Healthy food for the food bank

[Pimpleminds]

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?

I had a look at the list in my Tesco today.

I would have thought UHT milk is preferable to powdered milk. Not sure about tinned potatoes vs instant mash though. Any thoughts?

I've been offered a foodbank referral once, but my Mum came to the rescue. I've always donated the odd bit here and there, but having never actually tried some of the stuff they want, I'm not best placed to judge.

inned potatoes they used to be really salty not had them in years id get instant mash

Tinned*

I think tinned pots are nicer than instant mash, not too salty really. Guess everyone is different!

Are they not as salty now I remember screwing my face up eating them

I usually put in one staple food item and one treat. Last time I donated there was a buy one get one free on the shampoo that I use so I put the free one in along with a big body wash and some tampons.

I don't think so Mrsjay but then I always eat them with mint sauce or mustard or something to hide the 'tinned' taste a little.

I find them useful to bulk out meals for DP who eats a lot of carbs but we don't seem to cook often enough to get through a bag of actual potatoes.

Ah. I'm left confused on the potato issue.

Any thoughts about the milk? I've only tried UHT, not powdered. Might seem like I'm getting bogged down in detail, but it does seem important.

Go with whois and her husband I ate them to long ago , go Uht though definitely

What other acceptable tinned fish is there? I see several posters saying that the food banks have too much tuna, and another saying that her food bank didn't want pilchards. I can only think of salmon. I always try and donate a meat/fish item as I know from unpacking harvest festival donations for another charity that these items are typically not given.

sardines? In tomato sauce, on toast quick easy nutritious and much nicer than pilchards.

Yeah our food bank ask for UHT rather than powdered milk. But most food banks have a shopping list which should say I think.

Tinned salmon, tinned tuna, tinned sardines? A lot of my friends don't like tinned sardines though so that might be a controversial choice. I love em, had some for thinner tonight!

I don't see what the problem is with basic branded stuff. I buy and eat some basics stuff. I probably wouldn't choose to eat tinned meat so I always feel a bit torn buying that bit it's almost always on our food banks list.

I expect smash or tinned pots would be welcome. Different rather than better.

Fish - my foodbank prefers just to get tins of tuna, tbh, because our clients can mix it with pasta, soup and a tin of veg to make a complete meal. We put things like sardines, mackerel or pilchards in as a wee extra. Tins of salmon are good as well because they can be mixed with stuff to make a family meal, too.

Re milk, either UHT or powdered is fine - powdered is better for family boxes because you get more milk when it is made up.

Ok. My foodbank asks for UHT/powdered.

I guess I'll buy UHT - it's what I would want.

I think if I was donating toiletries, I'd go for the big bottles of Tressemme and the like. Pretty good and seem to last ages.

Does anybody remember powdered milk from the 80s called Five Pints?

It came in a milk bottle shaped packet. I remember my mum whisking it up in a metal jug.

Yes, morris, I think my mum thought it was a bit newfangled for some reason and stuck to Marvel.

It's marvellous, what Marvel can do!

Downtheroadfirstonleft We would give a supermarket voucher so the family could buy what they needed.

Tinned potatoes don't really get taken in our FB. I find instant mash goes MUCH quicker.

I wouldn't think multivits would get taken either, tbh. Where I work, a family of 4 gets 16 items. They aren't going to choose medication as one of those choices if they need food. Then there is continuity, one tubs of vits isn't going to help much, and they aren't going to have access to a regular stream of them. I'd rather they got another food item, than vits, to be honest. 16 items isn't going to go far for a family of 4.

Thanks differentname I just wondered as I passed them in the shops when picking up nappies and bits like that which ours ask for.

Keep an eye on promotions. Sainsburys have spend 50 and get free nappies sometimes. Put them in the box.

Supermarkets are not allowed to refund baby formula as years ago some was refunded only the buyer had added something nasty and made babies very poorly. This might be the reason foodbanks cant take it.

Unfortunately there are some nasty people around.

My foodbank will take sealed baby milk or those bottles of ready made up stuff. We take all sorts of toiletries, even sun cream in summer but we wouldn't take medicines. I think that I might take multivitamins at my centre - I could pop them into a family box as a wee extra. There tends to be about 50 items in a family box on average, enough to last 3 -5 days, and then we add in toiletries etc, so vitamins wouldn't take away from the foodstuffs. Baby stuff and pet stuff is added as an extra as required as well. (TT food bank)

stressedHEmum Blimey, they get a good amount there! Our mas is 28 items, and that if for 2 adults & 7+ children. I can see why the vits etc wouldn't detract too much from that!

On behalf of foodbanks, I'd like to thank all those who help out. It really does mean a lot, both to us & our clients!

i personally don,t give value stuff .because if you have got to eat tinned food .hopefully better quality would be better ..i always donate ladies hygiene products .because my friend told me .thats the one thing they don,t get enough off .you never think of this /soap /shampoo that kind of thing .its a disgrace that we are going back to the days of the parish anyway

i get stuff on the list published online by my local foodbank, using the brands i eat myself (so a mixture of own-brand, value and premium depending on what those are like for those specific products from my own experience)

i did once see potted venison in the donation trolley in the local tescos. unusual, i thought, but probably tasty and filling and no preparation needed