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Original poster

Does anyone know someone who has had to use a foodbank?

187 replies

furryjammies · 28/04/2019 12:51

I'm very lucky that I have never been unemployed - although at times, especially when the kids were young we hardly had any money and I had to be really careful, buying huge bags of potatoes and cooking everything from scratch to save money - no holidays, nights out etc. I don't know anyone who is living in poverty, although I do know some who got heavily into debt - mostly because of going on lavish holidays etc. Do any of you have friends who have had to rely on a foodbank and if so, what were the reasons? Not judging at all just wondering how common it is.

OP posts:
BastianBux · 28/04/2019 15:13

Yes. Me and ex boyfriend when he was kicked out of his house and staying on his older brother's sofa. I also got kicked out my home and was staying with the older brother. Older brother wasn't allowed lodgers (even though we weren't paying any rent), so we couldn't claim benefits either. Every time the landlord was due we had to pack up our stuff and go to the library in town and wait. Tricky situation. Brother said he couldn't afford to feed us, I dropped out of A-levels and tried to get a job interview. As we were under 18 we had someone from the council who was trying to help us get education/work/training, and was trying to mediate with my family to allow me back home... She got us food bank vouchers.

Gardai · 28/04/2019 15:14

When I give to food banks occasionally I don’t want to know the exact reasons the people who use them do so, because I’m assuming they need to eat. Circumstances have driven their life that way and one day it could be me.

PARunnerGirl · 28/04/2019 15:14

I volunteer weekly in my local foodbank so I know lots of people who use it.

The reasons are varied and too many to list here, but at the root of most of them are the never-ending, generation spanning, effects of poverty.

Many people who come to the foodbank manage their money to literally the last hour of the week, when the food is done and the electric will go off. So when a fridge breaks or there are shared funeral costs to bear or some other unforeseen costs that absolutely need to be met, people will very often need to rely on the foodbank.

SihtricsHorseWitnere · 28/04/2019 15:15

No but we don't have a option on taxes for benefits

Yes, those 'benefits', the largest slice of which is pensions, supporting disabled people being moved to UC and you think fostering is a cheap option - haahahaa!

FirstAndLastAndAlways · 28/04/2019 15:19

I first used one in April 2013. I didn't even know they existed. In the September 2012 I had a one year old and had become a single mum. No food. No money. Took til near the end of the year for benefits to be properly sorted. My new neighbours would come round with some home made cake etc but they didn't know the extent to which we needed food and I couldn't ask. A friend from college would bring me tins of things. In the October a friend found out the situation and took me to the supermarket and made me fill a trolley for them to pay for. It was embarrassing but we were starving and my friend could afford it a few times over so I was grateful.
We then ended up in a council flat, and mostly I didn't eat a lot to make sure my DC did. I didn't ask for food but the centre on the estate would give me things from the football which I was grateful to have.
I'm in a good situation now. I'm fortunate despite many other negative things. But I've known loads of people who have needed help and several who have used foodbanks or been gifted food from them.

Silvercatowner · 28/04/2019 15:29

I think I will give a donation to the foodbank during the week

Fucksake. Pop something in every time you go to the supermarket. Tin of meat, box of tampax, find out what your local bank needs.

There but for the grace of your chosen deity.

AuldJosey · 28/04/2019 15:40

If people are paying good money to prop up sections of society they have every right to make reasons and causes their business.

That has to be the singularly most hateful post I've read on MN.

If I'm down on my luck, believe me, I'm not going with my hand out while I've a fully stocked pantry at home. You have absolutely NO RIGHT to know why I'm in the circumstances I'm in. If you wish to filter the 'deserving', give to specific charities.

What a horribly nasty thing to say (and to read actually, having been to a foodbank).

Belenus · 28/04/2019 15:41

Dont agree with 'poverty is not a spectator sport' attitude. If people are paying good money to prop up sections of society they have every right to make reasons and causes their business.

You don't have a right to question individuals about why they are poor. The whole fucking point of the welfare state was to make life more equitable, to reduce poverty for all and to give everyone a safety net rather than nosy around in other people's lives, sit in judgement and decide who the deserving and undeserving poor were.

So if you want to look for reasons and causes, look to government policy over the last nine years. Look at the systematic dismantling of the welfare state. Look at policies which have deliberately placed the most vulnerable in poverty. Question that, not the individuals who suffer because of it.

AuldJosey · 28/04/2019 15:41

You don't fucking own my soul because you gave to charity this one time.

SleepingSloth · 28/04/2019 15:53

I know one family who have used a food bank. I know their reasons. It's quite easy to imagine other situations that would mean people need help.

Sometimes, even with all that planning, 'being really careful, buying huge bags of potatoes and cooking everything from scratch to save money - no holidays, nights out etc' something happens that means people just can't manage. It's not usually because they got into debt by going on a 'lavish holiday'.

Maybe just be understanding and be grateful that you have been fortunate enough to have not needed to use one.......and donate to a local one if you can. None of us know what the future holds and I would hope if ever it was me needing help, I would be given it without feeling judged.

