If you donate to food banks..

[Novasmum]

Is it okay to donate activity packs for children and treats for parents such as face masks etc?

I have had a really rough couple of years financially. I lost my home, partner and I split making finances harder too. I am in a place now I am doing better and have regular work. I work with children and would love to put together packs for over the summer holidays and donate to the food bank. I’m just unsure if this is accepted? same with treats for parents, (obviously not alcohol)

thanks!

I asked our local one the same about opened cat food as I thought it might seem off somehow (Like 10 pouches left from a box of 12). They were delighted with it as some people would rather spend their money on their pets than themselves.

Opened Sanpro and nappies are a no unfortunately. Cat food is ok as it’s in sealed pouches.

Opened stuff is considered a possible contamination risk apparently. Anything like that we take to women’s shelters.

in other news it was a revelation to me that sanpro has a use by date.

I can only speak anecdotally from where I work (16-25, all care leavers in supported housing), they need things like cereal, cereal bars, juice, long life bakery products, tins of beans, pot noodles, instant mash, tinned fruit, corned beef, pasta sauces, dried pasta etc. things that need very few extra things, can be cooked quickly and are filling.

I know it's horses for courses but give a 17 year old who's been in and out of foster care with minimal engagement in education and came from a background of severe neglect in the first place a bag of lentils, parsnips, dried chick peas and the like and they just won't eat. They won't come and ask for help supplementing what they've been given and how to turn it into something, they'll just disengage and either not eat, or find a way to gather enough change to go to buy the cheapest thing they can find that will do the job.

I agree with this.

Ask the foodbanks that you donate to if it’s actually an answer you want. Money is always most useful to them though.

There are Beauty Banks in Superdrug if you want to donate toiletries. You could investigate smaller charities for giving other things? Some have amazon wishlists to choose from.

Our basic pick is
juice
rice pudding
tinned fruit
pasta sauce
long life milk
dried pasta
tinned meat
soup
tinned tomatoes
tea bags
tinned fish
baked beans
rice
cereal
biscuits
spread
sugar

then whatever fresh stuff we might have

lentils and the like are classed as ‘treats’

we have toiletries that are given if requested
and pet food

We have a local Facebook group supporting women and families fleeing domestic violence, they like to put together packs of essentials with some treats as well, particularly at Christmas. Maybe look for something like this?

I work for a big foodbank and we would happily accept your donations OP.
We are frequently asked for treats for adults and children, or birthday gifts if parents or partners can’t afford them for their families.
Any excess that we have is donated to our local refuge.

What food banks need most is money. They know best what to buy

It doesn't seem right to me to donate chemical food (packet noodles, tinned soups, processed bars etc) to foodbanks. It might be appealing and easy to eat but it has low nutrition and is not beneficial to health or mental well-being. It's the equivalent of saying, here, you're poor so you can eat poison.

So I give bags of oats and donate to a fruit 'rescue' charity than distributes fresh short shelf-life stock from supermarkets.

I understand, and to some extent I agree. But, it IS more helpful than giving people a box of fresh meat and vegetables if they don’t have the means, energy (personal or electric/gas) or pantry staples to store or cook it.

The idea of a food bank being to give Hello Fresh boxes is wonderful. Ideal, even. But people using food banks are not likely to be just like you, but just not quite able to stretch to a shop this week. It’s much more holistic and long term than that. They will often have been poor for a long time, and have used up all their salt, oil, gravy granules or Worcester sauce months ago. Their oven is broken (or they don’t have one. Or share one. Or just can’t afford the extra quid of electric to keep it on for an hour to bake a potato. Or an hour is just too long between the kids getting home and their twilight shift evening job) They might get food daily, to save running a fridge. They don’t have any butter, milk or or cheese. Or window box of herbs. So giving them a bag of potatoes, a fresh chicken and a bunch of carrots, onions and leeks and a recipe for roast chicken, roast potatoes and leeks in parsley sauce , chicken and chips, chicken soup made with fresh stock and baked potatoes with cheese and butter and telling them it’s food for a week isn’t very helpful. I’m not that poor yet, it’d be wonderful for me. But I’m not using a food bank yet, either.

otoh, Anyone can eat a breakfast bar on the bus into work or school, or on a break. Or as a late night snack when they are just too beat to make dinner. Uht milk can be drunk as it is, or will keep till the weekend under the bed (in case it gets ‘borrowed’ from your communal fridge by people struggling as much as you are). Soup in tins will store as well and can go on the hot plate or microwave in your bedsit or even at work.

