...to thank everyone who donates to Food Banks?

[PinkyandtheBrainyOne]

I mean obviously, I'm not, but I just wanted to say a big thank you to anyone who has donated in the past.

My partner and I were out of work at the end of last year and were waiting for our benefits to kick in. We visited and were provided with bags of lovely food - all manner of treats which put a big smile on our faces.

But, that's only half of my story. The week before Christmas, things were very tight. We hadn't bought each other presents and were planning on just having a microwavable roast dinner to celebrate Christmas. We had to keep things cheap. And then we got a phone call...

Apparently we had entered a prize draw and won a food hamper, and they were wondering if they could drop it round that evening. We were very grateful; but we hadn't entered any draw. It was obvious that it was a treat from the food bank, described to spare our feelings and it meant the world to us.

Inside were selection boxes and Roses and Celebrations, all kinds of chocolate. Yule Logs and Rice Pudding. Hot Chocolate, as well as the usual staples you'll find in a food bank parcel. It's no exaggeration to say that we both had a little weep at how fortunate we were.

Eventually we both found work and things seem to be, if not comfortable, manageable. I'm pretty late posting this, but was reading an article about Food Banks and remembered and wanted to say, thank you. :)

My local Asda has a trolley on the way out for the food bank which is a good idea.

If I am shopping and something is on a 2 for 1 or 2 for £3 type offer and I need 1 I will get the other one and drop it in the trolley on the way out.

This is a great reminder for me to start doing the Ocado donations again. It makes me sad that we need them but it is such an easy way to support people in the community who need it.
Glad to hear that things are on the up

I go to donate lots of shopping to the local foodbank about once a month, and take both my kids. They love choosing the treats/chocolate etc to give and we always leave the foodbank feeling very fortunate. I am so pleased to hear such a lovely story, thank you.

I volunteer for an organisation that receives the proceeds of things like harvest festival collections, and distributes them to families (we are not a food bank). I have been doing it for seven or so years, and every single year there reloads of tins of baked beans, and tins of soup, and dried pasta. So I don't ever donate those items because my own experience is that other things are needed.

I haven't donated toothbrushes for a while, but they used to be two for 25p in Tesco which I used to buy. I also look for the jars/packets of baby food on special offer and put those in.

My DD has recently gone veggie, so I now try and donate veggie things such as tins of veggie curry or macaroni cheese as I imagine it must be difficult to stick to a veggie diet if you can't afford to eat.

I have never been to the actual distribution point, but a friend takes apples and plums from the trees in her garden which she says are well received, as the supermarkets don't accept fresh fruit as a donation. I don't have any fruit trees but, if I did, I would do the same as eating five a day is important for everyone if it is at all possible.

This is a very heartwarming thread, that so many people are donating, even though it is CRAP that there is a need for food banks at all.

I made DH wrote a LARGE cheque to our local food bank when he insisted on voting Tory.

I still love him, but we don't discuss politics :(

hackmum people aren't going hungry ..... because we have foodbanks!

Foodbanks give 3 - 6 days of food to enable people to overcome a crisis. That's what foodbanks are for - not for providing ongoing support.

The typical situation is when there are benefits delays or sanctions.

As charities, foodbanks don't have the same level of bureaucracy that social services have, so they are nimble enough to step in with crisis help (although still have rules to prevent abuse).

The benefit of going to a church run foodbanks is there there is additional and ongoing pastoral care, with perhaps debt management from CAP.

I don't know what the outraged are getting outraged about. How would you solve the problem?

Get rid of ludicrous benefit sanctions for a start.

I donate the instant porridge pots that just need hot water, sachets of instant hot chocolate and cup a soup. If people don't have much on the gas or electric meter they might still be able to boil some water.

Yup I am with you op. Now I drop little bits when I can afford to.
When tax credits mucked up and I had no way of feeding my kids I had to go and they treated me with such kindness. Someone had given some lovely shower gel, toothpaste and toothbrushes which were so handy to us.

The one thing I'd say is if donating, don't give perishables so fresh food. By the time it gets to those who need it, it will be off or on its way out. Far better to give tinned veg etc

Oh and they HAVE to throw out any baby milk donated 😔😔

And thanks again to everyone who donates xx

Thank you for this thread, Pinky. I donate in the box at the supermarket but this has been a helpful reminder that I can (and will!) do more.

It makes me so sad that it's increasingly necessary to have food banks in the UK in 2017. It also gives me a bit of perspective when i think I'm having a bad day.

I can't believe we have food banks when you can buy 19p veg in Aldi and cooking from scratch is fairly cheap. Is it because we "need" squash instead of just water or breakfast cereal instead of porridge or "my kids wouldnt eat a stew" Im genuinely curious how you come to use one. It isnt an attack, i want to understand.

So glad things have looked up for you, OP.

I'm interested to read what you think are the best/most useful things to donate. I buy a couple of things for the food bank every time I go to the supermarket but am often not sure how useful they are.

