About food banks- just a bit surprised really

[topbannana]

I have just come across a notice in the paper from church, appealing for donations for the local food bank.
Thankfully I have never had need for a food bank but I think they are a great idea and I was happy to buy extra and donate.
The list however was quite specific (understandable) but I was amazed to see requests for custard, rice pudding, biscuits and sugar. In my book these would be considered luxuries, in that if I was short on my grocery budget we would forego them.
Surely the food bank is there to supply people with emergency essentials not extras? As it goes I will simply buy loo rolls, pasta, powdered milk or something else off the list and ignore the bits I don't agree with. I don't really think I am but AIBU?

vanillamum - thanks for that. OMG. Another activist in the making here.

I can't find it but I posted up thread about them being a formal part of the system and someone responded to that.

As I said they used to be when something went wrong with the system. It used to be that the benefit office workers job was to assist you in getting the benefits you needed but now they are under pressure to deny people the benefits they are entitled to with sanctions etc.

Where before you might be sent to a foodbank if you'd 'slipped through the net', if there had been a mistake now it's a case of 'we're sanctioning you for x number of weeks or months (or more!) go to the foodbank if you're unable to magic up some money or magic up a job. Here's a voucher'.

This is what I mean by saying it's become a formal part of welfare.

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I feel rather ambivalent towards food banks. I deeply resent being guilted into contributing ( to bastarding Big Society) by a govt who refuses to meet its responsibilities to us.

I have however donated to my local one. It was a time consuming process because I decided to use local independent shops in our market area rather than simply make an online order to be delivered to the fb.

I know sometimes food banks will set up outside supermarkets and ask people to buy a bit extra to donate. But supermarkets are a very powerful lobby group in the UK and are (one of the) drivers of the sorts of policies which contribute to making foodbanks necessary. The vols at the fb didn't get my resistance to using the supermarkets at all bless them (and it's not like I don't use them myself sometimes) I can understand why they would set up outside the local tesco and also you can order from supermarkets online and have it delivered to the fb during their opening hours.

I think I might ask some of the local traders if they would be interested in putting up signs for people to buy something to put in an instore container that the shop might be willing to deliver to the fb. I'd like to see something which supports traders who are not mercenary fucks like Tesco. Although I'm sure being a local trader doesn't exclude one from also being a mercenary fuck!

YABU

how dare they have sugar! And biscuits and custard! Where's the fucking gruel?

Unbelievable

In this area the foodbank only accepts donations between 11am and 3pm on weekdays. I suspect this makes it more difficult to donate goods. Even one day a fortnight of opening to 7pm would make it easier.( Or a few hours on a weekend once a month?)

Oh god I'm a bit late

at bunson.

As I said JsOtherHalf even though I don't really approve you can order online and arrange a delivery slot that fits in with the fb opening hours.

It is very difficult to maintain a volunteer presence 24/7 to receive donations.

To address this we put "Tin Bins" in various places who are willing to work with us, so the porch of a local church (they were worried about goods being stolen but I just think if someone needs it that much what is the problem, we would give it to them anyway); a couple of pubs, the housing association; district council; the butcher; a couple of cafes; citizens advice; etc - when they are full we go and pick up.

Interestingly we don't have a tin bin in any local supermarkets.

It is actually more difficult to be available when people need to collect. We are in the countryside so we have bought a van and do a once a week delivery service (think of the mobile library). It's expensive though!

This is the most wanted donations for my city's food bank.
MOST NEEDED FOOD ITEMS
canned fruit
vegetables
breakfast cereals
pancake mix
juice
tea
coffee
canned milk
peanut butter
cheese spreads
jam
canned stew
canned fish
pasta
rice
tomato sauce
dry soup
canned soup
holiday treats
baking mixes
personal care items
grocery gift certificates
diapers
formula

I suppose you have to take into consideration that some people won't have access to (proper) cooking facilities?

what sort of thing are holiday treats?

