to expect people not to give ridiculous items to food bank...

[MariaAngustias]

I volunteer at a food bank. Everything is weighed in then weighed out for audit purposes. Whilst there are many lovely and generous people who donate to use there are some people who give such odd and weird things - out of date food, opened packets, packs of hair dye (yep, few of these at moment), medication ... and obviously this stuff cannot be given out but it has to be sorted, weighed and then disposed of. Why?!

When we could travel I would often add amenity kits & hotel toiletries to the food bank.
I also subscribe to the free stuff sites and add things like sachets of face cream, shampoo, sanitary products and nappies.

They are saying that food banks cannot accept them

Funny how some food banks are able to accept them then...

Patty we really don't like offering out of date foods, of course, you and I know that it will probably be fine to eat but it is not good practice to offer food past it's 'use by' date. We are always amused by trying to find the 'oldest' thing donated .... have had items from the 1980s .

Someone spoke to me this morning trying to offer two large tins of baked beans 'only a few months past their date' ... I had to be quite assertive in explaining that we really didn't want them. And trying to get rid of food that is not wanted, past it's use by date is not easy.

You're supposed to patch test hair dye. So you can't just go providing something that might cause an allergic reaction which isn't necessary.

Let alone compatibility with hair colours (most will work on a limited range of hair types, lengths, colours etc).

I know MN as a forum like to bang on about luxuries in food banks, but even a tiny amount of common sense tells you that this is a bad idea.

(for example my long red hair needs two bottles of something very close to my dyed colour, and you can't go blonde to black/vice versa etc - one bottle of a colour they can't choose that they might be allergic to is ridiculous!)

Preloved - not all Food Banks operate under the same guidelines, some FBs are part of Trussel Trust but there are also lots of independent FBs which have different 'policies' - we would accept hair dye at the one I volunteer it - it would go on the 'random' table and we also take formula milk. What we don't want though are individual prescription medicines/food supplements etc.

I think hair dye is fine to be honest. Opened food or out of date stuff is gross though. Only give what you would accept.

About the opened nappies/san pro - 2 local foodbanks wouldn't take them. I contacted the local Ronald McDonald house when DS stopped using nappies but we had 2 and a half packs. I also had some sanitary towels and tampons that were open in the pack and asked if she wanted them too. They were happy to take them as parents can end up without much warning and can pack in a rush

tapenade and piccalilli that someone didn't want from their Christmas hamper

I'd be thrilled with that

one bottle of a colour they can't choose that they might be allergic to is ridiculous

But nobody is forcing anyone to take and/or use hairdye.

My foodbank provides it as an option for the customers to take if they choose to. Nobody is making them take or use it, but they are providing it so that they have the option if they want it.

How long does it usually take donations to get from a collection point at a supermarket to being given out to recipients?

A friend's DH travels a lot as part of his job and so stays in equivalent of Travel Inns etc and he keeps all of the little complimentary shampoo, conditioner, toothpaste, shower gel and my friend gives them to me to drop off at food bank as she knows I go (before Covid). They are always happy to receive those. I have dropped off hair dye before because DH picked up wrong shade for me.

I can’t see what is wrong with donating some “quirky” items and recipients being able to choose them as extras.

There seem to be some real bossy boots here dictating what people can and cannot receive.

Reminds me of when the local aged group sent out a pre-Harvest Festival edict to the dcs’ school that they did not want own brands as the local elderly were very particular.

My best donation was a bottle of Bells to the homeless shelter. I bet that was a lot more appreciated than a ton of beans!

The most valued items I donated to my then local foodbanks were large, strong, reusable shopping bags.

The workers nearly ripped my arm off taking them from me and told me that needy people often got into fights over such bags.

In that food bank it was usual for people to have large familes and to be able to take away lots of food but to not have bags to carry it in.