It’s not ‘you’re poor, so you can eat poison’. It’s providing food universally accessible enough so the poorest can eat AT ALL. It does you credit to want high standards, but poor people, by definition, do not have your resources. So we can’t always do the things you can do. We need emergency solutions that work with what we have for now. And those solutions won’t look the same as your weekly shop (although I wish they did). They’re a sticking plaster. Tackling poverty needs long term political solutions so that people DO have the resources to make chicken soup. Tackling hunger tomorrow afternoon needs a box of breakfast bars.

I think if I were in those situations and I got a fresh chicken, I’d bloody cry. A box of kit kats for my kids’ after school would make me smile. Short term mental health boost maybe, but a boost nonetheless. Good food is better than bad food. But bad food is better than no food.

@Eeksteek Thank you for this post. Very well written and insightful for anyone who doesn’t know what it is like being poor

This is the attitude that's a problem though. You're idealising the outcome and putting some kind of moral high ground onto food.

What are you expecting, hypothetically, a 17 year old with no cooking skills to do with a bag of oats? They're unlikely to have any decent quantity of milk for a decent porridge nor butter or sugar for baking. So that leaves porridge with water. Again, unlikely to have something like honey or fresh fruit, chocolate spread or peanut butter etc for the top of it so they're left with a bowl of porridge with water. Assuming they have the kitchen access, energy on the meter, cooking utensils and knowledge of how to actually cook that porridge. Oh, and if they even like porridge?

On the other hand, they could've been provided with a box of cereal bars or king life bread product which would've given them something they could have shoved into their bag before college so they didn't have to wait until their bursary (if they're lucky) subsidised lunch break to eat something.

We're just fire fighting; the core problem is with parenting, the care system, education, the government. Trying to enact change and maintain some kind of moralistic hierarchy of food at a food bank level is pointless, a total waste of energy and resources.

Womens aid or womens charities may take those types of things.

I did some volunteering at a food bank and they would say it’s quantity over quality which is why you might find people donate value tins of potatoes and carrots.

I did a large shop for one yesterday and they wanted coffee so among the items I got a tray of 6 value Tesco ones at 80p each. The next cheapest they had in stock was £4 each. To get six of those was £24!

I disagree - everyone is different and some will want instant foods but others will find them depressing, or even not know what to do with them, especially if they haven’t grown up in the UK. All kinds of people are falling into financial difficulties, including middle class families, people whose businesses failed, not just 17 year olds without the wherewithal to cook porridge. Life is expensive now and it can take something like a cancer diagnosis to take someone from managing their money ok into poverty.

Ours takes toiletries etc but they are stressing that whilst they take everything they are desperate for the basics and are encouraging people to buy quantity rather than branded goods so the cheapest supermarket own brand. Ours provides colouring sheets and pencils currently for children sponsored by a local business but they welcome things like multipacks of haribo that can be split up to give a little treat for children, you could buy multi packs of bars of chocolate too eg aldi do them.

Remember full bellies are the aim, it's really hard currently

Our local food bank has lots of storage space (thanks to a very generous neighbour) so has a couple of tables for treats. I think people can pick five of their choice. They also run a children's clothing bank so I try to donate something to that on a regular basis.

@daisyjgrey

Our food bank requests tinned potatoes and carrots! Lentils are amazing for cheap filling food, all you need is an onion, curry powder and a stock cube for dal - much of India subsists on this staple, served with rice or flatbreads (simply flour and water kneaded, stretched out/rolled and fried). You can add any veg you have going limp/frozen too. We had it last night, about 30p a portion including the rice.

@motogirl

Yes I know some do. I can only speak anecdotally from working where I do, with people who receive them. Just because the items are requested, doesn't mean they're the ones that best do the job I suppose. It depends on their destination.

@motogirl

Also, your point about lentils is something I've already explained. "All you need" is other ingredients, the knowledge, time in a kitchen space, cooking equipment and the actual want to eat a dhal. From a youth support perspective, they're nigh on useless.

Yes definitely donate the children's stuff - our local one has said they are starting to put treat boxes together for the summer holidays and include colouring stuff, baking kits, fun cereal.

It's not really about how YOU feel about it.
People needs the means and the energy and the time and skill to cook from scratch. And some have a kettle. And that's it.

What's less nutritious than "chemical food" is no food at all. The foodbanks know what they're doing.