InsertFunnyUsername · 28/04/2019 16:12

If people are paying good money to prop up sections of society they have every right to make reasons and causes their business

You are disgusting.

I know someone who has used foodbanks. Lack of money + children need feeding = Foodbank

PortiaCastis · 28/04/2019 16:30

If people are paying good money to prop up sections of society they have every right to make reasons and causes their business
Good God how low and despicable you are !

FoulMouthedMotherFigure · 28/04/2019 16:39

There are comments within this thread that are so breath-takingly abhorrent that I cannot find the words to express my utter, abiding disgust at the bitter, twisted worldviews of the people who have uttered them.

On the faint off-chance that the OP is genuine, or at least genuinely ignorant, here's a link to a recent BBC News story with a demographic breakdown of foodbank users:

www.bbc.co.uk/news/education-48037122

To the good 'uns on here - thank you for speaking up where words have utterly failed me. Flowers

YouLikeTheBadOnesToo · 28/04/2019 16:47

If people are paying good money to prop up sections of society they have every right to make reasons and causes their business

I’m assuming you feel the same about the NHS then & would have no problem with your medical records being disclosed? After all our taxes do ‘prop’ it up.

darkriver19886 · 28/04/2019 16:50

If people are paying good money to prop up sections of society they have every right to make reasons and causes their business

What a delight person you are! I will try to remember to more deserving the next time my health makes my life difficult.

AuldJosey · 28/04/2019 17:02

That sort of do-gooder is exactly the type who people would rather starve than receive from. Judge not lest you be judged.

WaterOffaDucksCrack · 28/04/2019 17:04

Dont agree with 'poverty is not a spectator sport' attitude. If people are paying good money to prop up sections of society they have every right to make reasons and causes their business. Ok so lets say for example I'm a higher tax payer than you and you end up in hospital unable to work. I'd be one of the people "propping you up" so I assume you'd have no issue with me being in the room for your treatment/bed bath/surgery/whatever?

AuldJosey · 28/04/2019 17:06

Here's something biblical for you....

Matt.7. [1] Judge not, that ye be not judged. [2] For with what judgment ye judge, ye shall be judged: and with what measure ye mete, it shall be measured to you again. [3] And why beholdest thou the mote that is in thy brother's eye, but considerest not the beam that is in thine own eye?

So shove your judgment on who is worthy of your charity and just well., just stop.

AuldJosey · 28/04/2019 17:10

On judgment day nasty poster, the Lord is going to judge you. On the same basis as you have judged others.

PortiaCastis · 28/04/2019 17:21

Yep shove your judgment where the sun doesn't shine but watch your head as it's there already

VanCleefArpels · 28/04/2019 17:32

I give out vouchers to food bank as part of my job. Massively wide range of reasons for giving them including

Homelessness (often escaping abusive relationships)
Benefit delays
Benefits turned down (especially disability benefits where goalposts moved)
Debt problems (people with literally 10p in bank account and a week to go till next payday)

And yes, undoubtedly some fecklessness etc but I don’t think anyone would happily let someone go hungry just because they have a shit life

VanCleefArpels · 28/04/2019 17:35

Also

Long term sick so unable to work (families who just about got by when person working, then expected to get by on statutory sick pay or UC/ESA)

Addicts in rehab

People with serious mental health issues which mean they are functionally unemployable but don’t qualify for disability benefits (see above the goalposts) yet are unable to make a full time job of job hunting so get benefits sanctions

Recently bereaved people trying to get life sorted after death of breadwinner leads to cash flow issues

longwayoff · 28/04/2019 17:36

You wondered how common food poverty is? We have FOOD BANKS. That should tell you all you need to know.

AsleepAllDay · 28/04/2019 17:36

I hope people are reporting starzig's comment at 15:06 about 'people paying good money'

That's horrifying. What's 'good money?' Money is a made up thing that society forces us to work our health and life away for. Some people have less of it and fewer opportunities to make it.

The least we can do as privileged people is give back to food banks, soup kitchens and charities etc and NOT feel entitled about it

You could lose everything in a day. Where will you and your sneery attitude be then?

Blueberrybell · 28/04/2019 17:38

God there’s some nasty fuckers on this thread Angry

I just got asked for the money for something to eat by a young bloke walking around one of the wealthiest towns in the UK, filthy dirty, a leg ulcer that looked septic and clutching a sleeping bag and nothing else. And do you know what - he actually fucking cried - why? Because he said I was the first person who hadn’t just looked through him in days, or sworn at him, actually spoke to him like a human being, asked him whether he was getting his leg seen to, was trying to get help. He told me people sometimes throw food towards him and how grateful he is for that. But he’s a person, someone’s son. A drug addict maybe - who knows- but even if so, what took him there? Why do people feel so superior or simply not care? Why do so many people have attitudes like some on here? What is wrong with them?

OP - if you were genuinely interested in who uses food banks you’d look it up. You just want to judge and you know it. We’re living in a country where people are on the streets, dying of hunger, and all most people want to do is judge. Not help. It sickens me.