Foodbank Treats

[Piratepete1]

Inspired by another thread...

I try to take a Foodbank package to our local church as often as I can. I tend to stick to the usual things that are filling, nutritious, can be eaten without access to power etc.

But after reading a thread about a kind mumsnetters gesture at a checkout I would like to add something as a treat for the children (and the rest of the family) but I'm worried it might be seen as frivolous and frowned upon?? Has anyone got any suggestions?

Talkin how absolutely shitty that is.

Must make you feel soooo bloody frustrated.

Helena
Its been a wake up call to how effing lucky I am

the person is educated and witty and good company
but due to a past criminal injury is physically and mentally disabled
and at the time in their life when they should be most comfortable they are shat on from the highest height.

It's a horrid vicious cycle. :(

I ofdered sone baby clothes for a specific lady who's expecting.
While I was hunting them out, I found some bottles of bubble mixture and tiny toys (party bag gifts left over from dd's birthday) , plus a couple of notebooks, tube of toothpaste and some sponges (leftover from shoebox gifts ), so I put those in with a packet of posh coffee (as it's got a short date, I thought it would be nice for the volunteers and for sharing with the visitors)

I haven't rtft so excuse me if this has been said already. At the foodbank I help out at (only been going 3 weeks) we have the boxes of food labelled 1 person, 2 people etc and then an additional table with non food/non essential food items set up from which the service user can choose 4 items. includes stuff like razors, shampoo, natural laxatives, sanitary wear, mayo, Thai green paste etc. Works well for us.

I've read a couple of previous food bank threads and have completely changed what I buy. It used to be pasta, pasta sauce, baked beans & weetabix and then I realised (from the other threads) that food banks were over run with these things and, embarrassingly late, had the light bulb moment that these were stressed people with loads of things to worry about and didn't need to add to those stresses by giving them unappetising food that my DC would never eat or not being able to store the leftovers as you'd run out of clingfilm or similar. Also, as a child, I never had chocolate biscuits or crisps in my packed lunch and hated it as everyone else seemed to. It must be so much worse if there are other things which also make you stand out from your peers. So I now try to donate a complete mixture which includes at least one thing from each of the categories below:

• toiletries (soap, bubble bath, toothpaste, kiddies toothbrushes, paracetamol, tampons, razors, shaving foam);

• cleaning item (anti bac spray, bleach, cloths)
• household item (loo roll, kitchen roll, bin bags, cling film, foil, light bulbs)
• sauce or flavouring (stock cubes, tomato ketchup, brown sauce, mayo, gravy granules)
• "proper" food
• tinned fruit or veg
• pudding (custard, jelly, cake)
• treat (biscuits, packed lunch bits, sweets, chocolate)
• drink (tea, coffee, herbal tea, hot choc, squash)

YY Talkin i know what you mean.

I admire you for doing what you do Ive seen you mention it before

Talkin - get your friend to ring the footbank direct. Ours delivers under certain circumstances.

yaffle
How would somebody with no access to electricity to charge it or money on their phone telephone the food bank?
And what is the point delivering to where I caught them rough sleeping last week - the cemetery?

Not being mean, this is the state of the UK today.

The bit I thought had gone until it was thrust into my field of view over the last few months.

When the bailiffs turn up at their former home some time in the next few weeks it will be the first time they will have had access to their property for several weeks .... illegal, but the reality.

I have a question - or maybe it's a worry - anyhow:

When I did my last food bank donation, I put in a mixture of items - some were from the more premium ranges, and some were Tesco value things - I chose the latter on the basis that I could put in multiples of these items - so four packs of value sanitary towels, four value choc swiss rolls, several packets of cheap biscuits.

My theory was that, for the same amount of money, I could help more people - but is what I did OK?

I did try to balance it out with some more pricey items, as treats.

The food banks around here say they would rather have four packs of value pasta than one posh one. I buy value stuff for us, so I don't think there's any problem at all buying it for donating.

Only in England would people think giving people junk sugar and carbs/biscutis, chocolate to "cheer them up" was a good idea. When will we ever learn?

I did wonder when a sanctimonious poster moaning about the giving the poor junk food would show up. I'm amazed it had taken this long.

