to not just buy the cheapest brands for a food bank

[suzzieanneba46]

My local food bank is asking for pasta. So as I'm a low carber I gave one packet of pasta suitable for low carb diet and three packets of de cecco as this is the pasta we usually have at home. I'm not sure of the quality of budget stuff so thought it would be best to get what o know is good. The woman at the food bank was a bit and asked why didn't I just buy 10 packets of budget pasta for the same price.

The fact there are food banks at all is absolutely shocking.

I think she was very rude to comment and should have just said thank you. If I had decided to donate 4 bags of pasta I would get a decent brand rather than value range. If someone then said that the food bank would prefer value pasta then I would buy 4 bags of value pasta.

she was rude to say that and ungratful
Tesco value pasta is twenty pence or something get that next time

Why is it absolutely shocking that fbs exist? or have you got us mixed up with soup kitchens, Imperial?

We don't feed people for extended periods of time. We usually only offer food for 3 days, 3 times. We are a stop gap for people whose situation has changed too quickly for them to be able to fill the gap financially - people changing jobs who miss a week or so's pay, or pay date changes. People signing on/off with a shortfall.

We have existed for many years, Trussell is just bigger and louder and newer these days. The name Food Bank is new, 1986 in the EU, but we have had aid for longer... though it was made illegal to give aid to the poor in the mid 19th century!!

Then again, I come from Liverpool, scouse lines and all that. Maybe I am odd as I just see them as an inevitable, hopefully temporary, consequence of modern living. Everyone needs a little help form time to time and the government aid does not move quickly enough. As families become more nuclear and neighbours are less involved in each others lives, we need small, locally based help more than we ver have before.

Tis modernisation, it seems.

I buy big bags of own brand pasta for fbs. I remember being utterly broke with a son to feed. A big bag of pasta, baked beans, tinned toms, tuna and corned beef would have made my day.
I'd love to be able to donate fresh stuff like milk, cheese and veg, but it's not allowed at the supermarket near us.

I help at a foodbank, and donate the same brands as I buy for my own family, not better or worse.

Sometimes we get in really weird donations, but would never say anything in front of the people who donated, but those items don't go in the bags. We have a list that we fill each week of about 30 items from pasta at the top to toiletries at the bottom.

Anything that we think is a bit weird, or not on the list goes on a "help yourself table", when the clients come in we give them an empty carrier bag and let them take anything they fancy, it is really surprising what goes. One week, we got in a number of bags of weird flavour peanuts - not on the list so went on the table. By the end of the session, they had all gone. Low carb pasta would have gone on the table, as it isn't to every ones taste but someone would probably want it. The Earl Grey tea I brought also went on the table, and if we get any fresh stuff in, the next person who comes in gets it, as we have no where to sort perishables.

The weirdest item we currently have is a Sanitary Towel belt, I didn't even know they still sold the towels with the loops, and what we are most short of is nappies and baby items.

not all value pastas are the same. there is definitely a difference between morrisons value and asda value. the morrisons being the nicer more like bog standard dried stuff.
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Sainsburys basic spaghetti is nice as well. It cooks really well without going sticky. We eat it all the time, and I've got no intentions of changing it. Why pay nearly 3 times as much for something for a fancier packet?

Asda, morrisons, Tesco (and some of spar and the Co-op) own brand and budget pasta, juice, most canned meats, frozen veg and fruit, fizzy drinks, biscuit bars, and detergents all come from the same producers. I saw the details in a booklet with one of the tabloids a while back. I was shocked at who made what and for who. For instance waitrose and m&s tinned stuff was made by crosse and Blackwell etc.