To think if you rely on a food bank you may need to compromise your vegan principles?

[LondonUnited]

I’m a supporter of our local food bank and am on their mailing list. I received an email earlier to say that they were supporting a vegan family and were therefore asking for specific food donations, including Oatly oat milk, various nuts and seeds, specific types of beans, etc etc.

I may get flamed for this but I couldn’t help thinking that - allergies aside (and I have a milk allergic child so I do get it) - if you need a food bank to feed your family, you might need to compromise on diet slightly? For a start, Oatly Barista is lovely and all that, but Aldi or Asda oat milk is also ok and half the price. And that the odd bit of tinned fish may be easier to access from a food bank than Brazil nuts and chia seeds...

Veganism aside - I have always thought if I had £10 to spend for the food bank that it would be better to get as much for my money as possible? Therefore I’ve always bought non-branded goods, Tesco’s own version of shreddies/Cheerios/cornflakes (it’s the same stuff I buy for us to eat 🤷‍♀️.

I thought rather than feeding one family breakfast, I’d be contributing to two or three for the same money.

For part of this thread I feel I’ve been doing the wrong thing you live and learn though.

My ds isn't vegan, but has near vegan diet due to allergies. He can technically drink any plant based milk, tried all sorts last 12 years. Funny enough, he only drinks oatly for last couple of years, because that's his favorite. So it must have difference to the taste, he prefers it more than others. We don't by it because it's a brand item, we buy it because it taste better than others, and ds happily drinks it, which is very important due to his restricted diet.

What are you talking about? Store labels have to be clear according to government regulations. I’ve never heard of someone dying from mislabelled store-brands specifically. In fact, I find the simple labels of store-brands easier to parse when it comes to ingredient lists. And like I said, often they are just as good as name-brands (often they are made in the same factories, btw).

I’m sorry, I don’t believe that brand-names label things better than store-brands or that people with allergies are at more risk from store-brands. That’s quite a claim.

Well now it's my turn to ask you what on earth are you talking about.

I am not talking about mislabeling by anyone.
I am not talking about brands doing a better job of labeling.
I didn't say that people with allergies are more at risk from store brands than name brands.

I am talking about the difference that can exist between brands when it comes to ingredients.

Some brands contain ingredients that consumers need for proper nutrition. Some don't. Some brands contain ingredients that can cause some people with allergies to become ill. Some don't.

Sainsbury's own oat milk clearly warns that it is not suitable as a main milk drink for young children. Oatly otoh is perfectly fine for young children.

And like I said, often they are just as good as name-brands (often they are made in the same factories, btw).
Yes, you've said it at least twice now, and you were wrong both times.

I have a restricted diet due to intolerances and allergies. If I ever needed to use a food bank I don’t think I’d care what brand the foods were as long as they didn’t have ingredients in that would make me seriously ill.

I would however be mortified if a food bank refused to help me or made me eat something that made me sick and said I should be grateful because I’m poor! That’s just disgusting. I would equally be upset if a food bank told a vegan family they had to eat fish or a Muslim family couldn’t have halal and their beliefs weren’t respected because they couldn’t afford to buy it themselves.

Note to self: donate more vegan products to food bank.

Oat milk has been around for donkeys years. It was one of the drinks DP tried about 20 years ago when he was advised to cut dairy from his diet. There are so many people following a vegan diet now that the market has exploded and brands such as Oatly have capitalised on the boom. That's supply and demand for you.

@Pomegranatepompom

Alpro doesn’t split.

Alpro is rank. Barista is far creamier and you can froth it and it foams up nicely.

Compromise on brands yes as Im a vegetarian and use Aldi Almond milk.

@mathanxiety it's the storing of them that can be problematic. We keep all nuts outside, at Christmas. The chances of one of our volunteers meeting airborne brazil nut oil is qute high if they are stored inside. So we take additional care, treat them like they are high explosives

You should not have to give up on your morals just because you have got into a sticky situation and need help. Food banks are there for everyone. I’m vegan, have been for years. My son was born with severe allergies including dairy, eggs, peanuts etc. All our children drink plant based milk too not just the one will allergies. I would hope that if I ever got into that situation we would get help like any other family, despite our dietary requirements.

.

Help yes, preferred brands not so much.
If I were a pescatarian I'd eat tinned tuna but I wouldn't expect a food bank to cough up for monkfish and oysters

I think they should get the basics from the food bank, but not request luxury branded stuff if suitable basics are on offer. I didnt realise food banks specifically requested certain items. I thought food bank recipients got what was on offer when they visited the food bank which was donated, and certain other stuff purchased by the food bank with donations.

I didnt realise food banks specifically requested certain items. I thought food bank recipients got what was on offer when they visited the food bank which was donated, and certain other stuff purchased by the food bank with donations.

They do get what’s on offer, but food banks do what they can to make sure what’s on offer is what’s actually needed / wanted. My local one will email round to let people know they have plenty of pasta but are running low on tinned tomatoes, for example. It’s useful to me because it gives me an idea of what to drop off. Much more sensible than just relying on chance and then not having enough variety to actually give people three days’ worth of useful food.

I think that if you're dependent upon food banks (food donated as charity), then I'm afraid you've got to accept that you may not get your personal choice of food (although I'm sure food banks would try if at all possible, but they won't put your 'choice' ahead of 'need').

Of course poor people can have personal choice, but only if they can pay for it themselves. It's unreasonable for them to insist on a particular food 'choice', though obviously not unreasonable if they have a dietary allergy etc. as the food would make them ill.

