To think Edwina Currie should do a few stints in a Food Bank...

[Misspixietrix]

...to realise how ignorant her comments are? Just been reading the Morning Paper in which she is quoted to say Food Banks are the reason shops are closing . I can't link as using the phone to MN. At one it says "The ex-MP said many who rely on Food Banks are 'not poor' and have 'substantial benefits' to live on". I'm a volunteer for the Trussell Trust. To say this comment stinks of ignorance would be an understatement.

[Ubik1]

That John Major thing was really disturbing...the images...the...bleurgh

And poor Norma had to put up with Currie simpering all over the national press.

Do you remember the salmonella in eggs scare? When she single-handedly almost destroyed an industry

It's shocking to think these people were once in power....oh they're still in power

[KayHarker1]

But hey, it's a lifestyle choice, innit? Who wouldn't want the humiliation of turning up on Monday morning with your pink slip to get a tin of peaches and some minestrone to feed your kids who might not have eaten since Friday lunchtime? Get on your bike, earn a wage, knit your own minestrone.

[Misspixietrix]

Precisely ubik1 that's why people get so cross I think. Because such people ok n these positions still have enough of a platform to spout ill informed opinions such as her food bank one. Re the shops closing I remember the long road in to my city centre being awash with shops. Booming businesses on my way to College and University. Most of it is derilict now. I don't think they were THAT many Food banks back in my college days so wonder what she thinks made those close down?

[wetaugust]

She did say that she had visited the homes of some of those who had been helped by the foodbank.

Actually, reading the Curry article some of it is actually compassion. She's more or less saying 'Give a man a fish and you'll feed him for a day. Teach a man to fish and he can feed himself for a lifetime'.

She's arguing for increased spending on drug rehabilitation, debt management and other pratical steps. She's saying that they increase dependency and she's right in a way, as handing out food forever is only a sticking plaster on a very gaping wound.

Trouble is that people on here get outraged at the very mention of her name and only tale out of the aticle what supports their already derogatory view of her.

Take the Benefits Street episode this week- which I am sure I will be told was actually stage-mananged by C4 and not at all like real life. However, set that aside and you saw the man return from the foodbank with more than the 3 days.

< and I await to be flamed by those accusing me of begriging the family 48 Weetabiz - because it's impossible to have areal debate on here>

Meanwhile his wife is smoking away their benefits money.



Foodbamks are very ultruistic but they are also a very blunt instrument and don't provide a longterm sustainable solution to the problems these people face.

[Elfhame]

How can someone who had shagged a married man and then blabbed about it, go on about poor life choices? The woman is a fucking joke.

[Custardo]

maybe its those dastardly poor people diving in skips behind shops for food - those like the ones that were arrested for doing that behind an Iceland

those poor people (GRRRRR) putting hard business owners out of business

unlike Tesco express etc - who don't do that AT all (hmm)

[Socks555]

YANBU

I think she was trolling though TBH. Probably bored, being the scandalous women what she always will be

[Ubik1]

It's about poverty.

Simple as that.

None of this 'cost of living crisis' bollocks spouted by labour or 'hard working families' rhetoric recycled endlessly by the tories.

It's poverty.

There are limited jobs. The jobs that are available do not offer enough pay/hours to support a family. It's an extremely stressful way to live. It's very hard to move out of this rut once you are in it.

[ifyourehoppyandyouknowit]

But you can't just go to a food bank every week. You have to be referred, and perhaps it is different in other areas but here the food banks (plural, how depressing) work together so you can't really hop from one to another and you are only allowed to be referred to them a certain number of times. The referral is also part of a wider holistic approach that aims to help people with the cause of their crisis. So yes, spend more money on drug rehabilitation etc because those are vital services, but usually accessing a food bank comes along with all other kinds of help.

And my arse is it the case of supermarkets losing money.

[Ubik1]

"Teach a man to fish and he can feed himself for a lifetime'"

Yup - give a person a decent job with a decent rate of pay and they won't be at the food bank...oh but doing that isn't as easy as spouting off in The New Statesman

Give them a zero hours contract and get them in to work 8 hours a week (yes I am looking at you Tesco) then no one has enough money but Tesco is happy and the government is happy.

