To Let You Know What My Food Bank Needs

[RamblinRosie]

I’m guessing the requirements are similar across the country, mine needs:

Tea bags
Pasta sauces
Nappies size 5&6
Tinned vegetables
Jams/spreads

Apparently, they don’t feel they can ask for biscuits or treats, but they are very much appreciated.

My local food collection point is full of very worthy food but I like to add a few nice bits, if you need to use a food bank, you deserve the occasional treat.

I usually put in a couple of instant pasta/rice meals, a jar of peanut butter, and then a treat of some sort, generally a treat for kids and a treat for adults. So I sometimes put in those bakes/breakfast bars, I've put in multipacks of minicheddars, and I quite often put in a multi pack of raisins.

Blue - if they won't take them then take them into work or to a friend? I have a little set up at work with tampons, pads, wipes that I replenish

Good thread OP!

My local one asks for coffee - they get a lot of tea as it is quite inexpensive but not much coffee as it is dearer (relatively speaking). And they like to offer coffee as it means their service users can feel more normal. Personally I buy them smaller jars of decent brand instant coffee (much nicer than own brand and smaller jars are easier to carry home as I imagine many of the service users won’t have transport). I also buy tinned potatoes (bearing in mind fuel poverty) and protein items eg tinned ham or tuna/salmon etc as again I was told that they tend to be short on protein sources.

My work donates some money to a local food bank quite regularly but also always donates iced fruit cakes nearer Christmas, so people can have a Christmas cake and feel a bit festive. They also donate chocolate advent calendars (usually Cadbury’s ones) at the end of November so they can be distributed to families with children for the start of advent. I really like that work does that - it must be miserable having to live without the little luxuries. Work chooses to donate the cakes and calendars as items rather than cash so the food bank doesn’t have to worry about whether it can justify spending a cash donation on “luxury” items.

I've posted this before but I basically went to the supermarket and thought I'm skint, I'm tired after work and I don't want to cook and don't have the facilities, what do I want to eat?
I did actually find a brand called look what we found, and it's meals in a pouch. I tried them and they're lovely! Can heat in micro or on a hob and they do chilli, chicken casserole etc
Also did micro sponge puddings (the ones that don't need a fridge), pringles (who doesn't like them?!), chocolates, instant noodle/rice/mash pots, flavoured custard pots, toothbrushes, deo, toothpaste, conditioner and shampoo, shower gel, baby wipes, washing up liquid, cordial, fruit juice, hot chocolate....

Blue, yes 8 years and many Food Banks have been around longer, often run on much more informal basis from a local church or similar community sites. There is much more publicity around Food Banks and food poverty these days.

I think the Huggies mats would be acceptable but not too sure about an opened box of tampons, and please do check dates of food, we still get really old stuff donated, someone actually asked me last week if we would accept 'out of date tins' and I had a jar of jam dated 2003 recently.

Whilst I appreciate that in our own homes we are free to eat out of date tins etc & most will probably be OK we would not pass them on to people using a Food Bank.

I try to donate cash (£100 bank transfer last year). Food Banks have many running costs. Vans, premises, printer paper, phones, computers, etc.

Ihave some huggies bed wedding mats. They're not cheap! And came in packs of 7. We used one out of this pack and now don't use them at all. I don't want to throw them away if they can be used by someone who's going through it. But would that be useful or just binned if I put it in the collection point?

They don’t usually take open stuff, but they’re useful if you have a vomiting child to cover the mattress. Or offer them on a Facebook free page.

Ragwort I feel very underinformed right now. I knew we were using them more and more but i honestly didn't have a clue they'ed been around that long. That's sad.
I'll defenitly try to donate more.

Thanks for the tips they've been sitting in the cupboard for 6 months since I switched to moon cup and it seemed a shame to throw them.

my local food bank has plenty of tea, baked beans/spaghetti and cereal but needs tinned fruit, tinned vegetables etc., Thanks for the link I was able to look this up

I've wanted to volunteer at my local food bank or homeless shelter for a while now. Don't seem to have much luck with the homeless place (they're always pretty inundated with volunteers) and the food bank is difficult due to work hours, but I'm shortly going on maternity leave and will only be going back to work part time.

What sort of roles do food banks have? I have a background in mental health volunteering (Samaritans type) so figure there's probably some client-facing transferrable skills there?

I know that this might not be the first thing you think of giving to a food bank but the best donation is money.

