AIBU to think that donating tinned tomatoes to the food bank shows a real lack of understanding of food poverty?

[BernadetteRostankowskiWolowitz]

The food bank donation box at my local supermarket this morning had a fairly good mix of items, apart from about a third of the tins were tinned tomatoes.

Surely it would be better all round to donate products which need little to no additional ingredients?

Tinned tomatoes are a base - they will never be a meal in their own right. They need at the bare minimum, some seasoning and or some veg or protein to make them useable.

And then even if you could rustle up some other ingredients to make them palateable/nutritious, you need to heat them - if they contain meat or lentils they need a good length of time on the heat.

Those using food banks likely cannot give over 20mins on the hob for tinned tomatoes. The cost of heating up the food (if there is even funds on the meter) is too high for the return.

I do think that people who donate tinned tomatoes, come at it from a reasonably comfortable point of view - just chuck it in with some mince and a bit if garlic and slow cook it for a couple of hours.

All of which is likely to be outside of the financial scope of the recipient.

@HikingforScenery, I definitely consider cooking time.

I would think long and hard before cooking something that used a lot of fuel. It would need to be a batch, and I'd reheat it the next few days.

The food bank we donate to have launched their "Reverse Advent Calendar" appeal - see attached photo. The idea being that you get each of the 24 items on this list to provide a food parcel. Can you see what they have for November 7th?

Presumably the items on the list are the ones that they know are most required and requested. I assume the people putting this list together have a pretty good understanding of food poverty.

Have only had time to read first couple of pages, so apologies if this has been mentioned already. I think you also need to consider that not everybody who donates to a food bank is especially wealthy and maybe that tin of tomatoes is all the could afford to give. The story of the widow's offering explains it very well.

One of my favourite things growing up that I still eat today was the "tomato beef soup" my gran invented. Tinned tomatoes mashed up with a potato masher, a tin of water, a beef stock cube (though I leave that out now as I'm a veggie and just use a little Henderson's Relish and soya sauce instead) and some pasta or rice. If there's leftover meat or vegetables that could go in, too.

A friend does can collections all over the North West the kindest largest donations came from very poor areas of Liverpool the worst days were in Wilmslow and alderly edge believe it or not.

I’m totally having tinned Tom’s on toast with a dash of Worcester sauce for my lunch now. Anyone else?

I can see your point re different use demographics and cooking facilities in general OP, but I think YABU as this thread shows that many food banks often asks for them- so plenty of people using the foodbank obviously have the means and desire to use them.

I appreciate that this is my personal taste and experience but they never go out of date or get lost lurking at the back of my cupboard either! I get the tinned chopped (preference) and I reckon I use 2 tins at least almost every week. Definitely more of them when the budget is tight because they are front and centre in some of our cheapest and easiest meals. I can make lots of tomato pasta or at least batch cook the sauce and freeze it, batch cook a sort of aubergine ratatouille and freeze it or make lots of cream of tomato soup or tomato, carrot and lentil soup with them and freeze those. We also put them in meatier recipes; less so if we're counting pennies- but could still make a batch of something there too. Tinned toms seem to be a base for so many different types of recipe, across many different cultures. I would prefer them to a jar sauce or tinned bolognese or other tinned veg, beans or fish if I had a choice. Preferred food and just way more versatile to me.

They're often listed at my local foodbank at the supermarket if I pop in. I try to put them or another listed tin veg, UHT, pasta or a requested toiletry item in as often as possible. I sometimes add a packet of Bourbons- same 70p pack I buy myself- in case anyone would really like them, too.

One of our local food banks used to ask for tinned meals for this reason. Tinned spaghetti bolognese, tinned curry, etc. A lot of people they served were folks put into council or emergency housing with no cooker and metered utilities.

During the pandemic, I think some of that changed. More families around where 1-2 main earners have lost their jobs, or their businesses folded. I think there's a very long wait for assistance like UC to kick in, IIRC. And the other companies collecting their bills like the bank/landlord, phone/broadband and utilities don't care. If that had been us in that position, and our finances were that horribly squeezed out of nowhere, then being able to get some essential cupboard stable items in would have been a real blessing.

Making a direct financial donation to a food bank can give the staff a chance to stock up as appropriate, no matter what the needs of the clients are.

In our area the population as a whole is very ethnically mixed. I don't know who specifically uses the foodbank, but I know that tinned tomatoes would work well with a lot of different national/regional cuisines from around Africa and Asia. I often give tinned tomatoes and similar. I would always try to donate something that wasn't specifically 'English' - for example baked beans and tinned custard. That's assuming it's one of the foodbanks where theere isn't a list of wanted items - if they specifically ask for beans, then fine.

Surely most people take their lead on what to donate from their local food banks donation list? Supermarkets usually have a list at the donation point if you forget to check the FB website before going shopping. Mine have definitely asked for tinned tomatoes before, some people will have the cooking facilities and ingredients to turn them in to a meal. Even if it is tomatoes on toast!

My local FB at the moment are asking for

Cooking Oil 1ltr
Diluting Juice
Tinned Rice/Custard
UHT Milk
Tinned Fish
Tea Bags/Coffee
Sweets/Chocolate

I must say cooking oil has never crossed my mind before when donating so I'm going to make sure I pick some up when I go shopping.

What an odd and patronising OP - as others have suggested, it has a whiff of virtue signalling about it. And if food banks are specifically asking for them, who is anyone else to criticise that?

Jack Monroe put out a book recently where the recipes revolve around tinned food, aimed specifically at those who are more reliant on food banks or community larders and where the tins you receive can be a bit random. Tinned tomatoes definitely feature in it!