I am not sure, I was wondering that myself. Gingerbread House Kits, or some other holiday type of thing? Christmas cookies and candies perhaps? Hot chocolate mix? I know when they give a Christmas hamper they include things like cookie mixes and canned frosting, a fruit cake, pudding cups, as well as items for a Christmas turkey dinner and a few other meals.

ah! or easter eggs etc. fair enough.

Yes, some people don't have basic baking supplies. Sometimes they barely have utensils, or only have a microwave to cook with. I try and put stuff that doesn't need eggs or milk, in case the person doesn't have them. So all in one pancake mix where you just add water, rather than a mix that requires an egg.

Holiday treats are things like lunch box snacks, so could be kitkats or similar. This category also includes the (much hated by MN) fruitshoots, packets of crisps, raisins, dried fruits.Custardy type pots (that don't need the fridge) - basically think the kids won't be getting free school meals what can we do to feed them up and provide the snacks they need to keep them going throughout the day.
Bear in mind these kids don't tend towards obese on the BMI scale so healthy here means high calorie.

This thread inspired me, I just e-mailed the local food bank to see what volunteer work an old dame with arthritis can do to help. They have a seniors lunch, maybe I can help prepare and serve!

Regards cooking facilities - some have a full range of facilities, others just a microwave or a slow cooker and some have only a kettle and a toaster.

This actually goes right back to the original post - what can you cook in a pan/microwave/slow cooker or even eat straight from the tin? Rice pudding and custard!!!

I think when I did my donation I bought stuff on the list but added a couple of big bags of shelled peanuts because they are high in calories and useful for snacks.

personal care items I think are very important. deodorant, shampoo, soap, razors, sanitary products. these things mean so much.

I always remember having to interpret for a Bosnian woman who had fled with her children and a bag of essentials to a friend in another country.. Her friend was astonished she had included a pair of high heeled shoes and remonstrated with her.. She explained that just because she was a refugee did not mean she was not a woman and that who was her friend to decide what was important to her. Such a lesson in not dictating need.

She needed those shoes to be herself. when everything else had been stripped from her.

MadameDe - absolutely x

My mothers church runs a small food bank, it is open once a week and they get sent clients from family services. My mom said sometimes a person would open up a loaf of bread right there and eat it, as they were so hungry. (in Canada here, so things may be a bit different) My mother was telling me one day that an older, single woman who received a turkey, started crying. My son, aged 6, who was listening asked my mother, "Didn't she like turkey?"
Such an innocent question, made me feel choked up to have to explain the woman was happy as she may not have had meat in a while.

Also turkey is christmas. It's what it symbolises as much as about not going hungry.

Ugh. so angry that this is necessary.

We all have rights; and we all have responsibilities.

We can find ourselves unemployed, in which case we may have a right to unemployment benefits. But that right to unemployment benefits is not unqualified. If an individual wants to claim money off the working population via the mechanism of Government benefits then that individual needs to demonstrate to the Government that they are doing everything within their power to get a job.

I've read through most of this thread, and I've not seen one suggestion that any of the recipients of food-charity from food-banks should take more responsibility for their own lives.

Yes, it is your responsibility to attend interviews, training and job experience (paid or unpaid).

Yes, it is your responsibility to, perhaps, get a "rubbish" minimum-wage job and maybe stick at it for months or years (like many fine people do).

Yes, it is your responsibility to travel 10s of miles for a job (like many fine people do).

However well-intentioned, many of the contributors to this thread are infantilising the recipients of food-charity from food-banks.

I am very pleased that the Government is, at last, starting to show true compassion towards the unemployed: the belief that, with appropriate carrot & stick incentives, they are capable of becoming contributive & self-accomplished citizens.

do fuck off urbane. you have no bloody idea what it is like. there is no compassion in stripping the most vulnerable of even the most basic necessities.

what you need to really be concerned about is the govt offloading its duty to the vulnerable onto the charity sector.

and there is no such word as contributive.. and self-accomplished is not a word either.

God help you if you need to write a covering letter to get a job.

Yes, it is your responsibility to attend interviews, training and job experience (paid or unpaid

What for people like fucking Poundland so they can get out of paying a decent wage?

Urbane