A couple of food bank questions

[Champagneforeveryone]

Treading carefully having had my arse handed to me on a previous food bank thread, but here goes....

DH has bought home a reverse advent calendar from church. All well and good, we donate a package at Christmas anyway and I assumed this would be things that were specifically needed.

Now I'm aware these are suggestions and I can deviate away from it, but the list includes such random items as salad cream, fish paste, tinned tomatoes and tinned vegetables. I know literally nobody who eats tinned veg or fish paste, tinned tomatoes are a decent staple but need a lot of extra gubbins to cook with, and there's surely a limit to the amount of salad cream one food bank can stockpile. I have visions of the volunteers desperately slipping bottles of salad cream into the bags of every visitor every single time they attend.

So is this representative of what food banks actually give out, or a list compiled by a well meaning but clueless church person? There was no mention of toiletries (including sanitary protection) packet noodles, pasta sauce etc which just seemed odd.

Secondly, while I blatantly ignored the missive to buy fish paste was shopping, I started to wonder which is the best option. For example one of the items was biscuits.
There is a huge range of biscuits and I couldn't really decide whether I should buy 6 packs of the economy ones, or two packs of nicer ones. I didn't consider one pack of the premium range as I don't usually buy them myself.

On the one hand, I feel bad buying cheaper quality than I buy myself, almost as if I'm suggesting you don't deserve nice things if you use a food bank. OTOH, 6 families could have had a packet of biscuits rather than the 2 who will benefit from my choice. I just think that if I was so desperate that I was relying on a food bank, then a nice packet of biscuits is possibly the only treat I might get. If you donate, what do you do?

Once you start considering these things, the whole thing becomes a minefield 😆

@DuchessSilver

It can work however you want it to. The first year I did it, I had a big box in the kitchen, and every day I put something from the kitchen into it - whether it was a tin, or a bottle of squash, or a tube of toothpaste etc. Things that I had 'in stock' at home. Of course they were then replaced in my next shop - I didn't go out to buy them specifically.

In subsequent years, I've done a separate shop at the supermarket and bought 24 things (or thereabouts) and just donated them at that time.

The first method was quite good from a 'daily reminder that we're lucky to be fortunate enough to be able to eat whatever we choose from the supermarket', and to see it build over December. But trying to sort out the physical donation of it was a challenge for various reasons.

The second was more practical, but didn't quite have the 'advent calendar' vibe.

I think that's exactly it reviewing we've opted to do the reverse calendar as it has a little more of a festive feel to it. We're also doing things differently as this is the first year that DS has been away and we're in a new house, new traditions so to speak <wanky>

I've cheated somewhat as I've bought however many items we needed for the first donation in one go (DH will drop it off weekly at church) If I had young children then we would be physically putting something in a box every day, and buying items whenever we went out.

Next weeks donations will indeed include fish paste 😉

DO bear in mind that foodbanks usually feed people in hostel type accomodation as well as those in their own homes. The former may have very limited access to facilities. The two foodbanks I've volunteered with have very different food parcels for those in hostels to those at home. So hostel packages often have things like pot noodles and cupa soups that can be made with a kettle and microwave rice pouches/stir in no cook sauces rather than packets of pasta and tins of tomatoes. The hostel guys also like tins of fruit with pull ring tops (often don't have tin openers).

Could you donate it to the actual volunteers?

I've occasionally given spare alcohol to my GP's surgery, I've also given them cake, they are fairly awesome.

My local foodbank uses a brilliant app called "Bank the Food" which means that there's an updated list of their needs (divided into urgent, less urgent, everything else). It also emails me whenever I go near a supermarket which collects food. So, I can check what their immediate needs are as I go into the supermarket, and buy what I can as I go round. Its really worth checking if your local foodbank is signed up to this!

I bloody love salmon paste

Whenever my husband does the shopping he will always buy a couple of those shipman’s chicken pastes, I always turn my nose up and won’t touch the stuff but he likes it on toast!

I have ptsd from dreadful, boring Sunday evenings with my dm saying, “Pass the paste, Douglas.” Aaaaagh!

Douglas being df, not me!

Tinned veg is a staple because lots of foodbanks don't have refrigerator space for fresh, and often those collecting food might not have a fridge or the electricity to run it. Tinned peas can be eaten straight from the can cold if need be. Frozen often say on the packet not to be eaten raw.

