aibu to buy instant latte for the foodbank

[painochocolate]

My DH says they'd prefer pasta and tinned goods but I like to buy three of whatever treat I'm getting for myself and put two in the foodbank. So this week it was instant latte. He thinks that's nuts. Aibu?

My go to for the food bank is instant hot chocolate and cat food.

My elderly, pensioner mum loves instant latte. The pound shop near me has Starbucks Latte on offer for £1 a box, I bought a couple of boxes for my mum. Expiry date is ages away. Maybe I’ll get some for the foodbank if there any left.

I once got roasted on MN when I said I bought Napolina spaghetti for myself and Tesco own brand spaghetti for the foodbank. 🤣

Honestly, you’d think she’d bought a jar of pickled herring from some of the responses. It’s a hot coffee drink. It’s a fairly mainstream, practical choice.

I always include 10% of any donation as something fun, sometimes it's nicer quality essentials other times it's treats.

Beat thing to do is find out how your local food bank operate. I had 2 relatives die quite close together so cleared out their cupboards and donated to our local food bank. Some stuff I was unsure about (things like simply cook meal kits) but they explained at they do standard food parcels but also have shelves for random extras and people are allowed to pick up to a certain number of items from these shelves in addition to their standard parcels, so that's where some of the stuff I donated (bags of sweets, condiments etc.) went, so that people can choose what they want and will use to enhance the basic supplies.

Yeah. I can't imagine the foodbanks do that.

Coffee will be on the list though. Just a nicer or slightly different one to a bog standard tin.

As long as people look at the list and get essentials as well I don’t see the problem with getting a nicer version of something. (which could well be on offer, so not the equivalent of two basics)

It doesn’t have to be an either or situation all the time.

I put tomato ketchup in last time I added a few tubs to our local box

There’s a wide array on the list fro my food bank! I’d try and give a few essentials too if you can

I don't bother with premium brands (though I like to include familiar staple brands so Heinz beans / big soup / ravioli) because there's no reason to think people will prefer Waitrose finest pasta sauce or whatever. Chances are they'll know whether they and their kids like the big brands or (if they've been low income for long) the basic brands.

So I wouldn't see premium pasta sauce etc as a treat. But there will be some people who will choose it when foodbanks give the option, so it's a good and kind thing to donate.

If everyone adopted the same strategies for giving off-list, food banks would be swamped with one thing or another. If people stick mostly with the basics requested and add more with a bit of thought and empathy, that seems to create a little more choice and pleasure all round.

My daughters dad lived at a man's homeless shelter, they also had an old warehouse filled with items for food parcels. He used to pack them bags for it, I did ask him once if there's ever any sort of "treats" donated. The man who managed the food parcel section used to be quite abrupt about any treats donated stating that people who are desperate don't need any treats. Made me quite sad, a nice latte for someone struggling could mean the world to them.

I'd never thought of cat food

I volunteered at a Trussel Trust foodbank years ago, every parcel had a set amount of essentials based on the number of people etc. We then had a "treat table" and a "toiletries table" where people could choose for themselves a certain number of items from each table. Allowed everyone some autonomy and acknowledged that everyone deserves something nice.

People donate plenty of treat items and they were always very appreciated!

How much was the instant latte? You can get nicer instant coffee half price at £3 in Tesco. That will lost longer than a few sachets of latte.

I don't think there's any such thing as a bad choice of donation, unless it's out of date or crushed.

I completely agree with this.

The bulk of the donations will be basic staples (which is fine) but it's also nice to have some practical treats in there too. I know plenty of people who would prefer a nice coffee over a chocolate bar.

@AnxiouslyWait Do people still eat meat paste?

Not sure how much/often you donate, but alternate between list goods and treat type goods? The only concern I can see is them having to decide who to give the treats to if there's not enough/they don't get them that often.

@Testina I think thats quite a harsh comment.
I donate and volunteer. Do I come away feeling good? No. Do I enjoy receiving messages for food packages? No. It doesn't make everyone feel good, it actually makes me feel bad that I have the luxury of having biscuits, coffee, chocolate etc when I feel like it.
I also find it ridiculous that people who are struggling are helping out even poorer people when the government should be stepping up (I have witnessed this).
You have no idea on peoples thoughts about this and how it makes them feel.

£2 but it was vanilla flavour and contains the milk. I'm going to focus on their urgent needs now and maybe put the occasional treat in. I'm thinking as it's school holidays perhaps treats for the kids and instant coffee for parent!

I don't think there's any such thing as a bad choice of donation, unless it's out of date or crushed.

I hope that’s true. Amongst essentials, I donated a tin of pumpkin sauce a
the other day that DH had bought for some weird reason. I did feel about it because I think pumpkin sauce is the devil’s diarrhoea.

Wow...
What brought that on?

“The brand issue” is what I was going to ask about. You can get 10 savers type of rice pudding, for the cost of 2 tins of Ambrosia, and that’s with Ambrosia being 2 for £2.50 at the moment. I’ve had the savers ones and they aren’t great, so should I get 10 tins of those or 2 tins of Ambrosia?

It also somehow feels off to me, to give food that I wouldn’t personally eat. Getting my branded food for myself, but getting the savers food for other people to have, seems a bit elitist.

Same at the foodbank I volunteer at. No one is feckless enough to put something like instant latte in the limited bag of essentials if it's capped, but we have a table of 'treats' that people can choose from and they're always gratefully recieved. Yes tinned items and other things are generally more essential, but actually donations outside of those are also very much appreciated, and not something they'd otherwise be able to buy for themselves. The reality is you don't have to donate at all OP, so you donating things that might bring some joy to someone isn't taking anything else away.

Still sells well at my local corner shop, mainly used by older people. Good for iron levels too.

Tinned corn beef is very popular at local food banks, I've been told. Made me curious enough to try it myself. Very filling and versatile.

That made me cry too. Imagine being in such a situation that you have to ask if you're allowed something. Poor girl hope things improved for her.