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!)

I look on the website of the food bank which collects from the local supermarket and check what items they are specifically needing. No point buying beans and soup if they are stock pilling them but are short of tinned fruit and bags of sugar. I also drop off tins of cat food - I would hate for someone not be able to feed their pets.

If you look at your local Food Bank website it will say what they are currently short of (and what they are drowning in, often cereals). Ours currently has sweets and chocolate on the wanted list, for adults and children.

Oops, crosspost

It doesn't give the same warm fuzzy feeling you might get from buying 'things' and imagining them being consumed, but what my food bank really appreciates is a cheque (big or small). They can buy what they are short on from the wholesale, or buy fresh meat/veg vouchers from local shops to go along with the parcel.

This bears saying again and again, even though I'd never want to upset or discourage people who donate "stuff". My local supermarkets all have a trolley after the tills where donations can be left (with a note saying what's particularly needed) and it's a really effective and efficient way of getting donations.

But. The most efficient way to help is always just giving cash. Paying supermarket mark-up prices on an individual can of beans is not the smartest way to donate.

There is a trade-off though, in that the supermarket trolley is also raising awareness and getting first-time donors which is also important and valuable for the charity. And while it's easy to say "save up what you would spend on tins of beans for the trolley every week, and send a monthly cheque instead", there'd be quite a bit of fall-off where people wouldn't always get round to it.

The Trussell Trust operates the food banks in my area and each one asks for specific items. I suppose the local food banks help each other out when they are low or have a surplus in certain items. Anyway, the website has a list of items and a page where you can make a regular or online donation instead.

www.trusselltrust.org/get-involved/

@EssentialHummus thanks so much for saying about the you give we give part of Ocado- I had no idea and have just added it to my basket!
They really should advertise that more

rightsofwomen agree entirely. Give stuff that you'd be pleased to receive, not what you want to dump.

I sometimes buy a birthday cake...one of the Tesco ones like a caterpillar which is good for a boy or a girl. They last long enough that they can be used and someone might have a child with a birthday and no cake!

I also buy decent toiletries if I'm flush because while own-brand shampoo does the job, there's nothing like good shampoo etc to perk you up a bit!

I manage the food supply side of our local trussell trust FB.

We tend to be overrun with pasta, beans, tinned fish etc but check with your local place.

We love getting treaty stuff. It does make a difference if you can treat yourself and your kids, nothing patronising about it. If you have kids of school age individually wrapped things like penguins etc are great for packed lunches. Condiments like ketchup, mayo, salt, oil etc.

Advent calendars and Easter eggs etc. Selection boxes etc. We have a central HQ which manages 6 centres/cafes that issue the food. Each is given staple items according to what they order (some are massively busy etc) plus a selection of extra bits like this. The busier centres get more. When they're gone they're gone, just how it is.

Booze either gets bought by volunteers, or put into raffles etc. We also take second hand clothes and have regular sales, we do a tombola as part of that and nice bottles of booze or whatever go in there.

Damaged/slightly out of date stuff gets put to one side, again volunteers can buy it. Soup kitchen comes to collect some of it.

Cleaning stuff. Just because you are having a tough time doesn't mean you don't want to keep a clean house, and you still need to wash up etc. So we don't ask for it specifically as it would dilute the food message but cleaning stuff is so appreciated by us and the recipients.

Toiletries, as above. Soap, shampoo, loo roll, deodorant, sanpro. All mega important

We always need money too, not so much for food but overheads. Van insurance, fuel, buildings insurance etc. We are rarely more than about 2 months from running out of cash.

Having been in a situation where I needed a food parcel (from SS in the days before food banks) I can honestly say that small treats are a lovely thing to include. If you've spent the last month living on plain bread and reused tea bag tea even a jar of jam or sachet of hot chocolate is amazing. I got a tin of ravioli and it was heavenly. Also people often have slightly middle class ideas which are great but impractical, coming from a place where skint is rummaging in the cupboards to use things up rather than buying what you fancy as opposed to absolutely penniless and freezing cold. When we got the food parcel we had no gas and no electricity. So no way of cooking fresh produce, healthy options etc. SS put £5 on the electricity for which I was eternally grateful and got to microwave the ravioli! I'd always say go with the food bank's advice as they know what works and what is needed. And someone will be so grateful for the treats. I pay it forward now I can and donate to a local shelter that does food parcels for homeless or vulnerable people.

I never donate to food banks. We live in one of the richest countries in the world, and have a world-reknown benefits system. Why do we need food banks? What did people do before them?

Ptumbi, I suggest you do a few shifts at your local food bank if you want to know why we need them. Our benefits system is certainly not world renowned: our government has received a rap on the knuckles from the UN for denying disabled people their rights as a result of changes to the benefits system and for allowing people to go hungry. The majority of people who are referred to food banks need them because of benefits delays or sanctions. In the area where I am, universal credit is being implemented: there is a six-week delay built into the system before claimants get any money. How would you feed your family if you had no income for six weeks? Plus, the system cannot cope with the demand (and was not designed to), so there are many other delays and malfunctions. Benefits sanctions - where do I begin? The number of bewildered people I've spoken to who have missed appointments for perfectly good reasons (illness, funerals, attending job interviews) and then been sanctioned. And don't think disabled people are immune. I could tell you about the man with only one arm who lost his benefits because he was considered fit for work, though no one would employ him, or the one with a long-term lung condition, or the many many claimants with serious mental health conditions who are also arbitrarily considered fit for work. They come to the food bank because the state has denied them any recourse. What did they do before food banks? Before food banks we did not have this harsh sanctions regime or universal credit, and local councils were allowed to make discretionary hardship payments to people who were destitute; those payments no longer exist.

