To put wine and chocolate in the food bank?

[Nunyabusiness]

Picked up a miniature white wine and a 5 pack of twirls, husband was aghast. My view is that people who are struggling to feed their families wouldn't have funds for such treats.

(I did also put tinned fruit and veg in, by the way!)

It never occurred to me to donate gluten and dairy free foods, I'll definitely remember that for next time.

Can I ask about instant porridge. I give the pots that just need water. If I gave a box of sachets would you split it and just give people some sachets?
I thought they would be good for people with limited cooking options.

Lol at ptumbi thinking Surrey doesn't need food banks. It's a big old place and it's not all pretty. There are some extremely deprived areas, and even the town I live in, which I'd say is pretty middle of the road in terms of class, has three separate food banks run by the Trussell Trust, and probably various others run by different charities. Clearly they're being used by somebody.

Chaz, instant porridge is a good idea. Useful for people with no cooking facilities, just a kettle.

When I was in Geneva they were collecting for a food bank In the supermarket they'd give you a paper bag and ask if possible while you were shopping if you could buy something on the list to donate and pop it in the bag, the bag had pictures of what they needed cereal, tins etc. Thought that was a good idea and it was getting loads of donations they had boxes full. They should do something like that over here.

I always put in the multi packs of mini cereals.

I remember as a small child desperately wanting these but we were poor and these were wasteful and out of our reach. I like to think a child will be enjoying something they dont usually have.......also novelty kids soap, bouncy soap, peppa pig showet gel etc.

It's shit being the kid who never has fun stuff, it makes life very grey......

Thankfully I never got to the point of needing to try and use a foodbank but it was close. In Surrey of all places! Long-term illness lost me my health, my job, my savings, everything. I'm incredibly grateful to even know there was an option for food if it had gotten that bad, thankfully after over a year of looking for anyone who would accept a disabled tenant I found a place, borrowed money, and moved.

It can happen to anyone. Took me over a year to 'go on the sick', from applying for PIP to the humiliating and mentally and physically brutal interview to essentially beg for help. Anyone who feels it's easy to get benefits or referral to a food bank should go ahead and try it. Ever sat in a room with a random physiotherapist and had to describe in detail how you wipe your own bottom? The best part was getting tutted at when I cried, really helped my mental state.

At my lowest, having lost all my savings paying a rent I could easily afford while working full time but was very difficult to move away from once too ill to even dress myself, I discovered I could exist on about £3 a week buying nothing but tesco cream crackers.

It can happen to anyone, suddenly without warning or something inevitable however hard you try and fight, circumstances end up with you needing that help and it's great it's there. I'm sure there are people who see benefits as the easy choice, just go on them, but I have to say it's been harder to get help than to get any job I've had! And that's for disability, supposedly put in place to support um the disabled.

@Almosthere15 I haven't read the whole thread but I was thinking of 'Hunger Hurts' too, I don't know how anyone can read it and not be moved www.google.co.uk/amp/s/cookingonabootstrap.com/2012/07/30/hunger-hurts/amp/

how they get a referral, (other than saying 'from GP' and 'it's hard' - How hard? How?)

Well you don't just rock up and ask for a voucher, GP can sometimes refer you but only after a discussion. Also there are limits on how many vouchers you can have, different food banks have different criteria.

Some charities working with people in debt have either food banks attached or can give a voucher.

Actually I'm not sure why I'm bothering, you obviously have very set ideas about people based on, well, no idea what.

I put a bag of minstrels in (or similar). Also disposable razors, kitchen wash up sponges/J cloths and sanitary towels. With food I've donated things like salad cream, ketchup, sandwich pickle and nutella spread (in addition to the normal stuff like pasta, microwavable rice etc.
Ours (through our church) don't allow alcohol.

I remember as a small child desperately wanting these but we were poor and these were wasteful and out of our reach.

Me, too, SkintAsA! I longed for them, as they were so cute and so ridiculous, but they just never were an option!

Dobbyclub and others about the sanpro: I think the situation in I Daniel Blake wrt to sanpro, poverty and desperation has prompted a lot of people to think about Sanpro.

www.trusselltrust.org/

On the Trussell Trust website you can search your post code and you can then find out the nearest collection point and items needed/not needed.

I've bought tinned fruit, coffee and UHT milk as they were in short supply but avoided getting more pasta and soup. I'll check again next week to see if the items needed have changed.

