Should I use a food bank in my situation?

[Lionking1981]

I am 200 pounds down on my normal wages this month due to taking unpaid parental leave when my Dd was ill. Overspent the first week of the month trying to occupy the kids. Then my oven broke and had to replace it. Been living out the freezer and store cupboard since. To cut the story short, I now have 30 pounds to survive 10 days til payday. I have 3 small joints of lamb in the freezer, a box
of waffles and some fish fingers. A few tins of baked beans, tomatoes and soup in cupboard.

My friend says to go to the foodbank but I am super uncomfortable about it. We earn over 40k between us and i don't think food banks are there for people like us but it is going to be really hard to feed a family of 4 on this. However, we will be fine next month. Would you just make do for the 10 days?

Wow aren't you a dear msMommie yes that is utter bollocks

My husband is currently having a very serious health crisis and I am on MN becasue I need something to take my mind of the fact that I can do absolutely nothing at all to help him but sit and wait.

And defend the right of the real and actual poor to benefit from food banks

I think you are the one with no sense of proportion and shown yourself to be a real c*nt infact.

Can someone please enlighten me as to why the Op can't access a line of credit to tide her over until next month th?

Given that all this is a temporary fuck up ans she'll be able to repay a £59 payday loan easily in 10 days time??

@BabychamSocialist if you were genuinely asking, blackberries are everywhere. EDge of school playing fiends, parks, canal paths, scrubby bits of woodland, cemeteries. I live in zone 3 London so hardly 'semi rurual' and picked lots on the edge of the nearest park.

Maybe her credit record is impaired?

Or she's maxed what's available to her?

I'm sure she'd extend an overdraft by £100 if it only took a quick click rather than live through this.

Serf other posters have said from thier own direct experience and it is also reported that food bans are already under a lot of extra stress becasue of children being off school and so not getting their free school meals. Some foodbanks have run out of food. Paying the food back later does not help someone else who has gone without NOW. This is not speculation, this is fact.

Taking food you dont really need simply takes it away from others who have no other choice. It should be a last resort not a first.

She does need it.

For the next 10 days OP is in food poverty. It's not at crisis level but she needs to prioritise calories and protein if she's going to make £30 and the food she has in stretch til payday.

There are indeed a lot of people in grinding long term poverty in this country. Food banks can't remedy that. They can be there for the short term crises that are alarmingly frequent if you are in long term grinding poverty but no more than that.

The fact that there are whole families living in one room and sharing kitchen, bathroom and toilet facilities with total strangers is shit but it's not a reason for OP's children to go hungry for the next 10 days. She wouldn't get a referral though with £30 and food in the house. She's not at crisis point yet.

The hardest thing can be just carrying on with 'mundane' tasks while your life is going down the pan, but if you can find the energy (and have the health) then something like blackberrying could help a bit.

What makes you think people in food poverty have hours to spare for blackberrying? What makes you think their time might not be better spent getting a bit of cash in hand / selling stuff / hanging around for supermarket reductions?

Working out how many packets of super noodles you can get for 87p that is somehow supposed to last you a month is a food crisis

Working out that you'd have to eat almost 3 lb of blackberries to get the calories from a single packet of supernoodles focuses the mind somewhat.

This really isn't a crises. I work in social housing and have met people in genuine food poverty. Me, and lots of other people I know are in a similar situation to the OP at the end of most months. It's not great and it's not much fun, but you just manage. The OP has some food and some money. She earns decent money and just needs to borrow £50 til pay day.

If everyone who overspent and ran out of money before payday went to a food bank, they simply wouldn't be able to cope with the demand.

This is not what food banks are for. But I know many people in genuine poverty. They would never go to a food bank in these circumstances. £30 is enough to feed a family of 4 for 10 days.

I think it's possible to cook for 10 days with store cupboard food and £30. Meals like Dahl or potato and beans or lamb stew.

HOwever if you really can't make it, ring your health visitor

If you are lucky plums are early as well this year. Our cooking appleas are ready early too.

I think your key is going to be no snacky stuff so kids and DH will need filling up so plum or apple crumble with custard is easy peasy and kids can make the crumble - gazillions of how to's on the internet. Keep them on water rather than squashes and juices. you could also do home made pizzas which they can do - even if you buy the make it yourself packets they are not expensive then you need a bit of tom puree/passata and cheese and if you can a bit of meat of some sort, but can be just veg. Magic chickens are also good - roast, rissoto, soup, curry just buy as bit as you can get.

Pork is really cheap at the moment so that could be roast and stir fry for £4.

Aldi and Lidl both have great ranges for cheap italian food - pasta bake chuck in some tuna and or olives if you have them hanging around in fridge (we usually have a big jar from christmas)

main thing is meal plan and stick to it and try and use activities to make any treats and then you are killing two birds with one stone.

Cheap kids fav is cheapest choc you can find and cheap rice crispies or cornflakes.

Or jam tarts from left over pie pastry (pie is a cheap and filling thing - meat, veg and white sauce or gravy over top.

It will be tough - come back and let us know how you got on

YANBU if you need to use a food bank then do so.
I had a look on Tesco's though and for £20 you can get quite a lot of you use the value or cheaper range I did a quick basket full just to see how much you could get and had the following for approx £20
Frozen berries
Frozen veg
Frozen chicken
Pasta
Two jars pasta sauce
Rice
Apples
Bananas
Cucumber
Two loaves bread
Milk
Ham
Two pizzas
Toilet paper
Natural yogurt
Cheese
Cookies
Tea bags
I think that was everything but with what you said you already had and some careful meal planning it may work you should have a look as the value stuff is actually absolutely fine we buy it and there's hardly any difference in quality or taste
Good luck

MsMommie You aren't surpised what is that supposed to mean?

