Foodbank

[Parker231]

Posting in AIBU for traffic

As a foodbank volunteer could I please can anyone who can to donate to their local foodbank this weekend. Demand is huge at the moment and with more redundancies happening each week more and more people will be turning to a foodbank for help. It could be you needing their help in the future. The link below let’s you search for your local foodbank and see what they need the most.

Thank you

www.trusselltrust.org/get-help/find-a-foodbank/

This reminds me I once tried to donate food to our local Trussell and they said they didn’t want it and refused to take it.

So we only donate to independent FB’s now.

I agree that independent food banks are often a better bet, as are church food banks as all of the ones I know don't require vouchers from the council etc and will help anyone in need.

Someone started a food collection at work a few years ago for Trussel. We took the donations.
Trussel sent a letter, saying in future, they wanted money donations, not food
Everyone at work, decided not to do any further donations

We did support lots of other charities

Help for Heroes was the most popular

Our Sainsburys has a drop off point for food Bank groceries each week .Usually donate something to them .Alas a few times I have been shopping ,come home and put everything away .Realising I forgot to put the tins in! Now put them on top of trolley so dont forget! We live in a fairly affluent area ,but the FB bins are normally quite empty save for a few tins /packets at the bottom.Not too difficult for most people to buy a couple of things extra! and as you say ,not always Beans et al either !

The above food Banks are a large church in our town ,and the SA as well I think .They have a Van which goes out twice a week ,,with some soup and sandwiches ,and deliver food parcels as well .(I have done this in the past)

The link is just to Trussell Trust-run foodbanks, I think

Yes, the nearest trussell to us is 30 miles away, but we do have a local food bank within 10 minutes drive.

@P1g1ntheMuggle

Someone started a food collection at work a few years ago for Trussel. We took the donations. Trussel sent a letter, saying in future, they wanted money donations, not food Everyone at work, decided not to do any further donations

We did support lots of other charities

Help for Heroes was the most popular

That's a shame. That's not been my experience of Trussell at all. One of the volunteers at my local one told me they do find money donations really useful though, as they go out and buy bread and milk and stuff to top up the non-perishables that get donated. And they took formula too. He said that they get asked for it a lot but people don't donate it because they don't think it's accepted.

Thank you for posting this I have been meaning to set up a monthly direct debit, I shall crack on!

And a usually anti religious Trussell foodbank trustee i wanted to shout in against some of the comments here.

All Trussell foodbanks are franchises - none are owned by Trussell they are run by their own trustees. Trussell support with insurance, marketing, supplies etc. And have been fab in helping us ensure supply chains when things dropped recently.

And on the referral front, referrals mean that the client has someone looking out for them - helping them get back on track. Foodbanks cannot support anyone long term so clients need other support whether that is debt, drugs, housing etc to get straight. Referrals are available from job centre health professionals all sorts. Foodbanks will always guide clients to a referral point if needed - and can happen very quickly! (it also helps deal with the game players who just want free food!)

So just saying you should really check out your local bank Trussell or not before writing any off...

Our local foodhub has the facility for a money donation, or for you to buy a veg box for a family. I do the latter every week..

Our town centre had an ad asking for the most current in demand food items, wish I’d taken a picture. Here is their regular list.

Is it better to donate cash due to the 25% Gift Aid they’ll get?

There are some good bargains at the Mormont, including 6 tins of Heinz soup or 6 tins of Heinz Baked Beans for £2.50 in Iceland.

List

Thanks very much for starting this thread OP. I donate monthly to the Trussell Trust and completely agree with you and PP that it’s so important to support food banks, especially at this time.

Made a financial donation but I wanted to ask; I usually make physical food donations Via Tesco, is this the best thing to do or is it best for me to take directly to my local food bank? Want to make sure it’s getting to where it is needed most.

HamHock all FBs are different, best to check with your local one whether they want the food delivered or left in the supermarket collecting point.

LittleOwl I do appreciate that Trussell do a lot of good work, however, having researched it carefully, our FB preferred to remain autonomous.

I used to donate to our local food bank but havent been lately as they keep being prescriptive about what is wanted and the lists always include sponge puddings, biscuits, jam and sugary breakfast cereals. I know I will get judged but I resented being told by the local coordinator that "our clients don't want porridge".

I'll donate again when they need actual essentials.

