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?

witches -- canned fruit isn't absolutely unhealthy but, even when canned with fruit juice, it has a LOT of sugar. The fruit juice is often grape juice, which is particularly sweet. In addition, because the fruits are usually peeled before being canned, they lose much of the fibre which kind of offsets the amount of sugar that there is in fruit.

Obviously it's perfectly healthy to have canned fruit as part of a balanced diet, but it's not intrinsically healthy, which is part of what I thought was implied by the OP.

"Off piste" ... are you Sarah Ferguson?

Ah right, sorry.

Why didn't you just get what they asked for?

Talk about arrogance.

If you want to go really off piste donate half a dozen tin openers. I found them on special offer in Sainsbury last year and put them in the food bank trolly. Not sure what they thought or if they were ever given out but for some reason I got this awful image at the back of my mind of someone being given a bag of tins and not having a way to open them!!

Sometimes you need to have the humility to recognise that the food banks are experts in this field, and your gut instinct isn't enough to overrule them.

With my diet, I'd consider Corn Flakes as veg anyway!

The reason they hand out a list is because they know that is what they need in their supplies. They also know their clients and what sort of facilities they have for cooking or for keeping stuff. Go by the list and don't be up your own arse for the sake of it.

Yep. Because there's nothing the average child likes better than kidney beans, brown rice,bringer biscuits and dark chocolate.

What's ready to eat brown rice, by the way?

It's like those bloody Tory politicians who go on about the poor should be feeding their children tripe because it's cheap and nourishing........

I'd stick to the list. There are lots of reasons why those items have been included.

I volunteer at our local FB, we are inundated with certain items and very short of others

A lot of our clients are in B&Bs and only have a kettle and a microwave, maybe a 2 ring electric hob if they're lucky so don't have the facilities for anything more than a pot noodle/pasta and sauce. Those that do often can't afford the fuel.

A pot noodle is quick, warming, flavoursome and will reasonably fill a hungry tummy.

Ready to eat brown rice is cold, plain, bland and probably should have other things added to it to make it a sufficient meal.

OP, nutrition takes a backseat to starvation.

I should imagine the people that are feeding the hungry every day know a lot better than you do about what people need/want and can and will use, someone in a b&b because they've been made homeless and are waiting for accommodation will have a kettle and maybe a microwave if they're lucky, pot noodles, cereal etc is easy to store, prepare and eat.
I've been in that position, stop judging and realise that in a lot of cases people are doing their best in a shitty situation.

YABU to use the phrase " go off piste" . It means ( along with your comments) that I have a very judgy and probably unfairly inaccurate picture of you in my head.
Think headscarf and wicker basket dispensing healthy but inedible snacks to the poor of the parish.

Fruit contains vitamins and minerals that human bodies need, and fibre (contained in the flesh, not just the peel), and tinned is a good alternative if you have limited access to fresh.

There's nothing at all wrong with a food bank asking for tinned fruit, for God's sake.

Pasta and sauce will make a meal, hardly rocket science.

What are you envisaging they will do with the brown rice and kidney beans, OP? Are you imagining a well-stocked store cupboard with lots of herbs and spices and stock cubes to make them nice?

Hacked hits nail on head. Who wants bloody plain brown rice when a pot noodle will cheer you up a bit? It's like George Orwell said...yes...you CAN live on onions and raw carrots for a time but you'd be blood miserable! He said people want something a "little bit tasty" and that when you've had weeks of eating shit and then you get some money...of course you want some fish and chips or chocolate. Bloody terrible to suggest people should eat grains and seeds when they're in misery. Hopefully the circumstances are fleeting and then...when they've got on their feet...they can moon over a bowl of oatcakes and prunes.

Yes, TravelinColour - sugar is carbs, but not particularly useful carbs for someone in food poverty - as I said earlier, pure sugar will give an immediate 'high', but not a longer, slower burn of energy, which is more useful. Plus, the sugar 'high' is followed by a drop in energy, when insulin is released, so energy levels spike up and down - this is not as good as a steady release of energy, which you get from more complex carbohydrates.

mrstawdry yes, those are alright. The list is under Trussell Trust on Google (I mispelt it earlier, sorry!) We also donate toilet paper, toiletries such as toothpaste and shampoo etc. as others above have recommended.

I agree with those who have said here it's a crying disgrace that folk are in this position. The chap who gave us the talk had some very sad tales to tell (protecting confidentiality of course) how misfortune plunges innocent families into food poverty through no fault of their own; homes with not a scrap of food in them and parents going without any meal at all for 2 days to give their children something to eat. We were all a bit tearful and very shocked. (Ladies Group)

My dh and I also support our African extended family with 50Kg sacks of rice, and it's horrifying to think there are people here in UK in a similar position, where there's no reason for it in the affluent First World, except bad social management and government. Apparently, ridiculous delays in arranging Benefit Payments account for a lot of this suffering.

Countess exactly! my neighbour is on a very low income. She kept asking me what I was cooking as it smelled nice. I'd tell her "curry!" or "soup"" and she asked how to make it....I explained and she didn't even know what half the herbs etc were...nor does she have the budget to lay out the probably 5 quid ...to set herself up with some basics.

I do take her some when I cook it now but she's going to try her own too.

I told her to come round when she needs to use my spices and eventually when she stops buying so much processed foods, she'll find she's spending less and can buy her own. Not everyone knows how to cook from scratch things which taste nice nor do they have the spices etc.

Koala Just to say, because the actual conversation has got a bit lost over several pages, I don't think there's anything wrong with a food bank asking for tinned fruit. Indeed, I have donated it to my local foodbank when they have asked for it.

But it happened not to be on the OP's foodbank's current wishlist -- only on her list of off-piste, healthy foods. And I just pointed out (while making other points) that that it isn't as healthy as all that.

Tinned kidney beans - - at our FB we literally can't give these away - they have to go to our volunteers who replace them with stuff that is actually wanted like Pot Noodles.

Why not give long life milk if you can't bear to give the food that is actually requested?

Brown rice won't be appreciated - even if it is 'ready to heat' .

Any one else imagining the dark chocolate is for having "one small square before bed as a treat" FatFighters style?

Credit where it's due, the op has donated some useful things and she was under no obligation to give anything.