To think food banks will struggle?

[rc22]

For the last few years, I've bought a couple of items for the foodbank every time I do a shop. With rising food and fuel costs, I'm thinking twice about whether I can afford to do this. I can at the moment but depending on how utility costs pan out that might change. If more people need foodbanks but fewer people can afford to contribute to them, will they struggle to stay afloat?

Yes I think so although some of the bigger food banks get funding so don't solely rely on donations, I volunteer for a smaller food bank and we have increased usage so our supplies run out quicker.

Absolutely! It will become a vicious cycle and the people that need help and struggle the most will be left with nothing. I was reading about this on Sky News where the lady that runs a food bank was approached by a volunteer worries about rising cost and its effect on the food bank. It isn't right that this is happening in this day and age.

But a tin or packet here and there in donation stations is better than nothing.

I think they will. The food bank trolley always seems really empty at my local Aldi now and it used to be full on a regular basis. I know I used to donate but I’m really feeling the pinch. I use oil for heating and the cost has shot up to the point that I’m having to scavenge wood to heat the house whilst I save up enough to refill the tank. Not to mention petrol has gone up 20 quid a week, electricity direct debit is 50 quid a month higher and basic food costs are increasing. The discretionary part of my budget is gone. Im living on yellow sticker stuff and olio tbh

Currently food banks are overflowing with food & actually quite a lot goes to waste.

My dad volunteers running a food bank at his church. They’ve had double their normal amount of people turn up for food, and yes less donations too

We are currently fully stocked and, far from going to waste, we are sending out surplus to other banks and food kitchens, any other charitable organisation we are put in touch with.

We are a local, small bank and are currently looking for regular small cash payments from many individuals towards keeping the shelves stocked and larger funding amounts from organisations and funding streams for running costs. We have always done this but are having to increase our 'bothering quotient' for our future.

Currently food banks are overflowing with food & actually quite a lot goes to waste.

We have very little food waste so no food banks are not overflowing and wasting a lot of food.

I wonder where you got that information from @MsMiaWallace?

We’ve had to stop buying things to pop in the food bank donation box when we go shopping because our petrol costs have increased so much, and we need to be able to get to work.

My local one is really struggling. The lady who runs it told me she had at least 50 Easter Egss this time last year and yesterday she had 6.
The food donations from customers at supermarkets has dropped and when they get them it is mostly pasta, beans and tomatoes etc where they used to get quite a mix of different foods.

I work with quite a few food banks.

I did say currently. Obviously this will change.

Oh! That has never been the case here, ever. We are all over stock dates. Fresh food already has a home to go to if it doesn't get taken within 24 hours, because we don't have the wherewithal to hold it.

Actually I lie. I have told the story of the enormous catering tin of prunes that was used as a doorstop until, having been left outside in the rain for a couple of years, it sprang a leak and had to be thrown away. ☺️

In fact just this week I went to one to obtain a food parcel for a complex individual I am working with & there was crates stacked of stale food that was left over.
The supermarkets in my area donate a vast amount.

Wait! You mean it's supermarket waste that has been pushed to a food bank for brownie points? We had to put a stop to that last year. It could have cost us a fortune. Local supermarket huffed a bit but did start being more judicious with its donations.

Maybe supermarkets should stop over stocking food and then passing their fresh produce onto food banks so they need to dispose of ! So suppliers have no food waste but food banks do ?

@SamphiretheStickerist

Wait! You mean it's supermarket waste that has been pushed to a food bank for brownie points? We had to put a stop to that last year. It could have cost us a fortune. Local supermarket huffed a bit but did start being more judicious with its donations.

Most likely!

Sorry, should have ended, and they now send the food that needs to be used now to the soup kitchen about 10 miles away. And they pack up some of it for the different refuges, where it's used for community cooking and frozen for future use.

We may be lucky in that we are part of such a connected wider group if charities, and that we have a no waste policy that extends through every part if every organisation, but it would, I think, be very odd for a food bank to throw away food.

@Mrsjayy

Maybe supermarkets should stop over stocking food and then passing their fresh produce onto food banks so they need to dispose of ! So suppliers have no food waste but food banks do ?

For about 5 years that has been national policy, voluntary I think.

Supermarkets used to bin inordinate mountains of food, many doused the food with liquid soap to make it inedible - to prevent skip divers being made ill and suing them.

But there was a Panorama or similar and now they partner up with as many local charities as they can find and reduce their food waste. Sometimes they are a bit thoughtless, but they are usually responsive if the right person speaks up.

It was getting better but, like single use cups, Covid upset the progress that had been made and we are all starting again. It will get better again.

Then we can switch focus to changing society so we can make ourselves obsolete,!

It depends imo. I run a food bank. The “leave a tin by the Sainsbury’s checkout” type will battle I think, for reduced donations. We’re overrun with fresh veg at the moment and have been for months - farmers have been so short of labour to harvest them that volunteers have been “gleaning” tonnes and tonnes. Likewise high-end and catering surplus that aren’t shifting because customers aren’t eating out / choosing more expensive products. We had large roasting joints a few weeks back, for example, and posh desserts. Heaps of Hello Fresh type kits. These things play out in odd ways.

Currently food banks are overflowing with food & actually quite a lot goes to waste.

I think this depends very much on the foodbank. I know quite about our local ones, and it is true that one of them ends up throwing food away, but that is the exception - the others use every last bit of food that they have.

The one that does throw things away is just very badly managed, I'm afraid. They are actually turning people away because they are not judged to be needy enough but then chucking away surplus food. It makes me very angry, but it's difficult when something is run entirely by volunteers without a proper management structure. The other foodbanks that I know are not like that at all, they are much more professionally run, and it shows.

My online shop used to come to about £86 from Morrisons and I have been clicking on the donate £10 money to food bank. Last couple of shops have been more like £96 so donating £5. If it goes over £100 I won't be able to donate money to food bank anymore. I feel bad about this as I know some children rely on food banks for food security. My dd is struggling too so will have to send her something every month for children to have fresh fruit.

We had large roasting joints too, it's never the more useful small ones is it?☺️

We have a large amount to the church. They have frozen it and will use it for a community lunch they are having next month.

But fresh veg? We have so many farm shops round here we never see a glut heading in our direction. Possibly because there is a community business that makes various soups, they take a lot of the bendy veg.

God, we sound like a weird commune rather than a rural community with a lot of people in quite dire need.

Don't feel bad @caringcarer
Our logic is that you leave us short rather than yourself, we'd only end up feeding you otherwise and, much as you are probably a lovely person, we would really rather not have to meet you!

We have similar schemes here @SamphiretheStickerist food gets donated to various places we pass it around we have a community shop in our town centre that's open daily and it gives away food that's been donated from local shops that's just on date . This passing around really reduces food waste