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

OP - let it fail.

Next year say no. If your colleagues want to make a donation, direct them to collection points.

if what your company wants is the kudos of an impressive donation, then the company needs to fund it, not ask staff to fund it from their wages. (You might find push back from staff who thinks it’s their bonuses being spent/they’ve previously been told there’s no spare cash for pay rises/additional staff).

your company can use their lump sum donation in a more targeted way if they are after something that sounds good for marketing department eg they buy a chocolate Santa for every child being helped by that food bank.

@SometimesCalmPerson that's not how I saw it at all, I do my shopping in Lidl and Aldi but sometimes I'll pop along to Sainsbury's for a name brand as a treat. I don't think they're saying "name brands only" but "if you can afford it, it would be a nice treat". But like I said im going to pack it in tomorrow

You didn’t provide statistics for your fact.

People aren't thick though. They know brands would be a nice treat because they themselves would probably like a nice branded pizza over the cheapo Tesco offering but they have to choose the cheaper option for themselves

@SaagAloopa and no doubt they're buying all the name brands for Christmas 🤷🏼‍♀️ like I said it's done tomorrow and I'll send an email apologising for offending people

Please please OP don't listen to the cynical old lobsters. You are a beautiful person who wants to do good around you. I suspect a senior person was responsible last year and people donated out of fear of being thought of as stingy. Now when it's the "new kid" organising they can't be bothered. Nothing to do with you personally, just your age and being new to the job.

I hope you don't attach any importance to the vile comments. I would be proud of you if you were my daughter. 🩷🩷🩷

And to you vile posters : OP is 23 years old and wants to do some good in the world. You ought to be ashamed of yourselves.

My work are doing food bank donations ahead of Christmas but I won’t be donating, it’s too much faff having to go into a supermarket and then think about what to buy and find products I don’t usually get in the shop and then remember to bring the things into work etc. I can hardly manage to shop for myself I don’t need to be adding extra shopping to my to-do list. I also don’t get workplaces which make a big deal about donating to charity but actually just get all their employees to donate, you can guarantee when they hand it over to the food bank your company will want all the credit despite not having to donate any of their profits. I also think buying stuff to give to food banks is a false economy, supermarkets make a profit from people buying more than they need to give to charity. Why can’t supermarkets have deals with food banks so that the food bank can get things at cost price and people can just donate money? I don’t want Tesco or Sainsbury’s to benefit from my charitable giving, I’d rather give money to a charity where all of the money goes to good use!

You know that OP didn't make the poster? She just printed it off and put it on the wall.

Christmas is so expensive I expect fewer people are buying name brand staple goods. The exception perhaps being twiglets and pringles. Which people aren't going to see as priorities to donated to a food bank.

that would be also put me off - I don’t buy hardly any branded stuff myself .

I think your perspective and others don’t aline

parent will have buy some cards your child drew, buy something at the winter fair , buy a raffle ticket for something else .. it is endless .

we have a charity donation button for payments where I work - I usually just cancel it - they are already been asked for a lot of money … if they want to pay to a charity or not it’s not my business

Yes. I do. I'm explaining why people may be pissed off with the campaign

I used to run a community food bank through my work, the same people used to come in everytime it was restocked and take everything. 10x shower gels, every single jar of coffee etc… presumably to sell on. I also ran a clothing bank for children, I’d often drop off parcels and see it for sale on Facebook the next day. I don’t bother with either anymore!

People can spend their money however they wish and without justification.

It’s rude rude to make comments about the food bank users.

You know that OP didn't make the poster? She just printed it off and put it on the wall.

And why would her colleagues care if she spent her own money on items that the food bank had requested, because none of them was willing to donate?

@LookingForAHandHold that’s understandable but it doesn’t come across that way to everyone. Own brand chocolate can also be a ‘treat’, and presumably would be for people who can barely afford to eat enough calories from staple foods.

You’re doing the right thing by letting this one go its own way, but don’t let it put you off trying to do good in other ways in future. Your intentions were good and you can put what you’ve learned from this to good use if you ever decide to help with fundraising again.

and no doubt they're buying all the name brands for Christmas 🤷🏼‍♀️

OP your attitude stinks, you really don’t get it do you….?

https://www.oddbox.co.uk/blog/7-apps-that-are-helping-reduce-food-waste

This is a lovely idea, but at the moment it isn't feasible for me. I'm working, I have a university course starting in January, I do a lot of volunteering and my mum is facing a cancer diagnosis. I can't also set up a community kitchen.

Don't be all dramatic and pack it in OP, there are plenty of people on here who have taken slight offence to the 'named brands' request, Myself included, and I always give to food banks. So it is a good indicator of how other staff members are feeling towards it.

Name brands aren't a 'treat', they are a waste of money in our current climate, being given something like chocolate or biscuits is a treat if you normally never have it, and people in such abject poverty that they can't afford to feed their children would not give two hoots if it was name brand or not.. like most people now who can only afford to buy non-branded products to feed their families.

I would not give to a charity that asked for named brands as they have really lost sight of the bigger picture, they have decided they would rather have a small amount of overpriced product, than a larger amount (which would feed more families and children) of perfectly fine, sometimes better, store brand items. When their 'clients' don't give too hoots either way, it's bloody madness.

But did everyone agree to it or was it decided for them and announced and now people don't go along with it thry are now thought of as unreasonable

It is easy to say its for charity and people should automatically do what is asked

But this every increasing decision of people making a decision and then people are expected to do it without agreeing in the first place makes it more of a tick box exercise

The rude comments about homeless families must be hard to listen to, but I don't think people should be put under any pressure to contribute to a 'work' charity. They may be giving elsewhere and the charity in question may not be close to their hearts.

There is no need to apologise OP. Let it run its course. Marketing can then review their strategy for next year. Chalk it up to experience.

Don't send an email OP, if you only asked them once to donate then what is the point, it will just be awkward and unprofessional, and people will think you've lost the plot. You've got nothing to apologise for.. you do however, need to climb down about it.

I know this is going to sound patronising and I honestly don't mean it this way, just factual, but the fact you live at home with your parents I think is skewing your outlook, you don't support a family, so you don't have to decide if you have branded or non branded food to be able to survive for the week. No matter what meal deal people may buy for lunch (they need to eat something), if they don't feed their kids branded products, or have that at home, they are not going to go out of their way to donate branded products for charity who will only want the best.. you need to accept that it is a personal choice for people and it isn't personal to you.

To me this is like if a charity collector coming up and waving their tin, and when you rattle around in your pocket they say, it's a minimum donation of £5, it just doesn't make sense to me? and I wouldn't support a charity that was so short sighted.

And no, I don't buy branded products at Christmas either.. they are a massive waste of money.

OP knows her colleagues better than you do. Their attitude stinks. It's fine not to donate to charities but not ok to denigrate the users of those charities. If they had a problem with donating to this foodbank, they should have contacted the Marketing department who chose the charity.

OP sent a 2 line email telling staff which charity had been chosen and said that if they could donate, it would be gratefully appreciated.

She spent a lot of her own money on donations as nobody else had donated.

The outrage about donating some branded products, e.g. chocolate, I assume for the children for Christmas, is very telling as it indicates that they think that the sort of people who are homeless and need to use foodbanks only deserve the bare necessities and don't ever deserve something nice.

No, don't do that. It'll only make things awkward. Just leave it. Abandon the issue.