Our local food bank asks for chocolate and biscuits. I follow them on Facebook and they post what they're short of- usually ketchup, brown sauce, fruit juice, tinned veg, tinned fruit, tinned custard/ rice pudding, milk and sometimes chocolate/ biscuits and cooking sauces. What they usually say they have loads of is soup, baked beans, corned beef, cereal and pasta.

I think Ptumbi and her DP need to sit down and watch "I, Daniel Blake". Because THAT is what having to claim JSA/ESA etc is like. It's undignified, soul destroying, infuriating and unbelievably stressful. If you have worked in the past, been used to paying your taxes and NI, then can no longer work, it's even worse.

Ptumbi, people like you who believe every "benefit scrounger" is "feckless", drinks, smokes, does drugs, does the lottery, has Sky TV etc. make me incandescent with rage and frustration. Do you think ANYONE chooses to lose their job and have to deal with the "people" at the DWP? Do you think ANYONE makes a life choice to become too ill or disabled to work, and have to repeat themselves for 50 or 60 pages about needing help to put their undies on? Jesus, WAKE UP.

Watch "I, Daniel Blake". Stop making shit up about "skinheads" and "cokeheads". Stop reading the Scum and the Daily Heil. Get off your arse and volunteer at a foodbank. Talk to the people there.

And if you're so dead against "benefit scroungers", I assume you either don't claim Child Benefit or you give it to charity every month? That being a benefit, obviously.

My local foodbank is asking for instant mash, tinned potatoes and instant noodles at the moment. I will double up on noodles which I buy myself anyway.

Thank you to the pp who mentioned the Ocado "we give, you give" scheme, btw - I used it for the first time. Very useful for people who shop online because they can't get to the shops easily. 👍

I'm glad you started this thread OP, it's good to talk about why food banks are needed and hopefully it's educated some of posters on here about how other people live. There are so many assumptions made, for example that Surrey can't need food banks - there are pockets of real deprivation in the county or that donating flour and sugar for baking is much better than biscuits when many of our customers have limited cooking facilities such as a kettle or microwave (or in the case of one of my customers a camping stove because he was living rough).

Yes, there will be those who try to exploit the situation, there always are, but we have systems to help us minimise that and I have turned people away who have no voucher (I don't like doing it but those are our rules).

Someone up thread asked about splitting up large boxes of chocolates for Christmas, no I would leave them. At my food bank we do Christmas boxes so volunteers will divvy up stuff to share out, in these days don't accept items that have been opened in case of tampering.

When I give to the foodbank I give tinned rice pudding and bottled hotdogs 😂 I know bottled hot dogs is a bit weird but I was thinking, even if it says not to, it's easier to spread the hot dogs over a couple of days (assuming you have a fridge) if they're in a bottle than a tin… I know hot dogs every day for three days is a bit grim but it's less grim than the same thing but out of a tin, surely?

I give dog food mainly, but other things too. I look at my dog, and can't bear to think I'd have to give her up if I couldn't afford to feed her

Just checked my local food banks, there's a list of foods they're looking for, you can check yours here:

www.trusselltrust.org

I volunteer in a Food Bank and I echo what others have said, all Food Banks are different and the best idea is to contact your local one and find out what their specific needs are - and be sure to check in regularly - we asked for San Pro a while ago but are now inundated with it . Also, we do appreciate that everyone is more generous at Christmas but it is the dull, cold months of February/March when donations really go down. Please try and spread your donations out rather than being extra generous at Christmas.

We've actually receive far too many Advent Calendars & Easter Eggs ............ and excessive amounts of Christmas puddings etc (still got some left from last year!).

And yes, in most Food Banks I believe the volunteers 'buy' the alcohol/unsuitable donations and replace them with more useful items.

Another point is that most people carry away their donations so those huge packs of cereal/T bags(for example) which might seem good value are actually quite hard for people to lug home.

good point about sizes ragwort.

I know our local FB splits large boxes of T bags down into packs of 40 in a ziplock bag.
A pack of 40 is given in every basic pack. It made me think that althoguh it s more expensive, it would be more helpful to give packs of 40 that giant boxes (although those ones with foil wrapped packs inside the big box work)

Most big boxes of teabags can be split, surely? They're usually in foil packets of 40 inside.

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