Fish paste is good because its ready to eat. No need to cook or keep cold. Also good for perhaps Muslim families who won't want your can of corned beef as its not halal. Also fish is a good source of omega 3 if they're not getting it from elsewhere.

Salad cream is a bit of an odd one. I've never bought salad cream myself and wouldn't bother with that. But fancy biscuits are always nice at Christmas. To eat as a treat or give away if they've no money to buy presents for others.

It may also be that things like pasta, rice etc they get lots of year round and they're asking specifically for things they don't get often. Or they have another source for it - for example a company might give them a direct supply of toothpaste so they don't need the public to supply it. Friends that help at a food bank have had an increase in people asking for ready to eat foods as they can't afford to top up the meter to cook it.

Not our experience sadly!
This year we have just under the amount of calendars we need to provide every family with one per child.
It's no big deal for one of us to grab a few more but I don't want people to think every food bank is inundated with them!!

One thing which is really appreciated by the food banks I overlap with at work are things which are a full meal by themselves.

so things like stews / chunky soups / sausage and beans / curry / chilli / ambient temperature ready meals etc.

These are really useful because they can be used for the vast majority of service users, are cheap to heat, and don’t need any additional ingredients to make a meal.

I’m always amazed by what the food banks are asking for (fruit juice and squash is not an essential IMO when you can drink tap water!) but I often put tinned veg in because it’s a healthy option if people can’t afford fresh. I think it’s also already cooked so only needs heating up and hence low on energy use.

Porridge oats
Powdered milk
Sugar
..makes a lovely filling breakfast

Tinned veg is a winner at our food bank. Also soup, is really good if it is filling like chicken and vegetable or beef stew.like We get a lot of returns but tinned veg is rarely returned. Most food banks are really struggling now so I would buy the cheaper things to feed more people. Tinned potato is brilliant also instant Mash.

We are desperate for nappies, long life milk and what is know as Kettle food. So many people are afraid to use the cookers. Pot noodles boil in the bag rice etc.
Tinned fruit and tinned custard also goes down well.

We had a donation of 24 fray bentos steak pie in a tin, which looked really nice. It took 40 minutes in an oven , a lot of them came back.

I think knowing what is frequently returned to food banks would be useful, as well as what is not, in which areas.

Orange juice is packed with vitamin C.

Squash can be made into a hot drink if you use the kettle, and if you nave no heating it's more plateable for children than tea.

What a condescending attitude.
Yuk.

Soon as the chocolate advent calendars come out there is usually an offer on them, so I try to afford a number of them in early November so are ready well in time for distribution. I try to do something helpful like tampons / shampoos etc along with something more treat like, especially for kids - so chocolate animal biscuits or the like, and if there is an offer then gluten free items too, although these are usually too expensive to buy when not on offer. I’d like to think it will make someone’s life just that little bit easier

As silly as it may sound if you are really hungry some squash is so nice just to have a taste of something!

What a condescending attitude.

Absolutely ..Let 'em drink tap water. Miserable attitude.

I volunteer in a church food bank. People do eat fish paste (surprisingly to me). The older ladies are particularly fond of it.
Tinned veg is also universally popular as quick and easy (and cheap) to cook with limited space.
not sure about the salad cream. Ketchup is hugely popular here so maybe it’s a similar thing? Or maybe it’s a church error.

not sure about the salad cream. Ketchup is hugely popular here so maybe it’s a similar thing? Or maybe it’s a church error.

Ultimately these things are put together by humans, and often by volunteers. I can totally imagine the situation where I (I'm a FB manager) say to my volunteers, Hey, Oak Primary wants to do a collection for us, what should I suggest? And because two people that day asked after salad cream, salad cream goes on the list.

I suppose demographics change and what an elderly person likes is not the same as younger people who might not recognise fish paste and a fray bentos pie.

Sometimes Food Banks get it a bit wrong in their tone. Of course out-of-date crap and a jar of home-made banana&pumpkin pickle that you won on a tombola 3 years ago are unacceptable, but our local one stated “no own brands” as the recipients didn’t like them. That’s as may be, but if I had been the Food Bank I wouldn’t have shared that piece of information as I for one was a bit taken aback.

What does 'no own brands' even mean? No M&S? No Waitrose Finest? But a load of Princes sardine fish paste or Spam is OK?

That's madness.