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AIBU?

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Original poster

Healthy food for the food bank

217 replies

Pimpleminds · 07/10/2014 16:06

DD's school want donations for the food bank for their harvest festival. I asked my friend who works there what they were short of and she said hot chocolate. Spurred on by this I picked up some instant hot choc and a box of coco pops but DD was horrified: 'no mum Mrs X (head) said it must be healthy food for people that don't have the money to buy things that are good for them'.
AIBU to think that if you are using a food bank you might want the odd treat as well?

OP posts:
TimeForAnotherNameChange · 07/10/2014 17:02

And a Sainsbury's basics bar costs 30p. 30p to make someone's life just that little bit better for a few moments. You'd really begrudge them that?

blackberrypicking · 07/10/2014 17:03

Yep, patronising.

TimeForAnotherNameChange · 07/10/2014 17:04

We're not saying it'll change their life but god, everyone deserves some sliver of something positive.

blackberrypicking · 07/10/2014 17:06

No, you're saying never mind darling, I will make your life good. Just for an instant! Mmm, yummy chocolate! There, it's all okay now. Just for a moment.

Patronising and condescending.

I accept it's kindly meant but I do not accept any items are urgently needed.

The items a food bank urgently needs are food (and obviously baby stuff etc.) But food is the priority.

You can get nice tasty tinned puddings if you want to Make Someone's Life Better for an instant.

enderwoman · 07/10/2014 17:08

Interesting list... I'd not thought of stuff like plastic cutlery when value metal cutlery is cheaper and tinned puddings. Is there a reason why the toothpaste has a specific size?

Chunderella · 07/10/2014 17:08

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

kelliewellie · 07/10/2014 17:09

Last year we donated selection boxes and Christmas puddings in December. Selection boxes so the kids in the family actually had a Christmas treat that they wouldn't have otherwise had. Everyone needs a treat now and then

OneSkinnyChip · 07/10/2014 17:10

What's the difference between chocolate and a tinned pudding? Confused

I would rather have the chocolate than a 'tasty tinned pudding'!

blackberrypicking · 07/10/2014 17:13

And yes we had to use a food bank when our parents had died and we had no money. We sold their car but had to wait for the cheque to clear (we were both in our teens.)

Believe me a food bank is as low and shite as you can feel. Not because you have to use it but because it means you have nowhere to go. No one to turn to.

A bar of Smartprice chocolate or basics or whatever - sorry that doesn't alter that. Problem is it doesn't really feed you either. You desperately really need stuff you can cobble together something resembling a meal, those sausages and spaghetti in tomato sauce were a godsend and rice pudding, Irish stew in a tin - that was nice. Soup (we were SO grateful to have Heinz tomato, yum.) packet of biscuits was helpful (think we had bourbon creams) as we could share them and have a cup of tea.

But sticking a bat of choc in and feeling like a good person doesn't cut it sorry. And I know I'm being a pain in the arse but I've used these things and trust me when you see some well meaning but clueless person stuck a bar of chocolate in you just think 'why'.

Plus value chocolate tastes crap. Most value food does tbf, but rice pudding is nice and so is tinned fruit.

ShadowsShadowsEverywhere · 07/10/2014 17:14

blackberry as someone who used foodbanks while in refuge and who knew a lot of other women who also used the foodbank you are talking complete bollocks. It wasn't patronising or condescending to have treats in our boxes. It made us feel human and "normal" again for five mins, and after eating food that tasted like cat food (tinned ravioli anyone?) for weeks on end that tinned treacle pudding, bar of chocolate and packet of jelly babies for the kids was amazing. The kids all sat down together and shared them out and I remember us dipping one tea bag into 6 cups and then siting down with "tea" and sharing out our chocolate.

It wasn't patronising.
It wasn't condescending
It was kind
Generous
And made a really special memory that is still fresh in my mind.

blackberrypicking · 07/10/2014 17:15

One because you know, the tinned pudding is a meal of sorts or part of a meal. Chocolate is a snack. And it tastes horrible (the value stuff) and trust me you VERY rarely get anything that's not the absolute basic stuff.

Look in your Tesco trolley for the food bank, it's just about all Tesco value! Which sucks a bit. It's like 'you're starving so you'll eat anything.' Which is sort of true, but some stuff at least tastes like proper food but the chocolate - boak!

