To be really pissed off about my office's attitude towards our food bank donation

[LookingForAHandHold]

Every year we run an office collection for a local food bank. This year we're doing one for families with nothing and young children.

So far im the only one who has really donated. I understand times are tough, but it's £1 for a pack of biscuits in Iceland.

People are making horrible comments too, about the branded names etc and the ungrateful brats who don't deserve it. It's for young children. It just breaks my heart.

I'm so close to taking it all home and donating it myself

Your colleagues sound horrible.

People have hardened their hearts since more people are feeling the pinch when they probably didn't before.

I'd be saying something to the people making nasty comments though as they happen.

The big bosses squashed stuff like that altogether at our place. No collections allowed for anything now. Although the animal shelter one is run underground and still going.

When you say “we” run an office collection, who is “we”? Is it an appointed annual charity or do you/other staff set it up to support a charity you like?

In my experience, people are inundated at this time of the year. It may be just a £1 packet of biscuits to you, but that £1 might not be disposable to everyone else.

Plus, not everybody will agree with the aim of every charity, how they’re run, or the area they operate in.

If you feel so strongly, I’m sure the charity will appreciate your generous donation but you’re being very unfair in criticising your colleagues. Over the years, I’ve seen people not giving to charities in workplaces because they want to disassociate from the person pushing the agenda.

Maybe people already donate to the food bank in other ways, or donate their money to other charities. Their donations don't have to be visible to you to be valid. Most supermarkets have food bank donation baskets, which are easier than taking the food on another trip to your workplace. Making comments on 'ungrateful brats' is out of order, but saying that a packet of biscuits only costs £1 doesn't help your co-workers who can't afford that themselves or have donated in other ways and places.

We run it as staff.

I just find it jarring that the same people who get takeaway lunches everyday won't donate even £1, then have the nerve to make those comments. While those of us who don't have a lot spare will donate

I wonder is it fear? Many more people are using foodbanks where as they never had to before. Is it easier for them to dismiss the users as ungrateful/undeserving than acknowledging that more and more people similar to themselves now have to use Food Banks.

Who are the 'we' if it's just you? Your colleagues sound like dicks implying that impoverished kids are 'ungrateful', but there's many reasons why people won't donate, as suggested by PPs.

I only donate to charities in one specific field, and check I agree with their policies and how they're ran, first.

You shouldn't be assessing people's finances based on their lunch choices, or choice to not want to donate to a particular charity.

It's their money, their choice. If they rather spend on a nice lunch, that is none of your business

Well we're all supposed to donate, I've taken charge because everyone else ignores it

It's a local charity for homeless families, I don’t know how anyone can disagree with it. It's just maddening seeing the number of treats put out daily but nobody wants to help children who would go hungry otherwise

I found office collections really difficult as I was earning less than everyone else and couldn't afford the £20 most of them would donate (the director never donated anything!) and when someone else took over the collections when I was about to go on mat leave she'd tell all and sundry who'd donated what and people stopped donating all together.

People are grim.
I had to help my parents sort the food for a food bank which had been donated at their church for harvest festival. The amount of out of date rubbish was appalling. We ended up throwing so much away.

So, you have 'taken charge' and are haranguing people.

Leave them alone. This is entirely voluntary and they may or may not have good reasons why they will or will not donate.

You do not get to spend other people's money, no matter how much better you think you would be at it.

I've emailed once. That's it.

I think reality I hate enforced giving .

so this we it sounds like it’s not a cause others support .

The companies that donate it is tax deductible .

I would just do your own personal donation if it’s a charity you support . Let work do its own thing

Yes last year people used it to dump all of their rubbish just before Christmas. The Iceland local to us are selling things for literally £1. I don't get why people are so rude about it either

Hate being forced to donate to anything. No one has any idea how much I give to charities and it’s none of their business.

Are you taking this attitude into your workplace about how your colleagues are 'supposed to' donate to this cause, and applying the same guilt trips on here if they don't? Because I'd find it off-putting and would rather donate to them directly if I chose to support them than through you tbh.

There are lots of causes to donate to, lots of places where a small amount could make a big difference, but we can't donate to every single one. Perhaps people would rather do these things on an individual basis, rather than an "enforced" office donation? I donate to a number of charities throughout the year, but don't participate in any work fundraising.

Voluntary contributions are voluntary. You have no idea what these people do or don’t do outside the workplace.

Shaming people for not joining in a performative workplace thing is coercive. Like banging saucepans for the NHS, or wearing poppies (etc), it’s not your place to decide what others should do.

What did your email say?

Was it just to make people aware that this was something they could do if they wished or was it full of 'children won't eat otherwise' type of stuff?

My workplace ran one a few weeks ago. This was the first year I’ve not joined in. I donate to charities of my choice in my name. My workplace has been awful the last few months - austerity, awful workload, hypocrisy and incompetence at the top, talk of redundancies. I do not want to contribute to THEIR advertising “we collected this much”. I donate directly to charities of my choice.

It seems that so many people felt the same that that particular charity drive got cancelled. Perhaps something similar is happening in your workplace.

You are coming across as quite pious and judgmental OP. That won’t be encouraging others to donate

I've worked in offices for 30 years and have never come across a forced charity drive at christmas. Your colleagues might not sound very nice but they are also completely at liberty not to give. Is the company giving anything?

Well we're all supposed to donate

What do you mean, "supposed to"? Like morally you think that people should/are supposed to? Or it's something your company tries to enforce?

How can they be 'supposed' to donate? You can't make them. Maybe they donate elsewhere. Maybe they don't. Their choice. Performative generosity in the office sucks.