To think a food bank is not an appropriate place for a school trip?

[mumofmanymonsters]

I had to name change because I think it will be obvious who I am!

DD is in 5th year (Scotland, she is 16) and we have had a letter home saying that every class has to take their turn of going to watch how the local food bank works.

I really don't think it's right. Surely people deserve more privacy than a bunch of gawping teenagers?

She doesn't want to go and I'm not making her.

When it comes to people being too poor to buy food, that is the business of society as a whole.

I really don't agree, individuals deserve to go about their business in peace without explaining their circumstances to children.

If they're talking to them about the explosion of foodbanks in the last few years as a result of greedy bankers and a tory administration, then fine. If they're using it as an opportunity to 'other' the poor, then absolutely not.

I am sure the goal is to UN-other the poor, and help the teens understand how easy it is, these days, to slip into needing a food bank. After years of canned food drives for the food bank, the concept probably already is normalised, and I would hope this trip would be designed to shake them up a bit and realise that it shouldn't be.

As someone who once relied on one (and in my case, 3 months was just about enough to sort out the financial mess my ex abandoning us created. Well, sort it enough to not need food handouts anyway) i might have been willing to talk to teenagers. But I was new to the area, and unlikely to see anyone I knew.

It is frighteningly easy to drink, smoke, have Sky, and pop down the road for some free food. I know some people are poor. We were very poor in our household but we grew our own food, used cheap cuts of meat and never had a holiday. I do want everyone to have a reasonable standard of living but there has to be partnership between everyone involved to raise standards of living for the worse off. Blaming people who have studied hard and have good jobs is ridiculous. They pay taxes. We need tax income to fund what we want.

OddFodd, so there was still help from somewhere, it was just given in a different way, which is what I acknowledged.

Taking students to a food bank doesn't normalise the situation any more than asking them for donations for a food bank. They are made aware of it's existence and the need that some people face either way.

If anything, taking them to a FB, and even letting them see the service users, stops the 'othering' and makes them realise that the people using Foodbanks are just people, the same as everyone else they see around and about.

But that "different way" is the issue for many people. To me, it's not just a different way; it's a different way that has huge political ramifications. Society as a whole, represented though government, has a responsibility to make sure that its citizens have basic needs met: food, housing, medical care.

How would it be if government in Scotland abandoned the NHS and let people who could afford it go to private doctors and those who couldn't afford it go to charity clinics, funded by donations?

Millymolly, it is not possible for most poor people to grow their own food these days. A lot of people live in blocks of flats with no growing space. You can't grow enough to feed a family on with a couple of window boxes, even if you're allowed to put up such things and have the basic skills and knowledge about what plants would grow in the relevant conditions. And as for the old cook properly/use cheap cuts of meat argument, poor people's cooking facilities are often limited, as well - either they can't afford to put enough money on the meter to slow-cook a casserole or they only have a microwave in the first place.

In sixth form (16-18) there used to be a voluntary trip to a soup kitchen at Christmas, the places for it filled up really quickly

^^ I find that wrong though, the students were more than willing yet it was only a yearly thing (something which had happened for many years when I was there) and afterwards all the students would be given a sharing bar of chocolate each, which 99% of them then gave to one of the people who needed to use the soup kitchen.

The school thought that doing that once a year made them look good and they were showing the students the other side of Christmas etc but once they saw the willing of student why not do once a fortnight or something? The students didn't really have a way of getting to the soup kitchen but would gladly give their time if the school had used their minibus to take them

Anyway, it was a positive experience for the students but they had chosen to go, if being forced there could be a few who would stand around doing nothing and making inappropriate comments?

Anyone suggesting food banks are the problem somehow should be ashamed. They're a crisis response to a problem that's not going away. Obviously it should be taken care of by government, but thankfully there are some people out there who are prepared to give their time to assist people in poverty and distress. I'm glad there are some people out there who are prepared to act instead of watching suffering while hoping for someone else to do something. As soon as the poverty issues are resolved by those really responsible for them, food banks will cease to be necessary.

Our local one (Stirling) doesn't distribute anything from the depot so maybe it's the same

You make it sound as though there will be a queue of ashamed, poor people with their heads bowed down being stared at by a bunch of people, food banks are nothing like this , most of the sorting and prep of the parcels is done in a store room and a lot of the parcels are picked up by the people who have requested them on the behalf of someone else, when someone does come to pick up a parcel it's not embarresing for them we treat them professionally and usually make them a cuppa and have a nice chat with them, the kids would really benefit from seeing that hard times can hit people from all walks of life and that asking for help is nothing to be ashamed of,we just had a visit from a class from the local special school it was fantastic, the kids got really involved and a really good understanding of what we do

Surely 5th years will be mature enough not to gawp at the poor people I am sure the school and the food bank will handle it sensitivly I think yabu dds school supports the food bank and some of the 6th years organise the collections and have been to see how it works. Is it a specific subject that is going ? I think it is a good thing

Another vote for inappropriate, as I wouldn't want a group of teenagers around on a school trip if I needed to visit a food bank. Also, when being asked for consent for this type of thing, there is a pressure to say yes, as you know you'll be causing a fuss and difficulties if you don't, like when you're asked if you mind the student being in on your medical exam, when the student is already in the room.

A lot of parcels are picked up by people who requested them on behalf of someone else

?

How?

That's true high but we wouldn't have a class of thirty children as some sort of welcoming commitee and we have a special room we can take someone to if they need a private chat, I would imagine the kids would be split up into groups to help out in different parts of the food bank , my oldest son is fourteen and il take him with me if he's got a day off school, he enjoys it and it doesn't hurt the kids to see a bit of reality

I have spent most of my adult life working for charities in the US that serve people who are economically disadvantaged. Food banks are not the problem. The problem is the societal attitude that this most basic of needs should be addressed by charitable giving rather than governmental policies that are directed toward the root problems. The normalization of food banks in the US means that this attitude is entrenched in many communities and in the political tenets of organized political groups. I would hate to see this normalization progress in Scotland which, in my opinion, has a generally more enlightened view of the social contract.

And, of course, I am not saying that in the meantime while all this is sorted out people should go hungry. If food banks are needed, then people who run them are only to be encouraged and even admired. But mindfulness is needed. Should food banks be a temporary solution or a normalized permanent institutional approach to income disparity?

I'm aware of nobody advocating them as a permanent solution.