Food banks

[Parker231]

www.trusselltrust.org/get-involved/ways-to-give/donate-food/

Posted in AIBU for traffic.

I’m a volunteer at a local foodbank. We are getting desperately short of donations and run the risk of not being able to help those who need it.
I’ve attached the link to search for what your local foodbank needs (everyone is different as to what stocks they have). If you are doing your shopping tomorrow, it would be very helpful if you could add a couple of items for the foodbank. Thank you

No we don't always deliver though we will if it's possible, but often those referring the clients will very often collect the parcel for them (health care workers, social services, people working at women's' aid orgs etc.)

And yes pet food also much appreciated - as noted upthread many already have pets before they find themselves in financial difficulties

@Bigeggsinapackoften I'm really sorry to hear if your experience with the Trussell Franchise in your area. I can assure you it is not the same in my area.

The Trussell protocol actually says we should have no expectations in terms of religion in our volunteers or clients. If you feel able to raise a complaint I can get you the details for the area manager if you tell me which region you are in. Whilst each foodbank is its own charity I think such forceful religion would be taken seriously by the area leads.

@Tealightsandd

I can't speak for all foodbanks but we were funded through the local council to deliver to covod isolators for the first 12 months or so. We also had deliveries made by births gas drivers (!) For a while.

The housebound we will try to deliver to or make some other arrangement with - so that someone drops food to them. But often as there is a referral agency involve the referer will get the parcel to the client if they cannot get in themselves. We often have members of the drugs team or child services pick up. We can also arrange what we call safe space delivery so through a school for example (as our volunteers are not allowed to deliver alone to a client - but can deliver alone to a school reception for a parent to collect).

Extras such as condiments and cooking oils are often very welcome, especially for families. Also when donating long life milk please avoid semi skimmed ( not skimmed) is fine but full fat is needed for family parcels.

Please buy not please avoid.
Semi skimmed and full fat are ok
Skimmed is not popular.

I give a monthly donation as I except it’s needed, tho shouldn’t be

@Bigeggsinapackoften

I understand that op. But how do you feel about the group they’re allying with? I donate to a different food bank not the local one because it’s so problematic to me that the Trussell Trust are hitching up to this sort of organisation.

Oh give it a rest. The OP is doing a nice thing, why derail that with your crap?

Someone I know had a very young child when they needed a food bank. One of the staff went to Boots to buy the formula that the child used. That for me is one of the reasons that they need cash.

Morrisons do some bags ready made with the price on the outside with what is in it. You can just pick up and pay. Apparently they liase with the local food bank what is needed that week. All different prices.

Wrt pets, you can also look for pet food banks too. I’m not in the UK, but they exist in my area and accept supplies for all sorts of pets.

Pets are often a lifeline, especially for older, single people, so by supporting their pets you’re helping the people too.

Thank you, I'm going shopping later and will get some bits.

Where I live, we have charity type shops where anything like clothing and toys can be donated, but also food. They work with local supermarkets and stores also so any food near sell by date is donated. ( including large chains ie Aldi/ Tesco equivalent)

Then everything is basically free or pay if you can, you can choose your donation. Any donated money goes towards something local ie a new item for public playground was recently purchased.

It’s such a great idea and I wonder if the uk could do similar. It means a) supermarkets aren’t throwing away perfectly good food, and b) people can get what they need no judgement or questions asked. You could go there every day if you like.

People with and without money go there, leaving as much or as little money as necessary. It’s all really good produce still such as bananas still yellow and bread still soft.

@Caspianberg

Where I live, we have charity type shops where anything like clothing and toys can be donated, but also food. They work with local supermarkets and stores also so any food near sell by date is donated. ( including large chains ie Aldi/ Tesco equivalent)

Then everything is basically free or pay if you can, you can choose your donation. Any donated money goes towards something local ie a new item for public playground was recently purchased.

