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

Foodbanks can rarely supply fresh food as it's donated and stored. They are for people who will literally starve without them. It's terrible that people with decent full-time jobs need them. That's the real issue.

I would suggest you look for a Community Fridge or use Olio to get surplus food. This is where supermarkets and restaurants send food that's past sell-by or they have too much of.

I got fruit and vegetables, a whole bag of chicken fillets, a massive bag of bread rolls and some New York bagels from the Community Fridge yesterday. It included a fancy melon, a mango and avocadoes so it's not just the basics either.

Yes, possibly, or it could be poorly run and badly organised, or new or doesn't have enough storage space or volunteers. Or someone upthread suggested this is the kind of package you can get without a referral. It's hard to know without more information. I just don't think it's the norm to only get 1 day of food.

I think I have been misunderstood. I was greatful for getting food of course, and in a time of need it doesn’t matter what it is so long as I got fed, but it just wasnt enough and I was still hungry

@UnbeatenMum I understand, but they only have the storage space of the church that voluntarily lets them use a back cupboard etc etc
It's all voluntary, which makes it wonderful, but FBs aren't claiming to run a slick national machine where people can get all their needs met. It's charity, which means the expected standard is 0 and everything is a bonus.

You're right, some kids don't act like the world owes them something (DS1 has been working since 13, DS2 struggles with disability but has always either worked or trained), but given that we have to bring in foreign workers to do so many of the lower paid jobs and have nearly a million NEETS, it kind of shows that there are a significant number who just won't take work because there are other options. Blair's target for 50% to have a degree took a large number of people who would have otherwise worked, and made them think they were too good to do "those" jobs.

36% of church goers are 70+.
There will be more people who identify as Christian than actual attend church.

The areas that desperately need food banks are more likely to be poorer towns and city's.
The people who donate in those areas aren't likely to be earning £100k a year.

Foodbanks have to be very careful they aren't praying on vulnerable people who don't have much spare to give.

I bet it's happen where vulnerable people have donated food they couldn't really afford to give. Because they don't want to admit they are struggling or feel they should be generous to help the 'poor children'

This is another reason why food banks just should not exist. If welfare is needed it should be properly managed via taxes not charity.

I agree no one should give or be pressured to give what they can't afford. I don't think we really know why the OP was given so little though, there are a range of possible explanations.
I also agree it would be great if welfare was good enough and foods banks weren't needed e.g. scrap the 5 week wait for UC.

I don't think that's the case actually. The share of households with no one in work has been declining for decades - by Spring 23 less than 14% of households under 65 were 'workless' compared to 21% in 1996. From 2004/5 to 2022/3 despite a large additional number working, incomes from the poorest households grew just 6% in real terms (against an also pitiful 12% for middle to higher-income households). Also there has been a massive rise in zero-hrs and 'self-employed' jobs which hide the underlying lack of decent work available and make it hard for people to financially plan. The problem is we are not increasing our wages enough to keep up with asset price inflation in housing and cost of living. George Osborne from 2013 kept benefits increase at 1% for three years followed by 4 years with no rise at all - being on benefits is no picnic and most are in-work. Increasing real wages comes down to productivity and investment in improving productivity which governments have failed to do for about 20 years.

yes but can people actually afford to do 'those' jobs and live independently (apart from sharing a room in a house with 8 other people)? We are bringing in large numbers of foreign workers because they are often cheap(er) labour and conservatives obviously have felt under pressure to improve GDP growth by increasing the numbers of people working, rather than raising productivity per capita. We shouldn't be encouraging a race to the bottom on wages and working conditions. If our economy isn't capable of providing decent jobs to qualified people maybe there's something wrong with the economy, not the labour pool.

Do you and others not understand that we depend on donations and can’t give out what we don’t have . Also there are a lot of very fussy eaters ! Not talking about allergies.
i did a shift this morning . As always , most people were very grateful but there were a couple of people saying “ no i don’t like that”, “don’t want that” “ do you not have Heinz tomato sauce?” ( offered supermarket own brand).
I had a good look at today’s donations . A lot of tins , pasta , rice , cereal and a tray of jam ! ( not Meghan’s).

OP surely you can appreciate the huge logistical issues about storage and distribution of fresh foods, and the potential health and safety nightmare of distributing batch cooking?

Having food banks in our country is a disgrace. We shouldn't need them at all. What tipped me over the edge was an MP opening a good bank with a buffet laid on.

People have also got alot less money now so they can't donate. Donations should come from the big brand supermarkets. This reliance on the community is like the bad old days.

