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?

Rinsey

Excellent post, StarsOfTrackAndField.

Haveatarday - please don't donate the wrong stuff to your food bank. And stop for a moment to consider how arrogant it is of you to consider that you might know better than the food bank people what their clients want, and can actually use!

Oh this is just a hilarious thread if you can read it without letting the anger take over
I'm just loving the thought of trying to persuade fussy kids (and no they don't get less fussy just because there's no food, they just get hungrier and more prone to tantrums) to eat kidney beans, especially after they've been up OPs arse. I mean, honestly.
Believe me (speaking from experience) it's grim as fuck being in temp accommodation and even worse when you can't cook anything. A hot pot noodle was like heaven after a week of eating cream crackers and celery sticks, I actually felt full for the first time and therefore less miserable and like hurling myself out the window! If someone had given me kidney beans I think I'd actually have cried.

Actually I'm going to send a mail to food bank as I can help educate people what to do with kidney beans, so many uses and many I can think of with no cooking

So arrogant and ignorant. If I ran a food bank I would tell you to stuff your 'education' and tins of beans where the sun doesn't shine.

Gazpacho - Here's a kettle and tin of kidney beans - please explain how you would make chilli without a hob or oven, not to mention the other ingredients - mince, tomatoes etc which may not be available from the food bank.

Why don't you go and volunteer at your local food bank ? Then you will have a chance to educate the staff and clients about nutrition .

Chartities that run soup kitchens are usually looking for volunteers as well . Soup is very nutritious . Although I do believe they give out white bread with it

can I add my ten pence worth?

Please also donate mens tolitries (for some reasons they get lots of ladies stuff, but not mens) and tins that can be opened with a ringpull (the small one shot ones are perfect) both ideal for people living on the street or in very reduced circumstances.

Ha ha, x post with silver

The kidney beans could be mashed with some tomatoes purée (I donated) and a bit of diced onion (staple that fb give out) and then had as a toping on oat cakes (I donated). A fulling and healthy meal with protein and carbs and 2 of your 5. You can mash with a fork and cut with a normal knife, I've done it while traveling.

Why all the anger at wanting to help educate people on how to consume a nutritious food?

Breast pads and maternity pads ... That's two things I always donate.
People always seem to think women with newborns don't use foodbanks but they do and both of those things are not cheap.

Uses for tin of cold kidney beans:

Use the tin as a doorstop
Paperweight
Use two tins instead of weights when exercising
Take 3 small tins and give to the baby to use instead of stacking blocks to help develop motor skills.
Give each child a kidney bean to suck and pretend it's a sweet.
Jab a few onto sticks (forage for these at your local park) - instant kebabs.
Mush into a paste and spread it on your oat cakes
Eat them cold out of the can and think yourself lucky you have ought at all.

Fuck me. The op has just suggested kidney bean and oat cake canapés!

Oh gawd, I've got to go pick up DD so can't get sucked in but that latest post from have has got my fingers itching.
Just UGH.

Regular food bank donators might like to know that lots of things mentioned as being on the desired list (pot noodles, pasta n sauce (which can be made up fine without milk incidentally), tinned rice pudding) are on offer in Asda at 50 pence an item at the moment. They also have tinned spaghetti or beans and sausages and may be ravioli at the same price.

However, I'm not sure if the Asdas I use have food bank donation points.

Do the food banks ever help people get access to microwaves? Are they generally available in temporary accommodation, which I would assume has a communal pre-equipped kitchen (of sorts and but varying, I would expect).

I could see that having access to a microwave and toaster as well as a kettle would massively increase the quality and variety of food that can be prepared with little fuel.

Hope you donated vol-au-vent cases as well, OP.

The brown rice and kidney beans could be stired into the tomatoes soup I gave and heated in a bowl like a bain-marie over the kettle. This would turn a soup into a fulling, nutritious meal.

please explain how you would make chilli without a hob or oven, not to mention the other ingredients - mince, tomatoes etc which may not be available from the food bank.

If you cared to read my post properly instead of jumping straight into the sneering pack mentality, you'd see I actually said that chillies wouldn't be possible if you didn't have any other ingredients.
If you DID have other ingredients, THEN chilli is ace.

You know what, I think I'd have hurled myself from the window to escape the kidney bean canapés.
OP will it completely fuck with your mind to know that while as a foodbank user I ate pot noodles, when not fb reliant I cook vegetarian meals from scratch and buy very little processed food, keep chickens for organic eggs and grow my own herbs? I don't need help with nutrition thanks, I just wanted easy thoughtless comfort food while I got through the hell that was homelessness due to fleeing DV. It's a one off thing, not a life time club you sign up to, I don't think a few pot noodles did me any harm. Ffs.

That's not what I said. I said maybe people don't know what to do with kidney beans.

I'm confused by some people, they say people are starving but at the same time wouldn't eat my healthy and tasty no cook kidney bean oat cakes.

The kidney beans could be mashed with some tomatoes purée (I donated) and a bit of diced onion (staple that fb give out) and then had as a toping on oat cakes

So the parents maybe haven't eaten for two days and you want to suggest cold kidney beans mashed with tomato puree and onions on oat cakes as their maybe one meal for what may be another two days, whereas a Pot Noodle (which I have never eaten and hopefully never will) would give them a stomach filling HOT meal.

For god's sake get your head out of your bloody arse and think OP You are being ridiculous!