How to help those in poverty?

[chillylizard]

Posting here for traffic. Not a TAAT but having seen about the woman and other MNers who can’t afford food, it reminded me of a question I had.

I already volunteer in our local Foodbank and whilst it’s a great help for so many - there’s only so many Fray Benton’s a person can eat.

I was thinking about cooking meals for people in need - it would be a small scale but I could probably support one small family.

I like cooking to an extent and only me in the house that eats varied foods (DH is a v unhealthy and monotonous eater!)

Do you think this is possible to do? I can’t figure out how I’d possibly help but when food is an issue but so is the cooking of the food, surely I could support that?

I’d rather not give money alone and I am not the biggest fan of a lot of the charities having audited them in a previous life.

There was an initiative locally, in Ardrossan at a local church to ostensibly help show people who were in difficulty how to cook easy to make meals, using cheap real ingredients which resulted in them getting something the could eat. Ingredients donated by local restaurants and supermarket. Sadly it flopped, but no reason to try to resurrect the idea.

I volunteer for Homestart. They help families in need (with a child under 5).
It's an 8 week basic training of a long morning a week.

They have donated funding from one of the bigger supermarkets to buy food to promote healthy affordable meals. The volunteer will go shopping with the family then cook at home afterwards.

I can see the types of families being referred will very much reflect fuel and food poverty.

You would, I presume, need appropriate insurance, certification etc, I would think.

It will be difficult to start this off, unless you already know people that would appreciate this?

What about food safety certs? The local charity that does this does it using people already trained and they use a scout hall / playgroup kitchen.

Slow cooker projects are excellent and there's a few which linked in with food banks ie: the food bank will give the ingredients for specific meals cooked in a slow cooker such as a meat stew. The participants are shown by zoom or through cookery classes how to prepare the meals and also learn about hygiene and nutrition.

Are there any places which provide hot meals for homeless and other people you could volunteer at?

There is something called 'free my meal' on Twitter and Facebook which is a non profit charity where extra meals can be given to those that are hungry.

@chillylizard look at the free my meal. People can cook extra portions of dinner to give to those in need.

Stop voting for the tories!
It’s not going to change until they aren’t in power

I would contact your local churches. One local church cooks every Tuesday evening for the homeless. The food is cooked by local volunteers, collected by volunteers and served by volunteers in the church hall.

There maybe a scheme like this in your area.

I don’t have the time sadly but we donate food and money to the TRussell trust. I also give away freebies on Facebook (kids coats etc) instead of selling and I give bits to school as well for any families in need.

And obviously don’t vote Tory

There are charities that need volunteers to help with teaching people to cook, especially those in care who will soon leave to be living alone.

@Iggly if you are giving away freebies on fb please don’t assume that people in poverty are picking them up. People really on the breadline won’t have access to transport to collect your items. I give away a lot on fb free cycle and to charity shops because I simply don’t have the time to post, answer questions, parcel and send stuff via ebay. But I also take freebies, 1/3 my wardrobe is pre loved eBay/charity shop. Our household income is significant.

There was an initiative locally, in Ardrossan at a local church to ostensibly help show people who were in difficulty how to cook easy to make meals, using cheap real ingredients which resulted in them getting something the could eat. Ingredients donated by local restaurants and supermarket. Sadly it flopped, but no reason to try to resurrect the idea

Admirable as this is, there is a reason it flopped. The same reason as it would flop again if resurrected in Ardrossan or pretty much anywhere else in the country.

There is a charity called Meal Makers - again Scotland based - which pairs up home cooks with older people in their community. It;s as much about social isolation as it is about combating poverty though.

www.mealmakers.org.uk/

I was involved with a local HAF initiative providing free hot meals to families receiving free school meals. Take up was incredibly poor. Could not get people interested at all.
Deeply frustrating

If you are a landlord, you could reduce the rent to your tenants. Housing costs are the biggest cost to most people in poverty.

I know you are not a charities fan but they are set up to do this properly

You are well meaning but individuals setting this stuff up puts vulnerable people at risk of being scammed.

Look to see if you have any charities already in your local area who do this already and see if you are able to volunteer. For example in Leicester we have Help the homeless who have a well established Friday evening hot meal that they make in a set location Tabatha people know to go to to. They make and distribute hundreds of hot meals on that one evening, give out clothes, shoes, toiletries etc and can signpost to other support services.

Look at these food waste sharing apps in your local area

Olio
Too Good To Go

A great way to share food

To those saying "Don't vote Tory", is Labour really a better alternative? They can't even acknowledge the human rights of women and girls.

@TerraNovaTwo

To those saying "Don't vote Tory", is Labour really a better alternative? They can't even acknowledge the human rights of women and girls.

Sorry but I don’t remember the level of food banks and starvation under Labour.

As for womens rights - plenty of Tories don’t get it either and don’t give a shit shit womens rights or trans rights, so I wouldn’t get too excited.

For me, the fact that Kier starmer stumbles over the penis question doesn’t phase me because other shadow cabinet members manage to cope just fine. And the Tories just haven’t been pushed in such ways in the media. I don’t trust Boris Johnson to do anything on this - look at his crass jokes and bullshit u-turn about conversion therapy!

I’d rather take my chances with Labour than having children starving and freezing to death.