I do give sanitary towels/tampons, after the recent awful news stories about girls forced to miss school while they had their periods for want of sanitary stuff.

I don't tend to buy teabags but will bear that in mind from now on.

willow there are lots of reasons that collide to make food banks necessary, but just going with what's in your post - 19p veg from Aldi requires an Aldi (or Asda, or Tesco) within walking distance, or money on your bus pass to get there and back. You also need a fridge to keep most things in.

Cooking from scratch requires a working kitchen - not easy if you're in a bedsit or hostel. Cooking from scratch also costs gas/electricity for cooking. (I made a lentil and chorizo stew today that works out at about 40p a large portion - about two hours' cooking time.)

And there's lots more, unfortunately. I come from Johannesburg and was alternately outraged and bemused that this kind of thing is needed in the UK, but it is. I imagine there is some abuse of this system, as in most things, but there's also huge amounts of need.

willow a veg stew requires a fair bit of cooking and needs some protein with it. If people have no money for food then they may not have much money for gas and electric. They need food that is quick to heat up and that you can guarantee the children will eat. Also most veg stews / curries etc. would rely on you having stock cubes, spices, salt and pepper, oil, tinned tomatoes. Whilst the cost of 1 stock cube might not be much, you can't just buy one stock cube you have to buy a packet. If the cupboards are bare then you would struggle to make a decent meal out of 19p of veg.

I had no idea there were Aldi's on every corner in the UK. How amazing, there isn't one around here that we can get to except, on foot, at cheapest, £9. That makes it quite cost prohibitive since you'll also need to haul whatever it is you've bought on your back and, if you have one, in one of those trolleys. We have, for many, many, many miles, a small Co-Op and a smallish Morrison's. We're on a leccy meter, so whatever we can cook that doesn't involve turning on the cooker or the oven is a plus. But some are in hostels in town - shared kitchens if there is one but more like one of those portable leccy tabletop hobs. Someone taking up 2 hours to make a veg stew wouldn't be popular.

Im genuinely curious how you come to use one. It isnt an attack, i want to understand.

Oh, if only there were already 140 posts explaining.

I think some people are mixing up the typical foodbank service user with refuge users.

Foodbank users have unexpected downturns, e.g. loss of job. They still live in their house, with their stock cubes.

Women and children who go to refuges arrive with virtually nothing. They need clothing and toiletries as well as food. The cooking facilities in their emergency accommodation is likely to be a basic microwave and kettle. This is a completely different scenario to the typical foodbank user, and requires different care.

'Foodbank users have unexpected downturns, e.g. loss of job. They still live in their house, with their stock cubes.'

Plenty are living in temp or homeless accommodation. Some are in work. Some have had benefits sanctions. There's no 'typical' user.

Willow I used a foodbank several times when I had to move to a women's refuge with no money, no benefits (took 6 weeks to sort) and 3 kids. To keep my kids safe from their father I couldn't contact friends or family for help.
Literally had nothing. Hope that helps!

They are two distinct groups.

Someone who loses their job is very different from a women fleeing a violent husband. The latter needs a lot more support for longer than the 3-6 days offered by foodbanks, although food will be part of it for a similar amount of time.

But you are right, there are lots of grey areas that begin to merge. The good thing about church food banks and besoms as they deal with their service users on an individial basis - something social services struggles with.

Bizzy
People who have unexpected downturns that leave them unable to afford food probably don't have well stocked cupboards. They have probably just been coping/ scraping by for some time so won't have built up a store cupboard.

Willow tree do you really not understand that some people don't have the bus fare to get to aldi (£5 adult day return from where I live, or an 8 mike round trip on a nsl road with no footpath) or that with their last few quid, they can't afford to boil a stew for an hour? And yes, their kids might reject said stew and if it's all veg then it's probably not very filling when you didn't have any breakfast.

Thank you for posting this as a reminder OP, I have been shopping online recently so have signed the petition to add to websites. When we nip to a real shop , my dd loves making up a bag of nice things for the food bank - I do the sensible stuff and she does the treats. Doesn't add much to a weekly shop. We also do shoeboxes at school for the local Foodshare charity, which has gone down a lot better with parents than Samaritans Purse!

'Willow tree do you really not understand that some people don't have the bus fare to get to aldi (£5 adult day return from where I live, or an 8 mike round trip on a nsl road with no footpath) or that with their last few quid, they can't afford to boil a stew for an hour?'

Yeah, this idea there's a Lidl and Aldi in every place is so very far from the truth.

Worth noting that whilst FB is for crisis, this doesn't mean the voucher recipient was in good financial health beforehand. The majority are on a low income, whether or not that is the tipping point for coming to a centre or whether a sanction or job loss is. So the cupboards may not be stocked, fuel for cooking may be scarce etc. The majority aren't living comfortably bar the small issue of no food. Hence the importance of a proper referral system, so that clients can be referred to agencies that can help them long term and make sure they are accessing any help available to them.