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.

Yes. WTC.

Intended to boost the economy, but it just became another way for employers to pay less and force people into a system that is never going to be fit for purpose

Thanks - I will have to do some more reading around WTC. I thought they were intended to alleviate working poverty and were broadly welcomed by anti-poverty groups. What went wrong?

Like Ive said before, I certainly dont begrudge anyone who genuinely needs the support.

But in the same token I used to work at the front end of benefit fraud, and saw what some (emphasis on some) people were doing and claiming. It is ridiculous.

I have actually been there. We were living in rented housing, a new born, literally hardly any food in the house and not 2 pennies to rub together, oh and neither of us had a job. Its hard.

And actually for the person that said about been at the other end, where we do have to claim. My partner was diagnosed with a long term condition recently and are now going through the process.

Unfortunately the few spoil it for the many.

Looks like this thread has moved on a bit from the OP, but anyway..

I grew up with very little money. Tinned tomatoes was still a staple in our house. We used to have this thing called tomato soldiers (bacon tomato soldiers if we had enough for a rasher of bacon). It was basically a tin of plum tomatoes shared into bowls, with bread cut into soldiers (like egg soldiers). We used to dip the soldiers in the juice till it was all soaked up then eat the tomatoes. Was delicious!

Now I'm better off and I've moved to chopped tomatoes and they are now mainly used for the base of other meals, but for people with less money, tinned toms are a great way to get the goodness of tomatoes far cheaper and with a lknger life than fresh tomatoes.

The system is cumbersome. Initially the computer systems didn't work (the compant building them didn't finish, made a complete balls up of it). It doesn't cope with fluctuating incomes - the gig economy makes it almost impossible to manage. It started with massive overpayments, based on how it was calculated. Millions of people were left with debts TO the system BECAUSE of the system.

That difficulty remains with UC too, again because of the time period in which it is calcutaed and dealing with fluctuating incomes.

And that's just the technicalities of it, not even considering the wider ethics of it - removing the cost: benefit basis of working for both employer and employee. No matter how good your employer they had to either
a) play the system for your benefit
b) play the system for their own benefit
c) screw it up for everyone through not understanding the system

And there are no checks and balances on that - the gig economy saw to that!

It could have been exactly what they wanted - a move to a single benefit / support system for working age adults. but it failed, UC will fail the same way.

You only have to read the "workshy bastards with their hand out - just get a job" posts here to see why!

I hate the UKs prototypical, liberal welfare state. Nothing is ever learned, something newer and shinier is always reached for and god forbid any government look elsewhere to see what works well, even less expect a shift in public perceptions!

But in the same token I used to work at the front end of benefit fraud, and saw what some (emphasis on some) people were doing and claiming. It is ridiculous.

To be fair, the system itself begs to be defrauded, it does the same to many claimants. It isn't fit for purpose. Ridiculous isn't a strong enough word for it!

It really shouldn't be that hard to claim a top up credit that means families, kids, can have a good basic standard of living.

We use loads of tinned tomatoes at home. Granted we are lucky not need to use the food bank. But they can be used in so many ways. We have a Mediterranean diet and I add them to stews. Stuffed veg with meat and rice. Spag bol. Casseroles, and many many other meals!!

I volunteer at a food bank,
tinned tomato’s are one of the top requested items specifically BECAUSE they are the base for so many dishes.

I get your point about people needing things that are quick, easy and ‘whole meals’ like a tin of beans, chilli or Mac and cheese, etc,
but that only serves one maybe two on a stretch for one meal, a tin of tomatoes, with a few store cupboard staples could feed a family or a single person for several meals.

things like tinned veg and lentils are requested far more regularly than tinned meals, in fact it’s common for people to ask to exchange a tinned meal for something like tinned tomatoes or tinned veg as they can make it go further.

Used our local food bank after job loss from 2018 to 2020 tinned tomatoes were a godsend and very ‘suitable’ thanks.