Saw someone stealing from a Foodbank point in Tesco

[Monty27]

Rant
I couldn't believe my eyes I seriously couldn't. His appearance looked clean and smart I just saw him from behind and I thought he was putting in a donation and if my eyes didn't deceive me he actually walked off with an item and put it in his shopping bag. I didn't report or challenge him it was so shocking.
Ill email Tesco and the Foodbank about it.
But just how low can society get?

We shouldn’t even need food banks, we have failed as a country to still have so much poverty.

If you see someone stealing basic necessities, you didn't. No one taking food from the food bank donation trolley is at their best. It's not like he grabbed a crate of larger is it?

I don't think what he has done is right, but have you ever tried to get help from a food bank? Or been in a situation where you might not be able to feed your family?

We had a mess up with our universal credit, I had no money for food, and barely anything in the house. Food bank was only open for 2 hrs in the morning 1 day a week which I worked and you had to apply for it 3 days prior to the collection day. I'm just thankful for friends and a very kind teacher at my daughters school as we wouldn't have got through it otherwise.

I can assure you me and my children are well dressed and to look at you wouldn't have guessed we were in that situation. Had I not got support I wouldnt have hesitated to get food for my children by any means necessary.

There are some people in society who seem to exist for the sole reason of making life so much unnecessarily harder than need be for others. It's almost like an addiction - they get a tingling sensation when it happens - they often scour the streets waiting for an opportunity to present itself so they can jump at it like a hawk.

i have seen a couple of times the odd tablet taken out of a washing detergent box i gyess thats better than taking the whole box

you can see that the carboard box has been opened or the seal broken

Maybe he's just a bit short this month saw something he liked and went for it.tbh it comes to something when people have to resort to this.no point emailing anyone. Maybe if we didn't have spent millions on a funeral yesterday the country may be able to help more .although Maybe not knowing this government!

I'm sure that is the reason why. Our food banks are managed by a few evangelical local churches and they don't advertise for helpers but perhaps that will have to change.
The foodbank collection point is beside the bookshelves where people can pick up books for a small donation to charity and it's interesting to consider the possibility of people who need food simply browsing whatever's available in a similar way to the books.Perhaps not everyone needs the church or food bank to act as an in between.

@MyneighbourisTotoro
We shouldn’t even need food banks, we have failed as a country to still have so much poverty

Yep. Nearly one million households, at least 2 million people, in the past few years are now so poor that they can’t always afford to buy food. And this has somehow become normalised.

Why do you need to report this? He probably has no idea how to access the food bank and I imagine he needed whatever he took x I have given parents from my school food bank vouchers and our local food bank is only open Tuesday and Thursday which isn’t helpful when people are desperate. Also community fridges in the area may not be well advertised. You might benefit from looking at that scene through an empathetic lens.

What are you going to gain by reporting it ? You have to be desperate to do what he did

My local food bank collection points always seem to have a few packets of Penguins or something floating around near the top. I assume people give them in the hope it'll give a stressed mum something to look forward to with her midmorning cup of tea with UHT milk, or make a kid feel normal at breaktime, or something.

Point is, it's not just beans and pasta, there's usually at least something in there that a passerby might fancy picking up on impulse as it's "free", if they were that way inclined, so I wouldn't assume someone taking from a food collection point was necessarily desperate. Though of course they may be.

My dear old grandad, I once took him to the shops, paid and left, got out of the shop and couldn’t find him anywhere. Retraced my steps and found him rummaging in the donations box. Asked him what the bloody hell he was doing, he told me how amazing it was that they put all this stuff out at the end in case you forget anything while you’re doing your shop 🙈😂
honestly!
op I’d just mind my own business, you don’t know who’s struggling and who’s not, I’d say if he was taking something from the donations box he was either skint or just a bit of a klepto. The kind part of me says he was skint and needed something to feed himself/his family.

If you see someone taking food, no you didn't.

I agree with this approach.

If I see someone stealing food I leave them to get on with it. It’s hard enough at the moment. It’s not a high end item they are going to flog on is it?

Could be wearing smart clothes from a job he had and then lost his job. Don't judge others if you don't know their situation. It takes the front of a desperate situation to do what he did. Just be grateful that you're not in that situation. If you are in that situation then be more understanding.

^^ I’m just grateful I’m not in that position myself, but it’s definitely going to get worse before it gets better. Thank you for reminding me to donate more food.

Wow, sounds like he needed the item as much as you need a hobby 🙄

Roumer has it that people who are in need of subsidised or free food handouts can come from all walks of life and might have previously have been able to afford quite nice clothes. Perhaps they should sell them all and buy a beggar's sack to wear before they are adeemed destitute enough to be needy.

FFS just turn the other cheek.

I don't want my donations to go to anyone except the foodbank being collected for. End of.

Imagine how desperate he must be. Sadly I think we will see a lot of this.

Are you sure he wasn’t maybe dropping items off and for whatever reason then decided to keep one?

Some ppl can't keep their hands to themselves.

Course she isn't sure. Just seen one little snippet of info and decided he's stealing from the FB.

I suspect this is a grey area legally. Bit like thieves stealing charity bags from outside houses. He could have been a chancer or be desperate. In your shoes I would give him the benefit of the doubt just in case and let it go. Also doubt Tesco will be interested in policing a charity point.

However as others have said I really would want my donation to go to the actual food bank