I bought lots of extra bags just to donate them as I could appreciate how heartbreaking it must be to be offered lots of food but to not be able to take it away, or to have to rely on thin carrier bags that might break or cut into your fingers

@IrmaFayLear I wouldn’t have thought a homeless shelter would be able to accept alcohol given the residents might have alcohol abuse issues?

YANBU, giving out of date food is so nasty.

How do you feel about yellow stickered items that are in date? I found loads of tinned food (baked beans, red kidney beans etc) down to 10p each in Tesco and they were all valid at least until 2022. I nabbed them all for the foob bank box, but didn't have time to remove the 10p stickers.

Hope they won't automatically get binned?

That’s exactly why I donated it @PattyPan. I hope someone was able to enjoy a wee dram

Some of the out of date food will come from families clearing out cupboards after someone has died and donating it all without looking too closely, because they want to be charitable in the wake of a death. Usually leads to a weird selection of often unusable things being donated but it doesn't necessarily come from I'll intentions.

@idontlikealdi should people just bin open packets of nappies because their child has outgrown them? Seems wasteful

Foodbanks do a great job but they need to listen to their customers about what they would like to receive.

Infantilising them isn't helpful, they need to be given some agency over accepting donations given that they have to cope with RL health and safety issues all day long.

Why not have a 'table of things' for people to take if they want to - in addition with the usual accepted foodstuff? Makes no sense at all to be a jobsworth about it.

Could you explain the hair dye OP?
I know that Superdrug have Beauty Banks are people better off donating dye to them?
What about other hair products like hairsprays and gel?

I tried donating an open box of tampons (there was 2 missing) they wouldn't take them.
I ended up giving them to the school to pop in staff toilets.
Someone mentioned up thread that it wasnt a good thing to offer opened things and it would upset people. I only offered them as I thought it was a waste of money to throw them when someone somewhere could be in genuine need of them.

The foodbank i help with sometimes goes and buys reductions at aldi and yellow stickered stuff and gives it out. Im sure some of it is slightly out of date by the time it gets there or is frozen and used.
If it makes someone feel degraded then im sorry. Just trying to bloody help.
Its not the official foodbank, its just a community project run by volunteers in their own time. Most important thing is to get people fed and be nice about it.
If the stuff they get makes them feel degraded then thats a deeper issue. The psychological impacts of poverty are not as easy to fix, or quite frankly not the remit of people running foodbanks. We all have to swallow our pride sometimes surely when times are hard

This thread remonded me of a very moving acount bout the delivery of listick to the women of the Bergen Belsen death camp upon its liberation

Extract from the diary of Lieutenant Colonel Mervin Willett Gonin DSO

It was shortly after the British Red Cross arrived, though it may have no connection, that a very large quantity of lipstick arrived. This was not at all what we men wanted, we were screaming for hundreds and thousands of other things and I don't know who asked for lipstick. I wish so much that I could discover who did it, it was the action of genius, sheer unadulterated brilliance. I believe nothing did more for those internees than the lipstick. Women lay in bed with no sheets and no nightie but with scarlet red lips, you saw them wandering about with nothing but a blanket over their shoulders, but with scarlet red lips. I saw a woman dead on the post mortem table and clutched in her hand was a piece of lipstick. At last someone had done something to make them individuals again, they were someone, no longer merely the number tattooed on the arm. At last they could take an interest in their appearance. That lipstick started to give them back their humanity."

source: (scroll down - includes extremely distressing material)

www.bergenbelsen.co.uk/pages/Database/ReliefStaffAccount.asp?HeroesID=17&=17

sometimes cosmetics / items of self care and adornment can be incredibly important to people's self esteem and wellbeing

escuse typos, I was crying when I posted

Everyone who gives to charity walks past their bin to get to the donation place. So I assume the extra effort they have gone to means in their mind they're doing good. Gentle re-education required.

Don’t see the issue with hair dye. I know people say it is very specific but someone who is unable to afford to buy it might not be as picky. You just need to have it on a table so people can take it if they would like.