Food banks can often buy in bulk, and therefore get better deals to make money go further. So if you’d spend an extra £1-2 at the supermarket, they can pool that with other money donated and make it go further. Also, money can be spent on whatever the food bank needs that week. It’s easier for the food banks to manage stock if they have a regular amount of money donated each week.

So... if you can, try a regular donation of money that fits your budget instead of donating food. The Trussel Trust is national (I think) and you can donate online.

If possible try to chuck in some gluten free stuff from time to time - bag of pasta or some crackers, as for people with coeliac disease using food banks is a nightmare as it’s mostly pasta and bread.

For Trussell in Sothwarkmthe urgently,required items are as follows

URGENTLY NEEDED FOOD ITEMS

FRUIT JUICE (UHT, CARTONS)
TINNED MEAT (PORK & NON-PORK)
RICE PUDDING
MILK (UHT/CARTON)
TOILETRIES (REGULAR SIZED SHOWER GEL, SHAMPOO, TOOTHPASTE, TOOTHBRUSHES)
WASHING POWDER
JAM
COOKING SAUCES

Plus a tactful comment that they are overflowing with tampons and beans!

WE'VE GOT PLENTY OF

FEMININE HYGIENE PRODUCTS
BEANS

Our school has a regular collection for the local food bank and I noticed that they are specifically asking for pet food this time.

The one I work at desperately needs soup, tinned veg, jam and biscuits. We too are over flowing with sanitary products.

Washing powder is also really appreciated. We save it for the larger families.

Ah. I started putting in the occasional packet of pads and tampons after I saw I Daniel Blake, and she was blackmailed into prostitution after shoplifting pads.

Will swap for toothpaste.

Our supermarket collection point is bursting with beans and pasta, despite a polite notice saying they have more than enough.

Some people put in 6-packs of Heinz beans, they could put in a lot of tinned veg / fruit for the same price.

I usually put in one tin of meatballs in sauce, one of carrots or sweet corn and an additional item.

Thanks for the heads up. I will try to look up what is needed for our local food bank.

Our Foodbank will take pretty much anything non-perishable. If it doesn’t fit into the ‘standard’ packs, then it goes into a self-selection box that anyone with a voucher can have a look at.

There is always a shortage of non-chocolate biscuits. It is really nice that people want to give ‘treats’, but rough sleepers (particularly in the summer months) don’t want their entire food supply to be full of ants. I remember sorting out a pack for one poor guy and there wasn’t a single pack of non-chocolate biscuits in the building. Crackers are always useful.

Microwave rice is always needed. Some people have very limited access to cooking facilities or have to share disgusting hobs/pans in shared accommodation.

Tins are better with a ringpull. Whilst we can give out camping-style tin openers, these will sometimes be confiscated from rough sleepers by the police.

What our Foodbank really needs is money. The costs of storage are rising fast, particularly as more and more commercial premises are being turned into flats and industrial units are becoming scarcer.

Have just checked ours. I have to say I never think of donating pet food but will now include some when I donate.

We've put up the tactfully worded notices, still find we get tons of pasta and tampax .

The most useful 'role' at our Food Bank would be someone with the time and energy (and muscles!) to go round collecting our donations, it is physically quite tough and we get very few young volunteers (most are 60+, not being ageist as I am that age bracket myself and this morning I will be collecting from Harvest Festivals and lugging it back to the Food Bank and it is exhausting).

Different Food Banks will have different expectations but at our's we try to concentrate on giving out food, we are not social workers or counsellors and it is too easy for roles to get blurred.

The one near me was asking for:

Shampoo
Shower gel
Cooking sauces
TInned fruit
Sanitary protection

Thanks for this thread OP.

DC’s school is collecting food for our local food bank this week - harvest festival - and you’ve prompted me to check out our local food banks page.

They’ve got a list of things they urgently need, different to the shortages at your food bank, so that’ll help me when I go to buy our donations.
They’d listed washing powder under urgently needed which is something that wouldn’t have occurred to me to include in a basket of stuff destined for the food bank.

They also had a “we have lots of....” section, so now I know not to include baked beans and cereal this time!

{What a brilliant thread!
Anyone able to mention foodback locations? A brief name change would manage privacy?}
Maybe ask MNHQ to sort out a 'sticky' title and then any foodbank organisers could email MNHQ directly with a list and saying which town/area which could then be 'advertised' with full secrecy.
This is certainly a subject that is vitally important and MN (HQ) could 'do their bit'.

ocado is great. Whatever you donate they match. I much prefer the idea that the foodbank gets whatever is on their list rather than me guessing.