Plus hot stuff is VERY good. It fills you up more.

TimeForAnotherNameChange · 07/10/2014 17:15

Well clearly you should become Minister for Food Banks then *blackberry, sheesh...

blackberrypicking · 07/10/2014 17:16

Well you must be different from me as sitting down sharing a bar of value chocolate both of us just felt sick as it tasted like crap!

CarmineRose1978 · 07/10/2014 17:16

I always bung tins of tomatoes and other boring staples in, but also chocolate biscuits or something similar. I agree that it's nice for people to get a treat as well as worthy and healthy food.

blackberry I appreciate what you're saying... I'd never substitute a can of soup for a bar of chocolate, but what's wrong with giving both?

Trollsworth · 07/10/2014 17:17

That's your opinion and you are entitled to it. But as an adult user of foodbanks, whilst a single mother of two small children, one bar of chocolate used , bit by bit, to bribe the horrible tinned stuff into their mouths goes a lot further than worthy tinned pudding.

So YES chocolate. Who the hell do you think I am patronising, myself?

SauvignonBlanche · 07/10/2014 17:18

The food bank I have volunteered for provides this shopping list as a guide.

blackberrypicking · 07/10/2014 17:18

Food banks need food.

Not chocolate. Food. F-O-O-D.

Donate value chocolate if you want to make people sick and give them the runs and pat your back about what an ace person you are, but they're better with tinned decent food. I'd rather people spent the 30p extra on something that wasn't Tesco bloody value!

RubyGoat · 07/10/2014 17:19

Blackberry so don't put in value chocolate then. Get better stuff that's on offer.

Charitybelle · 07/10/2014 17:20

My first reaction to this post was 'how sad that kids in uk are now asking for donations to food banks'. I know it's been an issue for a while, but I still can't believe we have people in the uk without enough food to eat....! I'm a child of the 80's and we were sending harvest donations to starving children in Ethiopia. Not to say that it's any better or worse that African people struggle to survive, just that I can't believe it's come to this?
Going online now to find out about any local food banks I can donate to. Some great advice on this thread about what to donate.

TheWordFactory · 07/10/2014 17:20

blackberry I don't think you can speak for anyone but yourself.

A lot of my childhood was blighted by poverty and I was always ecstatic when we got some chocolate of biscuits or sweets.

I think most people donate staples/basics but add in a little something nice. I don't think anyone goes to a food bank and is faced with a parcel of treats only.

blackberrypicking · 07/10/2014 17:21

Can't have been that hungry then can they if you had to force it in their mouths?

So if it was not that and it was that the donated food was gross it makes more sense for there to be less treat food and people actually to buy halfway decent tasting food in the first place. Then you wouldn't need to bribe!

It's so frustrating explaining what I mean. It's like ... people think they're doing a nice thing but it is counter productive because it doesn't even taste that nice but also you are getting this pretty horrible mush and obviously you have to eat it. But, I don't know, it doesn't half make you feel weird.

People could've put Cadbury selection box in our box though Wink

In fact you can do that now lol

blackberrypicking · 07/10/2014 17:22

Lego I don't donate sorry. I'd like to but am on a strict budget myself.

Trollsworth · 07/10/2014 17:23

Oh, shut up, you weren't there. I don't expect you to know the situation because you weren't there. Kindly refrain from assumptions. I had to force the food in because ds1 is autistic and will not taste unfamiliar things at eleven, let alone five. But he had to eat. Take your ignorance away, think, and bring back a clean mind.

Penfold007 · 07/10/2014 17:23

Many of my clients are extremely grateful for a food bank 'parcel' whilst waiting for benefits to kick in. Yes they need staples but they do love a treat and hot choc is certainly popular. Toiletries, sanitary products, household cleaning products and pet food are always needed but I appreciate a children's harvest festival might not be the right place for such donations.

I expect the head teacher was trying to get the healthy eating message over.

I pop basic food stuffs and pet food in our supermarket food bank bin.

ILovePud · 07/10/2014 17:23

blackberry picking, you really are being obnoxious and projecting massively as to why people donate to foodbanks, my ninety year old nan buys value chocolate for herself and often buys an extra bar to pop into the foodbank collection trolley, she'd be really upset to know that's a recipient thought of her.