It’s such a great idea and I wonder if the uk could do similar. It means a) supermarkets aren’t throwing away perfectly good food, and b) people can get what they need no judgement or questions asked. You could go there every day if you like.

People with and without money go there, leaving as much or as little money as necessary. It’s all really good produce still such as bananas still yellow and bread still soft.

The real junk food project is similar.

The link is to my local one but there are others, some are more about keeping food out of dumpsters eg jars of perfectly good food that have their labels misprinted.

www.birminghammail.co.uk/black-country/inside-pay-what-you-feel-17818852

I have raised the online order thing with Asda more than once some time ago. Tried to explain that they give the 'donation box' as an option for delivery and they 'deliver' the food there instead of to me. They accepted it was a good idea but seemed to have difficulty understanding how it would work. Seems simple enough to me, a great advertising/promotion for them and so beneficial to those in need but nothing happened. I don't shop there now so maybe things have changed? We do do a specific pre Christmas shop which includes some festive food for our local TT and when we drop it off they are always so appreciative. Maybe others could make this part of their Christmas tradition.

With regards religion, it can be a mixed bag. I used to volunteer for, then work for our local TT foodbank and religion was definitely a large part. Many of the volunteers inadvertently tried to make me feel 'less than' because I am agnostic, and my application for a higher role was blocked because someone with a 'public eye' role needed to 'espouse their values'. I assumed those values were feeling the hungry and a smattering of social justice, but it turns out they meant church goer.

We had 7 actual distribution centres under our purview, all in churches. One would 'require' attendees to pray with the volunteer and discuss coming back another time for a little salvation, they were asked to tone it down regularly but ultimately allowed to continue.

I still donate (we always had a surplus of tea, cereal, pasta and beans...but needed toiletries, tinned vegetables, puddings, loo rolls) but resigned as I resented my beliefs or lack of causing me an issue.

Can I please mention Bankuet? Absolutely brilliant organisation. More than £1 from every £1 donated goes to get exactly the food that is needed to food banks (more than £1 because of donations by major supermarkets)
www.bankuet.co.uk/

(Very much not opposed to people donating actual food of course. But as someone mentions, it’s easy to forget until you see the baskets at the way out!)

Thanks OP, we're going to the big Tesco today so will make sure we donate.

We deliver all our food parcels, at the volunteers expense. There is no collection.

Funny how they are all different.

Thank you for this!

We can directly give to fb in our local sb. Also one of the churches nearby has 2 mornings for anyone struggling to get free tinned food. Usually pop something in whe doing our shop.

I think financial hardship is hitting most people right now. Energy prices have gone up, universal credit has dropped, food prices have increased. We used to donate, now we order far less food.

Re the religion point, obviously it is different all over the country because they are all franchised or locally seeded/based l organisations, but in the city I live in religion does have the monopoly on running the food banks. I’m wondering if that poster lives near me actually!

Our main, longest established food bank is run by a church from their church hall and they won’t accept you to volunteer unless you join the congregation and commit to leasing worship etc. They do give their food out on a no strings attached basis though and I’d happily donate to them.

I’ve just had a look at the trusses trust site you linked and most of the sites local to me are run by a local religious group that is well known in the area for operating like an evangelical cult - they use all sorts of underhand methods to get hold of vulnerable people and recruit them to their churches. For instance their mother and baby groups with free coffee/cakes is great until you realise a church member has been assigned to befriend you and recruit you…. I’ve no doubt at all they use the food banks for the same purpose. Will not donate to them ever.

@Bigeggsinapackoften

No sorry. Local trussell trust have allied themselves with a very evangelical Christian organisation who use the food bank to recruit through the back door.

I do give to a food bank but not one with those sort of values.

Please rethink. The beneficiaries of your donations are the people you are supporting not the organisation. Someone who doesn't have enough food for their family is not responsible for decisions made by TT. If you disagree with TT, contact them and say that, not cause harm to those who need support.