[KayHarker1]

Thankyou HopALongOn - it's part of a holistic approach.

[Socks555]

I find it strange that people can only be referred to food banks 3 times. Like that'll sort them out!!

Like being referred to counseling but only being allowed 6 sessions, if you've not sorted out your life in that time, tough!

[Misspixietrix]

wetaugust Last October we had a client come in for a Food Parcel on the Friday. They were meant to be paid on the Monday. (She had just lost her job. Company bust so no redundancy). Monday came and they hadn't paid her and told she had to wait again. She went to apply for another 3 days and got told "no. These vouchers were designed to fill the gaps". They aren't given consecutive Vouchers so aren't given endless food neither as Currie appears to insinuate. I didn't watch the Benefits Street programme. 1) it had been done to death already with the Skint and Britain on Benefits 1949 etc. 2) I'm very glad I didn't after hearing Ch 4 deliberately edited out a working couple from the programme. Still I suppose that wouldnt make good tv.

[KayHarker1]

It's not tough, it's up to the referring agency to make sure that the crisis which precipitated the need for the food bank has been dealt with. We don't just throw food at people and leave them in the shit.

[Misspixietrix]

Sorry phone had a tantrum. The reply she got was "no. Food Bank vouchers are for Emergencies only. They arent designed to keep filling the gaps".

[wetaugust]

Are you saying the Food Bank turned her away?

[Misspixietrix]

Can I just point out that that comment i made in my previous post was made by a Jobcentre advisor. Not a member of the Foodbank :).

[Socks555]

But does the referring agency make sure that the crisis which precipitated the need for the food bank has been dealt with?

[ifyourehoppyandyouknowit]

I do find it odd to limit it to a certain number of times, but it's based on the idea that if they can access a benefits check and other support with debt etc at the same time, they can help 'fix' the cause of the crisis. The actual situation being that sometimes the causes can't be fixed, obviously. But that's another argument that will make me want to pull my own teeth out.

I have spent all this morning in a meeting about how to help support people, to reduce the number of excess winter deaths, and quite frankly, hearing this kind of shite spouted by people without even half of a clue makes me want to cry. It's all so futile in the face of constant benefits bashing and judge judge judging of people who are in the most horrendous of situations. And yeah, I guess some people do make poor life choices. But quite a lot of people are just dealt a shit hand, again and again and again and this kind of 'kick them when they're down' mentality, deserving/undeserving poor bullshit is... exhausting. What is the point of even arguing with people who are never going to get it? Really?

[Misspixietrix]

I've just commented again wetaugust. No they didn't turn her away. The Jobcentre refused to refer her again.TThat's how hard it is to get referred.

[Misspixietrix]

Because Hopalong we only ever lose if we stop trying.

[JakeBullet]

If EC has visited food banks then she should know better than to make such ignorant and ill informed comments. It makes her look like she is talking bollocks.....oh wait!

[wetaugust]

it's up to the referring agency to make sure that the crisis which precipitated the need for the food bank has been dealt with.

I cannot see how that is workable. You say GP, SS, HV, Church etc can all refer. How is the average GP who refers a person because that person has debts they cannot service, supposed to then monitor that the original crisis of their referral has been dealt with.?

Impossible.

It's just continuing with very fragmented, disjointed emergency sticking plasters when a holistic approach is needed in conjunction with all the agencies concerned.

But that won't happen as the agencies will claim lack of resource and the liberals will claim unnecessary interference with a person's rights.

Instead of donating a tin of beans I'd rather support a cause that taught people literacy, or taught the to drive. Some charitable sector undertaking that actually gave people the skills (the fishing) to b able to support themselves.

[JakeBullet]

Yeah that'll work wetaugust, of course the person (and possibly their children) will starve in the meantime but otherwise good idea

[KayHarker1]

Socks, hopefully, because there should be proper liason between the food bank and the referring agency.

I'm with HopALongOn, it's maddening that the people being attacked here are the weakest, least able to defend themselves. Not a day goes by I don't thank my lucky stars that I've been dealt a better hand, but you know what, a twist of fate, and I could be there.