Can’t speak for all food banks. But for ours it’s simple storage which is the issue. Demand has shot up, and thankfully donations have shot up to match demand.
But - every item needs logging in, ideally it has a six month life although that’s less important now. It does still need to be in date for insurance purposes.
Then it needs categorising and adding to whatever else is already on that group (beans, tomatoes, tinned veg, tinned meat, kettle meals, and so on). Longer shelf life means it can go to the back safely which is much quicker to sort, shorter means it needs inserting into the queue. Yes, most things fly out as soon as they are donated (sugar, tinned meat, tinned veg which aren’t baked beans always go quickly here). But some will sit for a bit, still very useful but less demand or just mammoth overstock (currently baked beans, dry pasta but each foodbank will vary).
The boxes take up space. The sifting donations takes up space. And then there needs to be more space so the packers can reach what needs to go into each food parcel (which will vary by number of people it’s feeding, whether there are children or not, special diets, and cooking facilities. People housed in B and Bs may only have access to a kettle and no ‘fridge so need instant noodles, instant soups, cereal bars, that sort of thing. Some clients have no electricity at all so need things which require no heating).
On foodbank days there’s a steady stream of clients coming for parcels, volunteers and social workers and others collecting for those who cannot come, etc. And a similar stream of people donating goods - donations can be made any time but a lot of people only come when it’s open.
Yes, there’s a table for oddments. Felafel mixes, food just outside its date, opened but individually wrapped tampons etc. would probably go on that table too, along with the hair dye. But fewer people are collecting for themselves these days, and whereas there used to be coffee and biscuits and volunteers to listen and chit chat, that has had to be stopped for the past year. So there’s limited opportunity for browsing. And if everyone coming in takes a few minutes to peruse the oddments table that adds up to an extra hour at for clients coming at the end of the slot to stand and wait outside.
And all the sorting and packing needs to be done in a socially distanced manner, with fewer volunteers as many are shielding, with the leaders (still unpaid volunteers) mostly working on the social work side, helping people to contact CAB, CAP, Step change, social services. Giving out info and just listening to the desperation.
So a box of non-standard stuff like hair dye, whilst a nice idea, would actually complicate things. You can’t just randomly add it to a parcel, it would have to go on the oddments table. One person takes it, another sees it and is angry there’s only one because why shouldn’t they have it too? Etc.
Partially opened nappies etc. similar problem. Take up lots of storage. Could be put out and snapped up instantly, or could be there for weeks. Again with someone getting sniffy because they are size one, and if they have size one it isn’t fair they don’t have size five. Etc.
Our foodbank does give out baby formula. But can’t take donations of it - if they have a client who desperately needs it they will buy it from petty cash quietly without making it obvious to other clients - they’ve usually had a warning call from asylum charities or social worker in that case, and know which type is needed.
If you want to give the things which will be most useful to the food bank, look up your local one and see what they are asking for. Or consider setting up a standing order to them which enables them to plug any gaps. If you want to clear out your shelves, chances are your foodbank will take most of it but don’t be offended if they can’t take particular items. And please no more Easter Eggs! They take up so much space for the food value they represent! And giving them out after Easter becomes like giving out advent calendars in January.
Re laundry detergent - ours finds the liquitabs most useful as can bag them up into smaller quantities and it’s obvious what they are.
And to the poster who doesn’t donate because you don’t agree they should be needed - I agree, it’s scandalous that in this country there are people who are starving. But that is unfortunately the case. Donating to food banks doesn’t cause them to be needed, it does however enable them to keep people alive. Which I’m kind of in favour of myself. There is of course no obligation to donate, we all chose our own charitable giving. But if stocks dried up people relying on food banks wouldn’t suddenly decide they had sufficient funds after all. They’d get hungrier. Or colder. Or evicted. Or have their children removed. That, unfortunately, is the reality in Britain today.