He is long term disabled with several serious health problems and we have experienced financial trouble and homelessness several times through no fault of ou own and so have experienced directly how extemely limited real help is and how diffucult it can be to get it.

I'm not surprised he is ill either but are you trying to imply it is somehow connected with me? That is a fucking seriously shitty thing to say.

What does eevryone else think of MsMommie now. Wouldnt you love her as a neighbour?

The blackberry picking made me laugh.
Come on fellow poor people let's do some blackberry picking that should cover us food wise for a week.

I would say, given you earn over £40k, no you shouldn't. You probably have a lot of nice things you could flog on fb selling sites or eBay to tide you over (even if you can't use a credit card)

We earn less than £24k and whilst I would consider us skint most of the time, i would never use a food bank. They are for families in dire need. Not for people who can't manage a healthy income (I appreciate you've had a run of bad luck recently, but you really didn't need to immediately replace your oven as others mentioned)

Clear out your cupboards. It's easy to make a quick £30 selling on those sites. The people who need to use food banks literally don't have any assets they could sell.

@user1490465531 you're being silly

The poster didn't offer it as a solution to being in food poverty. The poster offers t as a 'fun day out with added benefits' since the Op had so far bought a cooker and overspent on days out with her children.

I'm starting to not believe this tho. its incredibly unusual to have a decent income and not have any lines of credit open to you. Unless you're already massively in debt and in that case the issue isn't ge new cooker or the expensive days out.

It's only 1 days. Having a low protein diet for 1@ days isn't going to kill you.

Make up a big batch of lamb stew and serve with whatever is chaoest per calorie of rice/pots/pasta. Give most of the meat to the children.

I can't answer the question as to whether you should go or not, as circumstances are not always clear.

My concern over food banks is as to the way that they have been accessed and used, which has led me to stop giving to them.

Can someone please clarifify- I thought the Food Bank was just for a few days emergency food? And that you can only use them a maximum 3 days?

So why are lots of previous posters saying that families have to use them for the school holidays due to no free school meals? School holidays are 6 weeks!

A weeks worth of lunches can be had for about £2/3 anyway- just a simple cheese sandwich, less if you had value pasta and tomatoes

Seriously- £30 is enough to feed 4 people for 10 days - there are some people on this budget every week.

Given that you already have the lamb joints you won't need to buy any meat - if you buy plenty of pasta / potatoes/ bread / various beans/ tinned tomatoes / frozen veg/ milk / some basic cereal. Cook your lamb and mince up then you can use this for bolognese / shepherds pie / chilli . Maybe also some eggs / cheese so you can do egg /chips and beans, Spanish omelette/ egg fried rice. Grate cheese to eke it out and top pasta with tomato sauce or baked potatoes with beans. Also maybe a couple of tins tuna, that's cheap- tuna pasta bake, tuna fish cakes. You should also be able to get a couple of tins fruit and some basic biscuits .

Just stick with the cheapest line your local shop does (basics: smart price etc) and you'll be fine .

Witchesglove foodbanks may help people in crisis for more than 3 days depending on the person's circumstances and depending on the foodbank's stock levels.

A family in real poverty in term time will obviously be worse off it they have to feed their child/ children additional meals so food banks will usually help with this if they can. But you have to be in real crisis in the first place and they will try to share out the food so there won't usually be a guarantee of getting anything. Some areas have more donations than others though and some areas have far more need than donations so I'm sure the policies will vary accordingly.

What makes you think people in food poverty have hours to spare for blackberrying? What makes you think their time might not be better spent getting a bit of cash in hand / selling stuff / hanging around for supermarket reductions?

Hours to spare? We were out for less than an hour earlier today and got ample. It's not labour intensive, back breaking work.
I also mentioned about supermarket reductions, yes. Also don't have to "hang around." Just do your normal shop at the right time.
What''s so wrong with giving some ideas on how to make money stretch and last? £30 for food for 10 days is definitely doable.

Seriously- £30 is enough to feed 4 people for 10 days - there are some people on this budget every week.

Thank God it's not just me thinking that, was beginning to wonder reading the other posts!

Withcesglove also the situation with school holidays does not mean that people are getting help every 3 days for 6 weeks - it just means that after a few weeks there is a big increase in the numbers of families applying even just once each and this eats into the stock levels and creates shortages.

Come on fellow poor people let's do some blackberry picking that should cover us food wise for a week.

Again, for the hard of reading, no-one has said anywhere that it will cover food wise for a week.
Crack on amusing yourself though.

Some posters seriously need to venture outside their privileged little bubbles if they think ops situation is anything approaching a crisis.

Yes, I understand people don't necessarily have first hand experience of real poverty, but how can people be so utterly fucking ignorant of the real poverty so many in this country live in every single day if they believe nobody can manage on £30 and a stash of food for 10 days. It's disgraceful that people are so ensconced on planet privilege that they have no idea how people they probably pass every day in the street live from day to day.

Jsa, income support etc are £70 a week to cover everything except rent and council tax. And from that £70 many are also paying the difference between housing benefit and the rent they actually pay. And after a short time, they've already sold anything they can and won't have a stash of food in. That isn't even considered a crisis, just a budgeting issue. It's hardly the responsibility of a charity to make up for ops initial budgeting skills or the fact that she would rather not live like a poor person till pay day.