How about we just ignore it and not let this nice thread get detailed?

I do wonder how many other countries have such a massive imbalance in the price of calories via junk and nutritious foods....

In the UK it is vastly cheaper to obtain calories junk than via non-junk, it is part of the reason why poverty causes poor nutrition and is also a likely part of why the list of requests from food banks looks unbalanced.

If you are trying to get people fed cheaply then junk is the only option.

Yep. Or not the only option, but likely to be one of the most efficient ways of getting people the calories they need to keep going. Because before anything else, you need to not starve.

Grazia

1. People may not have money for gas/electricity to cook and run a fridge
2. Calorie density matters when you don't have much to eat. (half a tin of rice pudding contains about 190 kcal and a tin costs around 40-50p)
3. If you are really skint then I imagine life can feel pretty relentless and the odd bit of joy is hardly the same as mainlining McD 3 times a day.

grazia you have never ever been on your uppers, so how could you possibly know what will cheer someone when they at rock bottom?

Can you even imagine it?

Grazia1984. It's not only England at all.

We recently returned from living over seas. There are no food banks where we were, people who cannot afford food on top of rent simply build a cheaper home, out of cardboard. And then those people share what they do have with extended familia and neighbours.

The fundaciones that support the very poor do collect food, but that is for soup kitchens and homes for abused and or disabled children and adults.

And each summer there is a huge party held in a park for the children of very poor familias. Volunteers stand outside supermarkets and politely ask shoppers To donate biscuits, cakes, fizzy drinks, and sweets. This is done To cheer the kids up.

Ice in Latín América McDonalds is cheaper with láger porciones and those who cannot afford a properly balanced diet or junk eat a variety of beans with rice mostly, and meat is reserved for special celebraciones.

I've had to use the foodbank this week (not proud of it but so thankful it exsists) my family support worker has just dropped the boxes to me and I'm amazed at how much there is! The shreddies are already open but the items that really made me smile was the can of coke and jar of carte noir! I'm so thankful to everyone that donates, I look forward to being in a place where I can return the favour.

You certainly need to avoid the temporary high and then crash you get with things like sugar. There are lots of non cooking nice foods out there like nuts.

What catastrophe will befall someone who's had some custard creams?

Their ears will fall off, all their relatives will defect to the Soviet Union, and their noses will smell of eggs forever, I suspect, squoosh.

Or maybe they will have a little moment of enjoyment.

I've just done my food bank shop. I usually only spend about £10 and split it between staple carbs, tinned veg, dried fruit and high-calorie "treat" foods, plus £2 worth of toiletries (I managed to get 2 toothbrushes, 2 shower gels, 2 packs of Sanpro, toothpaste at Aldi)

While I agree that ideally there would be other treats or "made me smile" foods I could give other than biscuits and chocolate, so many of the things that I treat myself to - fresh seafood exotic fruits, posh cheese, fancy condiments - are not really appropriate, and maby of them would not be accepted anyway.

It is a strange paradox that using food banks is something I can never imagine for our family, yet always a "there but for the grace of God..." moment.

Oh Grazia, I getcha in general about healthy eating... but when someone's in a crisis situation, simply getting calories in in a way that lifts the spirits slightly far far outweighs long term nutrition. Imagine being on your proverbial bones of arse for a couple of weeks while your cupboards run down & ekeing out odd combinations of things on toast. Then getting a food bank package that contains quinoa & seed mix and not having the seasonings to make it flavourful -vs- an all-day-breakfast tin of baked beans, pack of chocolate hobnobs and teabags. People using food banks need easy palatable calories.

This thread has really inspired me. I've donated a few times in the past but am definitely going to make it a weekly thing now.

Grazia
There are lots of non cooking nice foods out there like nuts.
Indeed, but the person I'm trying to help has such rotten teeth that they can no longer eat them.
They do avoid sugar for the reason you gave :
protein is good
tinned tuna (so long as the can does not require an opener)
corned beef
tinned ham
cans of sardines (lidl do a nice range of tinned fish in sauce that can be eaten on bread)

and here's a weird one : the longest lasting bread, bar none, is brioche : a sliced loaf of that will not go mouldy in the time it takes a single person to eat it.