To think food banks aren’t fit for purpose

[ForFirmBiscuit]

I don’t need to use a food bank but when I did they gave me tins of soup, a small tin of meat pie, a litre of UHT and a small bag of oats, nothing fresh. I didn’t get much and I was really hungry as there wasn’t enough calories and it was insubstantial. It gave me loads of anxiety to be so hungry. It’s always been like that.
I think food banks should be supplied by the council and given proper budgets for good food, even if they made batches of soup themselves to give out it would be more filling than a tin of soup

Yeah

It's because they don't discount it enough or early enough. The only thing I'd buy with a ridiculous discount like 20% is tomatoes as they are often nicer a bit more ripe. Sometimes things are cheaper to buy in a two for offer than the discounted price. I've volunteered at a community pantry and often it was then off by the time we got it.

In my defence, I only mentioned it in response to @Blouson bringing it up as a reason why people need food banks....that is to say if they cancelled their netflix, sold their fancy phones and didnt buy designer clothes then they would be fine because in the 80's people prioritised basic needs. I lived in the 80's and yes they did, as people do now, its just that back then they cost less.

What if you need a car for work? Or to drop your children off at school? Or to do the shopping?

And God forbid they’ve got a flat screen TV! They should all have TVs from the 1980s. Talk about getting the boot in when someone’s down. Of course they all turn up dripping in Prada, for a tenner’s worth of very basic, cheap food before driving off in their Mercs.

What iffery 😴

You cut your coat according to your cloth....

It's much easier to blame individuals than tackle a problem as enormous as the CoL crisis and stagnation of wages v housing costs.

I imagine there will be a small percentage of people who don't prioritise their spending and use food banks when if they re-allocated their finances they might get just get by without it.....but this isn't everyone...this doesn't explain why the demand for food banks has rocketed in recent years! And like you say Netflix is £2/week (possibly even shared between households).

And when people pipe up about surviving in the 1980s without the Internet or smart phone because they hadn't been invented ffs
trying to access many services now, without the Internet is a total nightmare, or virtually impossible.

Bollocks. Elaborate. What's your point?

Yes, by a free democratic vote.

It wasn’t enough calories or substantial enough and I was still very hungry

Clearly a troll

What was in the box?

I'm sorry to hear you were still hungry.

I was asked about regular users. They often do have these issues.

You also fail to mention that in the 80s nearly everyone smoked and Dads would often be in the pub most nights. Not everyone was as financially virtuous as you’re making out. I can remember us having no food but I don’t remember my parents ever running out of fags.

People should be paid enough to afford food. We shouldn't have bloody food banks!

nocoolnamesleft
Food banks shouldn't have to exist. It is the welfare state that is not fit for purpose.

Exactly! I'm laughing at the premise that food banks aren't fit for purpose. The government isn't fit for purpose fgs!

Exactly! Vote the tories out!

Was it independent food bank or trussel trust?

It was an independent one I don’t remember the name of it and there were a few about the area

This

Goodness, absolutely this.

I remember my mother going off on one, very early 80's, about 1981 ish. Money was tight for some reason (as a young teen I wasnt told) and she yelled "Its funny how we cant affford [whatever it was] but we can always afford your fucking fags!!!" I remember it because it was the first time (and one of the very few times) I ever heard her use the F word!

And its true. He never went without his fags. He wasnt a drinker so the pub wasnt an issue for but a lot of families it was.

Saying "Well we prioritised the important stuff" totally misses that for a lot of familes fags and beer came before feeding the kids properly.

Independent food banks are struggling...bless them. Try trussel trust, they give out varied food...bread, soup, tinned meat, tuna , cereal, uht milk yes, biscuits..tinned fruit, tinned veg. These charities or food banks are usually solely run by volunteers. Tg for these people within our community else there wouldn't be any food banks anywhere.

TVs! Decadence! Shadow puppets.

So you mock addiction to cigarettes in the 80's but it's acceptable now? Back then it was practically the only vice.

Anyway we havent even got onto the subject of kids and how kids had nowt back then. Nowadays do they go without much?

Bored now. Off you pop.

ETA that I am genuinely laughing out loud that you think that cigarettes where the only vice in the 80's! I take it that the heroin epidemic passed you by, that the late 80's rave drug scene passed you by, that most men I knew came home from work to dinner on the table and then buggered off to the pub!

To be honest the normalisation of food banks is the problem

People working should earn enough that they don't need them.

People on benefits should also get enough they don't need a food bank.