No what is the answer though? Do you think it is 'right' to judge what people eat? Do you think FBs should only give out 'healthy' food?

If your life is tough and you are are struggling surely you can understand that something warm, sweet and comforting is just a lot 'nicer' than porridge and pulses?

We say exactly the same at our FB - we are drowning in porridge oats, and 'worthy' donations ... tinned pulses are really, really not popular.

If people don't have money for food, they also don't have money for powering fridges and cookers so need things that can be kept at ambient temperature and prepared using a kettle or microwave and/or eaten cold.

It's best just to take the food bank's guidance on what they need and ask for, rather than take a 'you know better' attitude to donating.

Hi all
Our local morrisons does packs as you walk in of things needed by the food bank, so you pop them in your trolly and buy them with your shopping then put into the collection point. It's easy to get what they need and reminds me to do it. Last week I got longline milk with flavoured straws (it makes the milk taste of milkshake). Such an excellent idea for kids to make longlife milk taste better and gives a bit of joy. It's the kind of thing my kids love and if it means that they drink milk, a win win.

I'm sorry but we have an obesity crisis and its worse among poor people. No, I'm not going to hand out sugary puddings.

I'm happy to donate jars of nut butters etc for kids sandwiches, tinned meat & fish etc, cooking sauces, fresh fruit and veg, herbs and spices etc, but I think it's really fucking condescending to think that just because someone is poor they want to feed their kids a hideously sugary Heinz sponge pudding. I don't feed my kids that sort of shit. We have to get away from the idea (as a society) of wallowing in sugar when times are tough.

It's best just to take the food bank's guidance on what they need and ask for, rather than take a 'you know better' attitude to donating.

It's got nothing to do with a you know better attitude. If they literally arent listing a single healthy food item on their lists, they have enough that they don't need my donations.

NB they have asked for nappies & wash stuff lately and I have donated those, I forgot about that.

Foodbanks work with nutritionists to develop a food parcel that contains sufficient nutrition for adults and children, for at least three days of healthy, balanced meals for individuals and families.

A typical food parcel includes:

Cereal
Soup
Pasta
Rice
Tinned tomatoes/ pasta sauce
Lentils, beans and pulses
Tinned meat
Tinned vegetables
Tea/coffee
Tinned fruit
Biscuits
UHT milk
Fruit juice
Many food banks also provide essential non-food items such as toiletries and hygiene products.

If your FB isn’t asking for the healthier items at the moment it will be because they have a good enough stock of them but are short of other items. This is why people are recommended to check for shortage items although FB’s do trade with another local FB to balance out surplus items.

We give people a choice, if they would like a Heinz pudding (& we have them available), we will give one, if people wish to choose porridge oats over cocoa pops we will offer them porridge oats ... surely it's just as condescending to assume what people want to eat ... although after twelve years volunteering in a FB I have a fairly good idea of what is popular and what is not.

“Would it not be better if they spent more money on wholesome things like oranges and wholemeal bread or if they even, like the writer of the letter to the New Statesman, saved on fuel and ate their carrots raw? Yes, it would, but the point is that no ordinary human being is ever going to do such a thing. The ordinary human being would sooner starve than live on brown bread and raw carrots. And the peculiar evil is this, that the less money you have, the less inclined you feel to spend it on wholesome food. A millionaire may enjoy breakfasting off orange juice and Ryvita biscuits; an unemployed man doesn't. Here the tendency of which I spoke at the end of the last chapter comes into play. When you are unemployed, which is to say when you are underfed, harassed, bored, and miserable, you don't want to eat dull wholesome food. You want something a little bit 'tasty'. There is always some cheaply pleasant thing to tempt you.”

www.george-orwell.org/The_Road_to_Wigan_Pier/5.html

@Ragwort

No what is the answer though? Do you think it is 'right' to judge what people eat? Do you think FBs should only give out 'healthy' food?

If your life is tough and you are are struggling surely you can understand that something warm, sweet and comforting is just a lot 'nicer' than porridge and pulses?

We say exactly the same at our FB - we are drowning in porridge oats, and 'worthy' donations ... tinned pulses are really, really not popular.

This is brilliant. I stocked up our cupboards in preparation for winter and have to keep reaching round the tinned pulses for the things I want to cook with! I will use them but they're not as popular as I thought they'd be. Thanks for the reminder op. We have a collection box in our local Co op and local tesco so will make sure I donate next time I am in.