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

It's disgraceful as is the amount of child poverty.

Niche activities. Your average working man wasnt playing with needles or raving his tits off. It was more pub, darts, dominies and football.

I know what the OP means. I was given two boxes of food bank stuff following a bereavement last year as I was struggling to feed myself. A lot of it was kinda random stuff that you can’t really make a meal out of. The best thing they gave me was 1kg of peanut butter 😋 That was the best thing ever, I was eating it on toast every day for months. It’s my comfort food now. The rest of the stuff I used over time, I was very grateful for all of it.

@BeardofHagrid Peanut butter on rice cakes is a very nutritious snack!

I can't believe you're describing drinking booze as a niche activity. I remember boozy work lunches. Of course there was drug addiction. Because of AIDS there was a big drive for clean needles.

And where did the money for that come from....? Come on, you can work this out if you try really hard.

Stolen from the kids lunchboxes? Nope. Maybe from the kids clothing or toys budget though.

Exactly. In the 80's that you claim had people prioritising the important stuff and not wasting their money on crap. Despite the fact that vastly more people smoked and priotitised the pub then than do now and I think that we can agree that kids clothes are more important than their parents paying to get cancer.

Not from everyone I imagine, but for some people it most certainly was stolen from the lunchboxes.

See, we aren't poles apart. I suppose there were different hierachies back then. Dad was the top dog, whether bread winner or on the dole, and probably put himself first. These days I'd say the balance has shifted more towards putting the kids first. But, this debate is about food and I doubt many fathers (apart from the most alcoholic) drank/smoked so much that the kids were so hungry that the family had to go looking for handouts.

If you are really hungry tinned soup is fine.

People are so entitled. I'd love to know how many people using food banks are desperate enough to have cancelled their mobile phone contracts, subscription streaming services, given up smoking or vaping or drinking. Benefits in this country are enough to buy your own food if you don't spend the money elsewhere. Doubtless there are some who struggle due to mental health problems or disability but I don't really believe anyone is starving to death.

If something is free people will use it.

Sorry to hear that. She had other physical or mental health issues going on or that would not have happened.

There are food banks. And a bag of oats is 90p or whatever, yogurt and milk are still fairly cheap etc, all sorts of items.

Once he retired due to ill health and I helped him get PIP, my uncle used a food bank to supplement the perfectly adequate money he had coming in. I got him an extra six grand a year on top of what he'd earned in his job.

He only really stopped because he didn't like the chickpeas, rice etc and they were building up and taking up space. Or maybe one of his friends told him it's not good to use a food bank when he didn't need to.

That foodbank had to try and get stricter with who they gave out food to, because so many people were doing it. But as they were based in a church they probably carried on in a similar vein.

Plus the very demographic that is most likely to use a food bank, is most prone to obesity.

Tinned soup is actually quite posh IMO. Compared to the packet soup we used to have. If someone makes a soup it won't usually be much nicer than a tinned one.

People are so entitled. I'd love to know how many people using food banks are desperate enough to have cancelled their mobile phone contracts, subscription streaming services, given up smoking or vaping or drinking. Benefits in this country are enough to buy your own food if you don't spend the money elsewhere. Doubtless there are some who struggle due to mental health problems or disability but I don't really believe anyone is starving to death

Can you easily cancel your phone contract? You know fine well that you can't just ring up and cancel a contract.

How do you access the internet without a smartphone? Buy a bus ticket that requires you to have the bus company app? How do you search for jobs if you don't have one?

Are you aware of the many health conditions that can strike people, at any time, with no warning, and leave them horribly disabled, unable to work and relying on benefits?

There have also been links provided to show that people do and are starving to death.

Dont bother trying to argue with stupid.

It drags you down to its own level and then beats you with experience.

Worth looking if there is a zero waste place nearby, this is one near me and you can fill a bag for free

There have also been links provided to show that people do and are starving to death.

The only other person I've heard of starving to death was a young man with severe mental health problems some years ago, who wasn't receiving the help he needed to cope with things.

There are food banks for if people genuinely can't afford to eat, and relatively cheap food does exist for those on low incomes. So if anyone is starving to death due to poverty (which hardly ever happens) it's because they have some issue that's preventing them from accessing resources that are available.

ooh, what sort of place is this?

You are rather naive.

Vouchers can be sold, not for full face value. The parents who put the cigarettes and alcohol ahead of their child will continue to do so.

And where can these vouchers be spent? I remember when the government of the day decided asylum seekers vouchers that could only be used at Sainsbury. It didn't matter that the nearest shop was an hour away, and because you had a voucher you could not get a bus.

Niche activities. Your average working man wasnt playing with needles or raving his tits off. It was more pub, darts, dominies and football.

And the grannies in Scotland selling their 'jellies'? That was so common they were banned.

That's not true at all.

You seem to be basing your whole ideas of working class life from films.

Your comments are hilarious but i don't think you are meaning to be

I mean I agree it's not the nicest sounding food but the charities are doing their best. The government needs to spend the money on making sure the food banks aren't needed.

For folk in rural locations or areas badly served by public transport or those working odd hours no car can equal no job.

I very much doubt that people who cannot afford food are going out and buying pets or signing up for Netflix. It's far more likely they could afford these things when they got them or have short-term cash flow issues.

When I went to the foodbank it was because I was on a zero-hours contract and a new member of staff fucked up the rota giving 3 or 4 of us zero hours for 2 weeks. When you live paycheck to paycheck there is no buffer to absorb 2 weeks without pay.

Should I have rehomed my 10-year-old abused rescue dog for the sake of two weeks? Or perhaps I could have sold the smartphone I needed for work and left myself unable to go back to work?

I do some volunteering with homeless peole and "even" they really do need a phone. Otherwise they can't access anything. No medical help, no food, no shelters, no job search, no addiction support...

And yes, lots of people who need help are spending money on their addictions. That means they shouldn't have food because.....?

I watched a channel 4 documentary about food banks and a lady on there was at the food bank so she could get "free" food and spend her last £40 getting her nails done.