How much do you give to your local food bank?

[BluSquid]

I've always picked up a few bits while shopping to pop into the big box on the way out of the supermarket, but lately I've been seeing a lot of social media posts asking for donations to my local food bank, as they're beginning to struggle.

I'm going to increase the amount of food I donate by quite a lot, and look at donating some money, so I'm wondering what most other people give? Also, is there particular foods that they tend to get an abundance of, and any that they could do with more of?

I have a food bank not too far away and every 2 weeks I drop by with "Own Brand" either dry goods rice/pasta etc and have recently started adding in own brand sanitary products and shower gels maybe £10 worth at a time as I am only on a pension.

I just buy one extra thing every time l go to the supermarket and pop it in the box

Depends on what week of the month it is for me. My big shop after pay day I usually donate some tinned meat, things like curry in a can, tinned veg, long life milk, box of cereal and some biscuits. About £10 worth. Or what was £10 worth a few months ago.

I have got assorted toiletries bagged up for this week.

My local foodbank always asks for meat products (Fray Bentos pies, canned hot dogs or mince for example) , UHT milk and tinned vegetables and say they have enough soup, pasta and beans.

£30 per month on standing order. I always forget to add stuff to my trolley.

I always put a couple of packs of sanitary protection in. It's less than a pound for supermarket own brand ones, along with a couple of tins of soup and pet food.
I know pet food may sound silly, but for some people their pets are everything to them.

Work at a women's shelter that gets food donated. Can't speak for others, but please no green beans! The shelf of cans upon cans of green beens is demoralising, no one is going to sit down and eat a can of green beans, and most of the time there aren't enough other ingredients to make it a meal.

I second meat as mentioned above. Also breakfast cereals and snacks are useful. Something to bring a little joy and also to be edible without any/much prep. Those who are short on food are often also short on time.

Also think of snacks or foods your kids enjoy, again that's probably not a can of green beans.

(Yes I do have some green bean related trauma)

DH and I are giving £20 a month with gift aid. Seemed to me that the gift aid part is a good idea as the Foodbank get more money this way to spend.

Plus I tend to forget the foodbank when Im doing the dash round Tesco on a Friday night. So this way they get a regular donation from us.

(By the way I'm not poor, but my username is a private joke with myself as DH last week excitedly announced our Utilities bill has gone DOWN not up. And then I reminded him it has been SUMMER. Bless him.)

When donating to Food Banks PLEASE check their website or app first to see what they need urgently, and more importantly what isn’t needed.

We have a pasta, tea, dog food and porridge mountain and don’t need any more
but are desperate for washing powder, shower gel and tinned rice pudding.

As you work in a food bank, can you suggest whether it's better to give groceries or donate money?

I do Ocado 'you give we give', in hope that this means the food bank get what they need rather than what I want to give (and no pasta mountain!)

I spend £5 - £10 per shop - we do online shopping about every 10 days. There's a donation point a 5 minute walk away from me. I usually donate tinned fruit, tinned meat (usually ham), biscuits, and packets of noodles or microwave rice. I do check what is needed on the website.

Fingernails I also volunteer in a Food Bank and agree with Formerly please check what your local Food Bank needs ... we too are inundated with pasta and porridge. A financial donation is very useful as we can buy what we need and stock up when donations are low ... currently we are overwhelmed with Harvest donations. Physically collecting the donations from the supermarkets can be hard work too ... none of our volunteers are young .

I now shop online, but when I shopped in person I always calculated 10% of my own spend and added items to that amount. Approximately £20/25 per month.

I tended to choose tins of tuna, tins of ham, breakfast cereals, shower gel, toothbrushes, tinned fruit and rice/custard. I always chose what was on offer to get best value for money.

When I moved to online, I set up a DD for £20pm + Gift Aid. I've recently increased that to £40pm + Gift Aid because I know (from the webpage and general news items) the foodbank is really struggling and it's likely to get worse.

What a mess in the 21st century.

Thanks all. I did think that tinned meat and 'treat' items would be better. I know that if I was struggling and feeling shit about my situation then some 'treat' food would make me feel a lot better than a bag full of green beans and smart price pasta.

My local isn't asking for anything specific atm other than winter coats, electric blankets, hot water bottles and slow cookers (which is heart breaking to think about when I know that my house will be toasty warm all winter long!) so I think I'll pick up a bunch of those for now.

@Ragwort there was a few mentions of harvest donations on my local's facebook page, what is it exactly?

I usually buy one or two items to put in the collection when I do my weekly shop. I'm a single mum not earning a lot so I can't really do much more.

A financial donation would be the most helpful at the food bank I help out at. As others have said, there is lots of harvest donation food at the moment, but knowing we have the money in an account so we can buy top up food when donations are not so plentiful is really helpful. If you want to donate food I would check what they actually need.

I also do the Ocado ‘we give, you give’ as mentioned by a PP. I used to give £20 a month as £5 each weekly order. Now ordering roughly fortnightly and giving £10, but also buying things for the local food bank as DD’s school has a collection point now. The weeks I don’t get an Ocado delivery I get a delivery from one of the cheaper supermarkets, and spend about £10 a month on items to donate. I always check the list of what is needed too.
A friend whose parents volunteer at a food bank said they have found that often people wanted the own brand items, including the value items, as otherwise it is obvious to their children that it must have come from a food bank as wouldn’t be affordable. I confess, that hadn’t occurred to me. It made me feel ok about buying the own brand items to donate. I mean, I use them myself, but was still concerned that it would feel somehow mean for people using food banks.

I just give a few quid whenever I can afford it, I was unfortunate enough to need to use the food bank a few years ago with my allergic tricky family and they were amazing at getting the things we needed, so I always hope that they use that money for other allergic tricky families like mine during hard times.

As soon as the credits rolled on I Daniel Blake I signed up to donate £50 a month. Takes all the agonising / remembering out and the charity can buy exactly what they need that month.

I actually rarely donate food as I do forget or find the trolley is in an awkward place in my local stores but frequently donate old excellent condition jackets, snowsuits etc. I also normally give to Christmas appeals but am loathed to this year as I know of to many families that didn't need the gifts but got anyway (as they had already spent far more on there kids than I could ever afford). I think I will donate the £20 I normally spend to a food bank this year instead. I donate a couple of hours a week to help families in need to.

I've just set up a standing order for £67 per month for the next 6 months. It's the refund I'm getting on my energy bill and as I'm on a fixed rate till the spring it seemed wrong to keep it.

If you are giving food give tinned meat. Beans .peas and maybe mixed veg. Soup maybe a packet of noodles pasta in sauce are always welcome, I think giving what you can afford is fine.

I send them £50 or £100 a few times a year. They need to be able to buy less frequently donated items and this is far easier for me.