To wonder if it's best to go for quality or quantity?

[DrSeuss]

Food bank donation
Scenario 1-
I spend £10 on stuff for the food bank. I take time in the supermarket to buy the maximum for the money. I buy stuff I know to be cheap and nasty but I get a good size bag.
Does this not say, "Here, poor people. Take this crap. It's vile and I wouldn't eat it but that's what you get."?

Scenario 2
I spend £10 and get slightly nicer stuff. Nothing fancy, just not the absolute bargain basement stuff that tastes like shit. No seed mix, no kidney bean canapés, just food that is not actually unpleasant eg mid priced beans not the really cheap ones that are disgusting.

However, this reduces the volume of my donation, giving the food bank less to give out.

Anyone know which way to go? I can't just spend more, I can't afford it.

i get 20p cans of minced beef and onion from tesco (value), 20p tins of chopped tomato, mix them together and make lasagna (Sp?) filling then i get some lasagna sheets (Again about 20p) and make a large lasanga with some cheap ready made cheese sauce because we can't afford to blow 3 quid on a block of cheese that will last us a week before its out of date. that lasagna will last us (Dp and I) 3 days. we eat it for every meal, get a portion, pop it in the microwave. Depending on what week it is and what work i've had in we may be able to scrape up some 20p tinned veggies. I'm self employed so can make alot one month and none the next. atm its usually none. partner is on minimum wage.
it may be vile to you but to some of us we have no bloody choice so have some respect

That sounds very inventive Blackout and similar to a recipe out of Delia's 'how to cheat at cooking'.

However, when I make lasagne, I use white sauce not cheese sauce and then sprinkle grated cheese on top (about 50 pence worth if that). I look out for the special offer big blocks of cheddar for about £2 or so. The use by date is usually a couple of months and you would have loads left to make sandwiches or another dish (macaroni cheese with tinned green beans in?) or if you have a freezer you can grate and freeze cheese and it lasts for ages - just sprinkle on top of your lasagne or put in sauce from frozen.

I love a baked bean connoisseurs.

Connoisseur. CHEERS PHONE.

OP was joking about quinoa

OP YANBU to wonder about this in your head. I would tend towards getting the most you can for what you can afford to spend. Because if I were going hungry or in a pinch (lucky not to be) I would choose to eat something rather than nothing and food banks are oversubscribed. Plenty of own brand stuff is nicer than branded, but I get what you're asking, about the very cheapest things. It feels wrong to hand out stuff you're not buying for yourself. Err towards stuff things from your own experience you know is good value, both cheap and nice. There's plenty of that! And you imply you're not rolling in it yourself, so you must know of a few bits and bobs! Agree with pp about BOGOFs too, they often make branded stuff like snack bars, biscuits and crisps cheaper than the supermarket's own.

And Sainsbury's own brand beans in the blue tin are the best. The end.

Quantity - but check with the FB first as to what they actually want.

In the FB I help to organise we have 100s of packets of dry pasta and we really wouldn't want any more . Likewise baked beans (of all types).

Long life milk is always wanted.

Pretty simple really, buy what the FB requests in the brand you are happy for yourself and your children to eat, that's all

I think your post comes across as quite snobby OP.

FGS, she hasn't pulled out a loudspeaker in Waitrose; conspicuous giver, indeed. I raise you one professionally offended bandwagon-jumper.

Just listen to WooWoo, OP.

Op, i think many people learn not to hate the cheaper lines of food. If they are approaching food banks it's likely they have been living on a tight budget prior and therefore aren't surprised to see own brand food available as this is what they have been buying.

Personally I buy a lot of own brand, but where I don't, I wouldn't buy this for the food bank. It sounds like your standards are slightly higher though.

Ok. Here's my twopennethworth.

If you have an Aldi close, buy there. They do very little branded stuff and most of their items are good. I personally would steer away from basics pasta as I find it gluey and it slurps up more sauce than their own 'next price bracket up' pack. All of their shampoo/cleaning etc stuff works as wel l as the next. Nappies are fine as are wipes - both baby and face/arse wipes.
I am not an expert at other sm's basic brands but I would expect you cant got too much wrong with dry goods (pasta being MY one exception). Aldi B/Beans and cream of soups are fine. I do 90% of my shopping there so I would like an Aldi bag.
If I was in the unfortunate position to be a food bank user, I think I would like to have things that could make a meal rather than biscuits and noodles. But that's just me.

So long as it's line and pole caught, basics tuna is OK and good quality protein for the money.

I get a mix of tinned protein and veg based stuff (eg tuna, ham, corned beef, sweetcorn, pasta sauce, tomatoes) and comfort (instant noodles, tinned macaroni cheese and so on) and nothing, whether basics or premium, that I wouldn't be fine with eating myself. So I'd be fine with pot noodle and even with those weird but comforting tins of Irish Stew, but would draw the line at tinned burgers, for example.