To wonder who would put champagne in the foodbank box?

[Drinaballerina]

Shopping today, as I dropped off my items I saw 3 bottles of Moet in a bag (so clearly all donated together). Aside from the vvu fact it was Moet who would do this? Surely the money would be better spent on something a bit more useful.

Note this isn't about people in the foodbank having luxuries, it just seems slightly bonkers to me??

They won't give it out as its Alcohol. I hope they can use it to make some use of it.

It's highly unlikely the recipient spent what £100? on three bottles of champagne instead of £100 worth of whatever is most practical to the foodbank and it's clients.

They must have taken it in from home as clearly there are people out there with unwanted champagne .

Hopefully the foodbank will raffle it off and buy more sensible food with the proceeds? I wonder what happens to things that end up in the supermarket donation bins but are inappropriate for whatever reason (eg alcohol or out of date canned or jar food that is perfectly safe to eat but they don't give out).

I use to volunteer and items like this were kept and raffled and created more money than originally worth so was always a bonus and the money bought the items people often forget.

The food bank is highly unlikely to give it out, but maybe they will raffle it etc to raise funds. And tbh, I look more kindly on "oooh people using a food bank could do with cheering up, I'll give them some bubbly" than "bubbly is a silly thing to give to a food bank, the money could be much better spent".

OP's last line may say "this isn't about people in the foodbank having luxuries" but the line before that is "Surely the money would be better spent on something a bit more useful". So yes, of course the post can be taken as implying that donations of luxury items are a waste, and pretending otherwise is a bit odd.

My workplace does a big donation to the local foodbank each Christmas and we give what they ask for.

They don't mind whether things are value or premium brands, after all there is absolutely nothing wrong with value food, and if they have a lot of people to help, obviously value food can help more people for the same amount of money.

As well as basics, they ask for treats too, as it's nice to be able to have a treat, especially at Christmas.

Was it the food bank box at Waitrose?

Who would do this - foodbanks wont distribute alcohol for a lot of obvious reasons?

Wouldn't you love to be given that as a food bank user! I wish more alcohol was allowed tins of beer etc

What are the obvious reasons????

Foodbanks can’t accept or distribute alcohol

Ive donated (gift) champagne before because I don't drink the stuff. They don't distribute it but they will raffle it at our food bank.

It's a shame they can't accept it. It's a nice thought whether it's an unwanted gift or just someone trying to be generous.

Well, I would think giving three people champagne instead of using the £100+ (I appreciate it's unlikely the donor actually bought it themselves) to buy basics for a hell of a lot more than three, is indeed a bit of a waste, sinceyouask, given that the boxes are going to people struggling to buy food for themselves?
It's not even as if everyone was getting this luxury in their box; how is it fair that it goes to just three?

Reasons I can think of are

1. They might accidentally give it to someone who is an alcoholic
2. How would they decide who should get it

There's luxury, and there's luxury tho.

Hot chocolate? Nice. Bottle of Blossom Hill? Smashing. Spending enough on a bottle of champagne to run somebody's electric meter for the month could be a weeny bit insensitive.

I'd have assumed they were leftover from Xmas tho.

Could be presents for the volunteers.

On a similar note there is an Interesting article in the guardian by Sali Hughes, their make up guru ,about how she is trying to organise cosmetic companies, people who get masses of cosmetic freebies etc to donate to food banks . She is also trying to get San pro companies to donate too. Excellent idea, I usually drop toothbrushes, toothpaste,deodorants, soap and shampoo in the food bank box, but had never thought of including moisturiser, mousse, hair gel or other basic cosmetic items too.

Sorry can't do links! Sali Hughes is a goddess btw, just saying.

Birthday?? Big birthday? Who has a birthday coming up, prove it and enter the raffle for it along with tother birthday people that week or month!!

I think being given a luxury item when down on luck is a really fabulous idea and would boost someone's self esteem.

Raffling is a good point. As someone said upthread, nice treat items absolutely (life must be deprsssing enough if you need to use a foodbank). But I in my own shopping weigh up 1 nice thing vs 3 cheaper things, and will quite often decide quantity over quality.

When I assumed they'd been bought it would have been £100 ish pounds and it would have just seemed crazy to me to spend that on 3 items when it could have gone so much further!

But they're all down on their luck, Sersiouly, it's a food bank Tbh, if I was struggling to feed my family and was given Champagne by the food bank; I'd ask them to swap it for actual food of equivalent value.
Who would sit there quaffing champers whilst worrying about being able to stretch the rest of the food out as far as possible?

One of the volunteers will probably take it home and give a donation to the food bank in exchange.

A bottle of bubbly is a nice thought, but it can't be handed out to a service user. If you want to add a touch of luxury to your food bank donations, try some posh chocolates or biscuits.

They accept it here, raffle it or sell to staff.

Ooooh raffle is a good idea! They all accept different things anyway, I always tended to give jars of sauce, pasta, cereal and UHT milk but recently gave sanitary pads, toilet bleach and baby wipes for a change but when putting it in I checked the list and it just named tinned and dried foods - so I don't know if I was right to give what I did

Unwanted gift, I would imagine

We are usually given champagne and wine for Christmas but we don’t really drink, so ours usually ends up being donated too. The one nearest to us sets it aside for people who are celebrating etc