to go off piste with food bank donations, as they only list wanting junk food

[haveatarday]

At the shops now. The local food bank is only asking for junk food on their list (crisps, biscuits, pot noodles, pasta and sauce, corn flakes).

Aibu to not get these but get healthier stuff, like tinned fruit in natural juce, oats, mixed seeds etc?

I'd like to see the higher tariffs for pre-payment energy meters outlawed by legislation. I'd like to see zero hours contracts outlawed too (or at least the ability to restrict those on them for working elsewhere). Along with the ability of developers/landlords to buy social housing then jack up rents for sitting tenants as recently happened in East London.

As to whether food banks aren't just perpetuating the current inequalities, it's the endless tension between allowing worsening crisis in order to to provoke change, against helping in the here and now. Call me soft, but I think we just have to help in the here and now.

I think it really needs a focus on numerous things at once - political pressure, helping for now, as well as getting people more active in voting and learning about the politics at play.

I think it's obscene, for example, some of the expenses put forward by the MPs, and the benefits they get when we have people in this country with no food and no heating.

some of the expenses put forward by the MPs
Henceforth MPs should not be allowed to expense biscuits, instead they must expense Oatcakes, tomato purée, kidney beans and half an onion.
They may or may not be allowed all at the same time.

AliceinWinterWonderland & Notauniquename

We're entering an election year, are we not?

Totally agree, foodbanks, food and fuel poverty, general poverty and the total marginalisation of those in low paid work or on zero hour contracts or out of work are top, top issues in the upcoming election.

This morning, I got an email from one potential candidate for my local seat, promising that if he is selected & elected he will take only the local average wage and donate the rest to local charities.

I think that is a good personal gesture, one that highlights how broken the system has become.

Used to volunteer, a while ago, at a soup kitchen for homeless people. That was for people who were outside the system (often for very complex reasons- often untreated PTSD in veterans, a long history of sexual/violent/emotional abuse as a child or an adult or both, perhaps a very persistent addiction, or a combination of all the above). And often we saw people getting drawn in by the outreach teams, people who went from being on the streets to being in secure specialist accommodation, who kept coming down to the soup kitchen for social reasons, as they had relationships with other clients or with volunteers/staff.

But foodbanks are part of the system. I am going to volunteer in my local one (see earlier post). I don't feel that people in such dire straits can be ignored or left to fend for themselves.

But how is it acceptable that we have come to this as a nation? My answer is that it isn't acceptable.

It's a pernicious mix of
*low paid, insecure work - so zero hour contracts need to be regulated or banned and a living wage needs to be set. The subsidisation of big businesses via tax credits, tax breaks and workfare really needs to be looked at too.
*little or no social housing in many areas, high cost housing and insecure rental markets- even people in relatively well paid work cannot find secure homes, either because they are priced out of the ownership market or because a tenancy is 6 months or a year and no further guarantees (excpet that the rent will go up at renewal time) so the whole housing situation needs to be reviewed- from building more social housing to regulating the private rental sector and just building more housing in some areas.
*high fuel costs

Really I think it comes down to "divide and rule". Ordinary people are beig encouraged to blame and hate one another via a serious of scapegoats- whether it's immigrants or people on benefits. Find a scapegoat and make then a whipping boy seems to be the way of politics just now.

Yy to the pernicious mix.

This government has removed so many of the safety nets that allow people to challenge injustice like legal aid and free employment tribunals.

The subsidisation of profit making businesses by the state is very, very wrong.

Yet hundreds of thousands of 'comfortable' pensioners get a winter fuel allowance.

What does that have to do with food banks?

Taking it back won't change the plight f our customers.

Pensioners deserve all they get and more. They have worked all their lives to build the system and it is shocking that 30000 freeze to death each year.

Plenty of pensioners have never 'worked' (not paid work anyway). My grandmother and most of her sisters hadn't.

I'm not arguing to deprive them of benefits, no way. But the difference in rhetoric between 'pensioners' and other benefit-dependent groups is interesting.

Nobody is saying take winter fuel allowance away from pensioners who NEED it. But those who do NOT need it... well, they don't NEED it. Surely this is not rocket science?

Pensioners deserve all they get and more. They have worked all their lives to build the system and it is shocking that 30000 freeze to death each year.

My MIL has never worked outside the home. Both her and FIL get their fuel allowance (and freedom passes) despite FIL still working full time in a senior role in the City. They use it as spending money for their winter holiday*. They went to Marrakesh for a week last time.

