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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

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Original poster

to think the food bank challenge is in really bad taste, friends trying to out do each other to spend the least

28 replies

sallyismyname · 26/06/2015 18:21

Sorry I haven't been on here in a while, couldn't remember my email back last year so got a new name.

Thought this maybe the place to let off some steam about this.

A few friends in one group have been doing some food bank challenge. Apparently to raise awareness but they are treating it like s game for giggles and have been boasting the last few days how much each of their portions cost. They are trying to top each other.

I find it really distasteful, they are both well off have fancy kitchens, dont work and drive everywhere. When people in a food bank often only have a kettle! Has really annoyed me

OP posts:

TheHouseOnBellSt · 26/06/2015 18:30

I do see why you're annoyed but...at least they're contributing.

FarFromAnyRoad · 26/06/2015 18:31

You'll have told them they're being twats then? No? Well that kind of makes you complicit. Your friends are idiots. HTH.

AwkwardSquad · 26/06/2015 18:31

It does seem to be missing the point. You could challenge them to go to the next level - ie you've mastered the 'spend less' level. Now for the 'your utilities have been cut off' level... Then the 'only food that you've shopped for and brought home by public transport' level. Then the 'you've no money for public transport, so only what you can buy and carry home on foot' level. Fun and educational!

The5DayChicken · 26/06/2015 18:32

I think you're being a bit sensitive and they're slightly naive to the realities of poverty. Their hearts are in the right place if they're doing it to raise awareness.

youareallbonkers · 26/06/2015 18:33

Surely the same as that £1 a day challenge?

noblegiraffe · 26/06/2015 18:33

It's like the Pulp song Common People isn't it? People playing at being poor.

OpalQuartz · 26/06/2015 18:41

Are they donating money or just doing it to "raise awareness"

CalmYoBadSelf · 26/06/2015 18:45

Every time they do it ask them how much they have been able to donate as a result of saving on their food bill.

OpalQuartz · 26/06/2015 18:46

If they are raising awareness of how easy it is to eat cheaply when you've got all mod cons, it's not really raising awareness at all.

MirandaWest · 26/06/2015 18:47

If they're donating the amount they aren't normally spending then it sounds a good thing. If they're just going on in an annoying way then it is not a good thing

MirandaWest · 26/06/2015 18:47

If they're donating the amount they aren't normally spending then it sounds a good thing. If they're just going on in an annoying way then it is not a good thing

toomuchtooold · 26/06/2015 18:50

This kind of reminds me of whenever there's something in the Guardian about food poverty, there's always like 20 people who pile on to talk about how when they were a student they survived and thrived on £6 a week for food by making frugal healthy slow cooked vegetable based food. It's like "look at me! I'm so great I even win at poverty!" Never mind they're making use of things that properly poor people don't have necessarily as Awkwardsquad said - even just the self-congratulatory tone is annoying.

Doobydoo · 26/06/2015 18:52

Thing is if you know it isn't forever it isn't too difficult,rather like the MP's who live on dole for a week. What cannot be replicated is the grinding,soul destroying utter hopelessness of every day and seeing no way out which many of us cannot imagine.

EducationalWelfareMakeMeCry · 26/06/2015 18:55

Ask them to do the challenge camping not glampong with no car and only a one ring gas stove.

AwkwardSquad · 26/06/2015 20:36

And then the 'it's the school summer holidays and the kids aren't getting their free school lunches' level... I could go on.

Shallishanti · 26/06/2015 20:45

are they going without fresh food entirely?
are they having to cook with food that SOMEBODY ELSE chose?
I'm afraid I think it's in very poor taste and the people I have known who have had to use food banks woud think they were mad, at best.
Just give some food, or some time, or write to your bloody MP asking why people need food banks.

happygirl87 · 26/06/2015 21:19

I'm confused, are they donating cheap things to foodbanks? Or is it like a "living below the line" type challenge where they eat cheaply?

Alwayswiththechords · 26/06/2015 21:43

YANBU. It doesn't seem that their awareness about poverty/food poverty/food banks has been raised at all. I used to get really annoyed with people doing the £1 challenge as most of them were boasting about how easy it was to eat well for so cheap. But they were using stuff they already had in their cupboards and also calculating the £1 per portion (ie. 2p for a spoon of mayo, 5p for slice of bread etc) but you can't buy groceries per portion. I have been through very lean times, feeding my family for sometimes £6/week, sometimes 30p a day. It's desperate and sould-destroying and embarrassing. And my god the amount of people who think slow cookers will erase food poverty and ultimately, I guess, famine from this world.

AdeleDazeem · 26/06/2015 21:57

Doobydoo

Exactly. Exactly this.

PtolemysNeedle · 26/06/2015 22:05

If they are increasing their own understanding of the situations that people can find themlsves in and doing a little bit to raise awareness, I can't see the problem. It's unlikely that they're intentionally doing something that woudo wind you up, they are probably full of good intentions, even if some do think it's a little misguided.

It's certainly no worse than what is done to raise money for children in need or comic relief where you get millionaire celebrities going out to places suffering extreme poverty for a couple of days or ice bucket challenge type things.

HelenaDove · 26/06/2015 23:47

Millionaire celebs who ask ppl to give while avoiding tax themselves.

And there was a lot bullying going on around the ice bucket challenge.

RedandYellow24 · 26/06/2015 23:52

I would find it annoying if they were donating to food bank but boasting how easy was too. Like you say I've seen similar posts where recipe calls for 1/3 banana or handful of cauliflower where in reality you have to buy a whole one. Especially with salad and veg if you buy it that's it you are eating it all for the next 5 days straight. Ditto unless you have packs of spices and herbs a stock cube will cost you 1.99 for 10 bang goes that weeks budget or sash of cream 5p arghhhh

Sazzle41 · 27/06/2015 01:27

I dont understand. Why is competing on giving really cheap stuff funny and a 'game'? Or have i missed something/misunderstood? Wouldnt it be nicer and more thoughtful to give nice stuff. A programme i saw said they get too many cheap tins of same old stuff and requested (Beans and soup) and asked for more basics like pasta, rice and tea or coffee.

Original poster

sallyismyname · 27/06/2015 14:34

Yes they are donating their normal food budget. It still seems like shit and giggles to be playing poor. When actually the money is only a fraction of the problem.

At least the girl from common people wanted to play poor to improve her art!

OP posts:

noeffingidea · 27/06/2015 15:21

Who TF pays £1.99 for 10 stockcubes?
Any way, don't see the problem here if they're donating. I don't suppose the people using the food bank would really care, so why should you?

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