You shouldn't have to be grateful for the food you get from a good bank but you are disappointed at the wrong thing. No one in our country should need to go to one.

Well, you've kind of proved my point. People don't want to do "those" jobs because it might mean they have to share a house rather than live on their own, but it's okay to bring in foreigners to do that, because they're somehow lesser.

Just because we increase the number of people going to university, it doesn't mean the number of jobs requiring those qualifications magically increases proportionally - that's not a problem with the economy, it's a problem of design - either the number of degrees needs to increase by demand from the job sector, or we arbitrarily send 50% of young people to university knowing there will be no "suitable" jobs for them, so we pay for their education then tell them to bugger off abroad to find a job, while simultaneously importing foreign workers to do the lower paid jobs which probably would have been done by those going to university, had they not gone to university. Utterly bloody bonkers!

And don't get me started on how we suddenly all forgot how to wash our cars and need to exploit foreigners to do it for us... ditto Turkish barbers and nail salons.

Of course we realise charities rely on donations
But I don't think it's morally right to be asking the same people, ie church goers, for those donations, many of whom are retired and not have huge incomes.

Many elderly women in particular would be likely to donate what they can't really afford to give for "the poor children"

People should be grateful for what they receive for free, from charity.

Donations are voluntary . All our local supermarkets have donation boxes for people who WANT to donate . No one is forced .
Assuming Foodbanks are likely here to stay , how do you propose they are stocked if not through donations ?

@Mylovelygreendress
Someone suggested if food banks are low on donations they should ask churches - which I'm sure happens to an extent - but they really can't keep appealing to churches which is in effect asking the same people.

Food Banks belong in the dim and distant past, along with the "poor hoose".

We have a welfare state, paid from tax.
It shouldn't take weeks to get a UC claim processed. The length of time probably discourages people from taking short stints in work too.

The whole system needs a rethink, work needs to pay, nobody should be relying on charity for food - I'll accept homeless who struggle to get benefits without a fixed address - maybe. But the rest no!

I grew up as active in several churches between the 1960s-1990s but I cannot remember any weekly church food box activities at this time. Although possibly there was the odd church that did this.

Certainly there were food boxes 2 or 3 times a year Harvest Festival, Christmas perhaps Easter - but not as a weekly thing. At that time church food help was more along the lines of a weekly lunch club or soup kitchens.

There were sometimes one-off special collections - I remember we sent a lorry load of food donations to Bosnia in the early 90s.

I think that earlier public help was more readily available - crisis loans, emergency vouchers etc - I remember my mum worked in a maternity hospital that had a storeroom with donated baby stuff to send home with those that had nothing.

So what do you think the foodbank should do if they haven't got enough donations? Skip a week or two so you would get nothing? Or give out smaller parcels?

At the end of the day the foodbanks are not really responsible for failures of the welfare system. The volunteers are just doing what they can.

Are people prepared to pay more taxes for staff to action UC claims? No .
I would say most of the car wash/barbers and nail salons near me are either modern slavery or money laundering!
Also I hope as you are donating the high quality food to the food bank.
There should be no need for food banks.
But people had no money in the 70’s either. My DP’s use to feed a young mother and her children once a week because her husband use to drink the money and she usedt the family allowance for food.
Only day of the week I ate my dinner without complaining and finished it.

@ForFirmBiscuit I'm left wondering what you think about the 'workhouses' of former days.

I agree, and that means we have thousands of businesses not only employing vulnerable or illegal immigrants, but also not paying the right taxes which keep the country running.

There has always been community support and charity for those in need. I remember as a kid receiving food parcels from the local "lions" charity. We often didn't have enough food, but I don't remember anyone blaming the government.

I haven't proved your point unless you want / are fine with the living standard of the people already living in this country to slowly decline, which is what has been happening over the last two decades for the average earner. (very odd comment about foreigners being 'lesser' - not sure where that came from, if people chose to come to this country they are often sending money home to families where the cost of living is lower) I lived in a shared house in my 20s which is fine - I wouldn't have wanted to do that in my 30s and 40s. Do you live in a shared house and are you happy with it? For a long time in our history families could have 1 or 2 people earning basic wages (no set minimum wage) and live independently in their own homes with no help from the state. For large parts of the country that is not now possible without government intervention i.e. UC even when they are working full time jobs.Very few people are being lazy / don't want to work etc. It's just impossible to live even if they are working unless you have a very good salary.

Why?

The 5 week wait is a joke....I waited more like 5 months!