That would be like someone, who needed a charitable donation of clothing for winter, 'insisting' that they are entitled to 'choose' to only wear clothes produced by a particular designer because they support the designers stance on not using child labour for manufacturing clothes.

In theory, great, good to have values etc, in reality, bloody stupid as they're going to have to settle for whatever is actually available.

''Beggars can't be choosers'' is the phrase I'd agree with.
If you can't pay for what you 'want' rather than what you 'need' to stay healthy and alive, then you don't get to decide what you want.

@ Yellowbirdy

I'm afraid your dietary 'requirements' are really only to avoid the food allergies. Your personal choice to be vegan is just that, a choice and not a requirement.

@updownroundandround luckily there are enough people who don’t feel the way you do donating actually useful and wanted things to food banks to accommodate a wide range of dietary needs, religious requirements and moral beliefs, so your insistence that beggars can’t be choosers and poor people shouldn’t be supported if they have principles is pretty irrelevant.

Honestly I find alpro fine - oat and soya.
There’s a mixture of brands in our local drop off- really hardly any basic products. If you’re the kind of person to help, it probably doesn’t cross your mind to buy something cheaper to donate than you’d use? I normally just buy duplicates. Although do like putting lots of Christmas chocolate in too. I hope it brings some joy.

Quite a few vegans on the thread 🙂

@updownroundandround - foodbank users aren’t beggars

Some brands contain ingredients that consumers need for proper nutrition. Some don't. Some brands contain ingredients that can cause some people with allergies to become ill. Some don't

You directly quoted me when I said that store brands are the same as and could often be better than name-brands. You said I was wrong. Nowhere did you clarify and say that ‘some brands’ were better, which is obvious.

Sometimes store brands ARE better, sometimes name brands are better, mostly they are the same, if you have dietary preferences, there’s no way that store-brands are categorically worse for you. You just have to check the labels.

And like I said, often they are just as good as name-brands (often they are made in the same factories, btw)

Yes, you've said it at least twice now, and you were wrong both times

A lot of people can’t tell the difference between store brands and name brands, taste testing has proven this over and over again. They usually come out pretty evenly.

And yes, name-brands DO make store-brand products, they obviously don’t like to advertise that fact and keep it a trade secret. Here’s just one example: www.google.com/amp/s/www.eater.com/platform/amp/2017/8/9/16099028/trader-joes-products

@MangoFeverDream

Ffs it isn't about the taste or the perceived difference. It's about an actual difference in nutrients that children and pregnant women need.

Children under 5 are recommended to drink cows milk. Food banks give out cows milk because its a staple in UK diets. Brands don't really matter, all cows milk is much the same in terms of calcium/iodine/protein/fat content. Organic cows milk has less calcium, I think.

There is a huge difference between brands of plants milks. Some are fortified, some are not, some are partially fortified. Not all of them meet the NHS and daily recommended amounts of calcium and iodine for small, growing children. Therefore dietitians recommend certain brands as suitable for small children and not others. Food banks should also provide these brands if needed. Unfortified oat milk is nutritionally rubbish and not suitable for toddlers who need a cows milk replacement (vegan or allergies), for example.

@Will2021beamazing, I’d be rich if I had a pound for everytime I’d heard that phrase! He can and will and does starve himself if his safe foods aren’t available. People are scathing of ‘picky eaters’ and it really needs to stop.

Yes they could have cheaper non dairy milk.

Yes I agree with you that it is a bit much to be asking for specific brands.

Ok, to everyone who thinks I am bigoted and/or racist, you are just as entitled to your views as I am to mine. I couldn't give 2 flying F's about the colour of someones skin, or their religious, or non-religious beliefs. However that does not mean that I have to agree to every, or even anyone, elses beliefs as being acceptable. If I was still able to, I would peacefully protest about Paedophiles (mine, and presumably everyone else's on mumsnet, number one hate) who do not get long enough sentences in prison, and being allowed to live near schools, playgrounds etc once released from prison. I give donations to animal welfare projects even though I am not well off, and through social media I object to the keeping, and then killing of any animals in an inhumane manner, one of which is halal meat, whether it is for Jewish people, Muslim people, or anyone else who just likes eating food that has been farmed and killed with hardly any regards to the welfare of the animals.
It amuses me, in a dark and sad way, that people on here have assumed that I will buy meat from a shop (be it a supermarket or butchers etc) without knowing anything about it's background. Also, I do not eat KFC or any of the other fast food 0utlets mentioned above. Yes, I probably have on occassion unknowingly eaten halal killed animals, or factory farmed chickens and eggs etc. but I do my best to avoid doing so.
I AM a partial culturalist/religionist, in that I do not believe in boys being circumcised outside of decent hospitals, and without anaesthetics; I do not agree with girls being circumsised at all; I do not agree with the obvious belief of many (I have no idea how many) Muslim men that women are second class citizens, who have to cover their heads and faces no matter what the weather is like (having had to wear just partial face masks during lockdown, I now realise that it is even worse than I thought), and most of the other mums on here probably are aware of many of the other indignities suffered by Muslim women, and in countries where Islam is the official religion, the different laws for what a man can do legally, and what a woman can do legally are absolutely repulsive. By the way my dentist is an zIndian Muslim, and I am very fond of him, he is a delightful young man, who shows no signs of denigrating women, and is in fact very kind and empathetic. So if you want to call me any sort of negative names, go ahead and do so, but I have often questioned myself over the years, and I am not able to be ashamed of any of my beliefs, or lifestyle - except one, I wish that I could be a vegetarian. I tried for 6 months, but even with advice and carefully planned meals, my body got even more ill than it already is, so I do my best to be aware of the welfare of the the animals, and their products, that I eat.