and lots of jam

chocolate covered orange peel

boxes of custard

chocolate biscuits

lots if Christmas cake from about October to march

artichoke hearts?

some other exotic fruits and things in cans I don’t know the name of

jars Of fruit in alcohol

lots of alcohol based handwash gets given to various charity staff because it can’t be given out in the food bank

those continental type bags of dried fruit, and nuts and crispy type snacks

turkish delight

that’s all I remember off the top of my head. There’s lots more. Lots of tons with food bank stickers on. I don’t always register what’s in the tin

Yes. Tins of tuna and tomatoes. I generally can’t give them back to the food bank because it’s too heavy to carry and I don’t have a car

I’ve worked in food banks occasionally myself too, so I do know the set up

I would very much like to hear from users, rather than organisers

This is absolutely a journalist