The other main reason for people coming to food banks is low income. I had a man come in who had two jobs but was still frequently faced with making a choice between buying nappies and food for his DCs. At a time of high rents and job insecurity, work no longer pays - contrary to government propaganda.

I can tell you, Ptumbi, that virtually no one who seeks help from a food bank wants to be there. Most of them are humiliated and apologetic. It is so awful to see. One young mother, the victim of benefit delays, told me she had had to send her four children to school without any breakfast that day. I asked her why she hadn't asked the school to give them something to eat. She said very quietly, 'I was frightened that they would judge me.' Unfortunately, people are too often judged - and blamed - for their own poverty. Cameron and Osborne ran an election campaign on doing just that and we have become a nastier, more divided society as a result.

Agree with getting slightly fancier toiletries.
It's maybe one thing that I feel a Mum would really appreciate at a time when they're having to put their needs last. We have a lot of miniatures and I'll stick them in with the family shampoo etc.

And to everyone wondering whether to donate treats: yes, please do, because if you give someone a treat it helps just a little to restore their dignity and make them feel like a human being. It's not a question of treats OR essentials - we hand out both. Once a mother came in with an eight-year-old whose birthday it was (imagine going to a food bank on your birthday). We were able to give her some sweets and chocolate. Sometimes mothers mention that their children are going on school trips and they have nothing suitable for their packed lunch - if we can put in a bag of Haribos (as well as something more nutritious) then hopefully that kid will not be marked out as different from their peers, but has something to share round.

Really heartwarming to read of people's generosity.

Careful RLBaby, thats what Jacob RM said!

Wine probably not. The only problem I can see with treats is that it seems like such a lovely idea that it could become more common to donate chocolate than food and could result in them running low of the staples.

But I expect a food bank would say if that was happening so no, I don't think YABU.

Our local food bank told us not to donate sugar. Allegedly this came from the Trussel Trust.

Because the poor people shouldn't be eating anything unhealthy, innit?

So condescending. How dare you make a cake or have sugar in your tea if you're poor!

They also said no advent calendars. When there was a bit of a local social media outcry about it they then said they would accept them and it was only because they'd had too many and didn't know what to do with them.

Food banks do a great job, but there are some middle class snobs involved in a few of them, who think the people are somehow a bit thick because they've fallen on hard times.

I'd be surprised if our food bank would pass on alcohol.

I never donate to food banks. We live in one of the richest countries in the world, and have a world-reknown benefits system. Why do we need food banks? What did people do before them?

So what do you think they exist just for fun? Do you think food banks are some sort of scam? You are part of the problem. Maybe if people were kinder in the first place, we wouldn't need food banks in the first place.

FYI Africa is a continent not a country.

To those who are saying only donate food - never cleaning products or toiletries - you couldn't get it more wrong really.
People need to eat, they also need to keep themselves and their enviroment clean, 'poor' people go to school, to work, attend job interviews, use public transport, etc etc. They need to clean their toilets, their kitchens to be able to eat safely and prevent disease, just basic needs that most people take for granted.
I have used a food bank, I had to ask for sanitary towels for my daughter, toothpaste and other non food items.
Treatwise, we weren't bothered about biscuits or chocolate, we did appreciate some tinned pears and custard, and a couple of cans of diet coke (my daughter's favourite treat), and the person who mentioned the sachets of instant cappucino coffee has got it spot on. You can also get packs of coffee with whitener and or sugar combined, which might come in handy for parents who save any milk for children's cereal.

I always mean to donate but forget so on the back of this thread I've just been shopping and taken a bag to the food bank. Thank you for the prompt

Food banks do a great job, but there are some middle class snobs involved in a few of them, who think the people are somehow a bit thick because they've fallen on hard times.

fucking hell

how often do you help out in a food bank?? Maybe you should spend a month or so doing so before you slate people that work there. Sometimes you don't want to put lots of sugary crap in a parcel because you want there to be lots of nutritious basics first. If everyone thinks oh I'll give cakes and chocolate and advent calendars then we don't always get tuna and beans! OF COURSE if you have plenty of basics including biscuits then treaty food is welcome but not at the expense of other stuff.

Wombling the food bank I volunteer for doesn't give out cleaning products as a standard item. We have a table set out with what we call "extras" that our customers can help themselves to - cleaning stuff, toiletries, the more unusual food items that get donated. When you can't afford food you often can't afford anything else either.

We don't give out alcohol - any that is donated (not usually very much) is purchased by volunteers and we spend the money on other items.
Treat items are always welcomed.

www.freecakesforkids.org.uk/

This is a charity that matches up amateur bakers with families who can't afford to provide birthday cakes for children, which is a lovely idea. Some of you might be interested

The sugar thing came down from the trussell trust in line with national government guidelines. We are no longer supposed to treat it as a staple (i.e: ask for it or automatically give it) but our place now treats it as an extra, so we gladly receive it and have it there for people to take if they like. Nothing to do with poor people not getting sugar, but we would have been heavily frowned upon were we seen to be ignoring health guidelines. We give jam, custard, puddings as staples all of which contain.sugar.

I can understand the advent calendar thing too, we get A LOT of them! We are a very busy centre so get through them all, but I would imagine smaller centres not having the demand or space to store them. Christmas is a mega busy time for centres, space can be at a premium. We had a throughput of nearly 10 tonnes over the Christmas/NY 6 wk period last year. Foodbanks aren't sanctimonious about what people 'deserve'.