*not to be confused with their 2 week summer holiday, annual visit to son in Japan, annual visit to daughter in Toronto, 4-5 trips a year to see us in Sweden or the dozen or so weekends away 'because they need a break'

I'm interested to know though what you think they did to 'build the system'. As far as I'm aware it was build by the generation before them.

Well... for a while it would have cost more to apply means testing to the fuel allowance. Now there is a live commons debate about how to change the way it is given entirely.

So to continue to carp on about it, when changes are afoot, seems daft to me.

Especially in a thread about food banks. No savings form winter fuel allowance will see their way into the pockets of the poorest, they will be actual cuts/savings in benefits paid out, not to be re-allocated!

Dry oatcakes were the only thing I could keep down during horrendous morning sickness

Hal how did the kidney bean canapes go?

Hak not Hal

Pensions are a pyramid scheme - you pay for the people who got in ahead of you, and pray it'll still be running when it's your turn.

30,000 pensioners freeze each year?

it is shocking that 30000 freeze to death each year.

THIRTY THOUSAND? Each year? Are you sure about that?

When donating to food banks, another thing to consider is to also check if they want pet food and products. We've had instances where people were feeding their pets with the food they were getting, and not eating themselves, particularly elderly clients where the pet was their only real source of company. Not only does donating pet products help people be able to keep their beloved pets, but also keeps those pets from becoming another statistic at the pound. Bags of dog and cat food can be broken down into smaller bags, same with bird seed. Even the odd tin of fish food costs very little, but could make a difference. Also kitty litter, flea and worming products, small animal bedding, can also be used.

www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2513719/Number-deaths-linked-freezing-winter-increases-30-31-000-temperatures-fell-record-lows.html

31,000 winter related deaths Most victims were 75 and over, and had medical conditions, such as heart and lung problems, made worse by the cold.

That's a slightly different thing. The old usually die in winter, often a cold which develops into pneumonia. In fact it's not too bad a way to go. It has always been one of the main killers of people who are old.

The Excess Winter Mortality Rate looks at the difference year on year between the number of deaths in the UK across the four coldest winter months, when compared to the preceding four summer/autumn months and the following four spring/summer months either side of it.

It has always been the case that more people die in winter. As you can clearly see from that graph the rates have actually dropped quite steadily and substantially over the last few decades, apart from the odd atypical spike. I do think it's rather over simplistic and slightly hysterical to say that all 30,000 were elderly and actually FROZE to death.

It did make me wonder, which is why I went looking for the figures and added the quote.

It includes flu, too. So it is reassuring that the numbers have declined so much.

It's the daily mail people! They don't care if a headline is a crock of shit!

www.ons.gov.uk/ons/rel/subnational-health2/excess-winter-mortality-in-england-and-wales/2012-13--provisional--and-2011-12--final-/stb-ewm-12-13.html

Here have the source information... and my apologies for having been lazy and supplied a DM link!

It is actually the younger people who suffer from benefits cock ups. If you have been on your state pension, housing benefit and pension credit for 20 years and are 80 probably your circumstances will not change and you won't be on and off benefits with the potential for problems when moving back to benefits with gaps etc. Whereas if you're 40 and in and out of work and have children and tax credits and sometimes have work and sometimes not and are probably moving quite often there is much more chance that your benefits might get held up.

i have been following this thread with interest then today-as if by magic-i walked into my local supermarket to find the local foodbank collecting. i took their list and stuck to it rigidly.

the things i wanted to buy myself were chicken breasts, cumin seed and fromage frais. for less than the price of those three items i was able to fill a bag with items from the list- jam, instant mash, sugar, tinned meat, rice pudding etc etc

FlowerFairy - you seem to have missed my question to you, from earlier this week.

You said: "We all know which foods keep people full for longer and do them good. It's not rocket science."

And I asked:

FlowerFairy - perhaps you would like to share with us those foods that are good for us - BUT CAN ALSO BE EASILY AND QUICKLY PREPARED BY SOMEONE WITH LITTLE OR NO COOKING FACILITIES, EXTRA INGREDIENTS AND/OR LITTLE ENERGY (GAS/ELECTRICITY) TO COOK THEM WITH, AND WILL PROVIDE A HOT, COMFORTING MEAL?

Apologies for shouting, but as so many people have said, over and over again on this thread, the food given by the food banks HAS to be practical for the recipients to store and prepare, AS WELL as being as healthy as possible!