5128gap- I disagree on the point that they are all absolute poor. They have things to sell. They have clothes- designer often- and suits etc to get interviews and therefore get jobs faster and the poverty is far less likely to be long. They are often educated well and have the resources to make healthy meals from what we give them as they still have guaranteed gas and ele. Their credit rating is unlikely to absolutely fucked yet, just dented.

The absolute poor who we see have nothing left to sell. No further cut backs to make. Nothing. It's often heat or eat. Their path out of poverty much harder due to less education, fewer resources (cars suits etc) we give to all who pass the criteria of referral but they are not levelled (although there are those that don't think we should give to the "richer" of our clients- I disagree )

But I agree that it's not a clear picture and my foodbank (where I have volunteered now for 6 years) is seeing a huge increase in the less abject poor in the last 2/3 years, but that's anecdotal not necessarily reflective of a country wide change

@HarrietsChariot

People donate tinned tomatoes because they're cheap. Chuck a couple of 35p cans in the donation bin and you can feel good that you're part of the solution and are a GOOD PERSON who has done all they need to do.

Also, there's the guilt factor and pester factor when leaving the shop. Kids pester their parents into donating something they've bought, people feel guilty about not doing it. What can be more inessential out of all your shopping than tinned tomatoes, which were destined to sit at the back of the cupboard for a year or so until they get thrown out for being out of date?

Finally there's the "follow the leader" aspect, people see the donation bin filled with tinned tomatoes and thing "shit, that must be what we should be donating." People are unoriginal like that.

Food banks don't want tinned tomatoes, and the people who use them certainly don't. The most important things to donate are
-Baked Beans (Heinz, Branstons, HP or Waitrose own brand)
-Tinned meals like "Hunger Breaks All Day Breakfast"
-Tinned pasta shapes in tomato sauce
-Corned beef
-Sardines/mackerel/salmon (not tuna)
-Pasta (fusilli or macaroni)
-Bleach
-Sugar
-Coffee
-Long life milk
-Tinned fruit and veg
-Potatoes
-Bread

I don't have a big income. I donate what I can afford and if that's a 35p tin of tomatoes, or some other own brand tinned produce then that is what I will donate. Should we only donate if we can afford branded goods ? Fucking hell what an awful condescending post.

On reflection OP I think you’d be better to be angry with either people who’d can afford to donate but never do or about the fact that foodbanks are necessary. Get angry about the fact that there is so much food poverty. Not about a tin of tomatoes.

@BernadetteRostankowskiWolowitz

you're def AIBU. And you're long gone.

*HarrietsChariot
People donate tinned tomatoes because they're cheap. Chuck a couple of 35p cans in the donation bin and you can feel good that you're part of the solution and are a GOOD PERSON who has done all they need to do.

Also, there's the guilt factor and pester factor when leaving the shop. Kids pester their parents into donating something they've bought, people feel guilty about not doing it. What can be more inessential out of all your shopping than tinned tomatoes, which were destined to sit at the back of the cupboard for a year or so until they get thrown out for being out of date?

Finally there's the "follow the leader" aspect, people see the donation bin filled with tinned tomatoes and thing "shit, that must be what we should be donating." People are unoriginal like that.

Food banks don't want tinned tomatoes, and the people who use them certainly don't. The most important things to donate are
-Baked Beans (Heinz, Branstons, HP or Waitrose own brand)
-Tinned meals like "Hunger Breaks All Day Breakfast"
-Tinned pasta shapes in tomato sauce
-Corned beef
-Sardines/mackerel/salmon (not tuna)
-Pasta (fusilli or macaroni)
-Bleach
-Sugar
-Coffee
-Long life milk
-Tinned fruit and veg
-Potatoes
-Bread*

@HarrietsChariot

wow, well you can do one with your mean little interpretation.

And where I live they do want the Tinned Toms. Fancy you not knowing everything?!

@PlausibleSuit

I think you're making a lot of very broad and likely incorrect assumptions about people who use food banks.

I agree with this.

Why would people who use food banks not be as likely to then spend 20mins cooking a meal with tinned tomatoes? It’s an odd and IMO, rude assumption to make. Sure, some people using food banks will have limited access to cooking facilities/further supplies, but many want to cook a proper meal and just lack the funds for supplies.

They do it because tinned tomatoes are the cheapest you can buy and they can brag to all their friends about how good they are

@Missey85

They do it because tinned tomatoes are the cheapest you can buy and they can brag to all their friends about how good they are

Oh, not because they are what the food bank actually wants, then?

Pasta can be bought cheaper. And I have never heard anyone 'brag' about donating to the local food bank. If people in your life are using that as a boast, maybe you need to reconsider who you spend your time with.

Tinned tomatoes are very versatile and incredibly healthy once cooked.

I had tinned tomatoes on toast a lot when I was using food banks, it’s also a favourite in our house
Everybody who uses a food bank has different circs. Some of us are capable of turning tinned toms into some kind of meal and some of us do have fuel on the meter although I do appreciate many don’t.

I think the people at the food banks know who would struggle with tomatoes or who didn’t have the means to cook

@Missey85

They do it because tinned tomatoes are the cheapest you can buy and they can brag to all their friends about how good they are

Or because our local food bank asks for tinned tomatoes?

This is such a weird thread. For a start tinned tomatoes can be eaten on their own, they could even be eaten cold if need be.
Maybe criticise people who don't donate to food banks, rather than picking holes in what is being given.

To be fair I didnt used to think about cooking time, facilities or storage when donating. I just used to go heres some pasta, tomatoes, tuna, sweetcorn and a packet sauce and think it was a meal.

Im a bit more sensible now and realise its not my job to create a meal. I just donate what they ask for. In august it was tinned tomatoes. This month its rice pudding and shower gel.

@Greenmarmalade

Making a massive pot of lentils or a veg curry and freezing is incredibly economical!

If you have and can afford to run a freezer.