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

My issue is their reasoning being "because the brats don't deserve it" and "their parents can just get jobs"

Honestly op....you are investing way too much money and head space here.

You sound very emotionally over invested in this. 30 or even 100 people buying a £1 pack of biscuits in Iceland and donating to a food bank is going to make minimal difference to the amount of suffering in the world. It's virtue signalling.

Plus people may already do regular giving, may not agree this particular cause, may not like being used to make their employer look charitable in this way.

If you really care, set up a monthly direct debit to a charity of your choice. Leave others to make their own choices. Its great that your employer gives some money for this but the workplace isn't the right place for charity fundraising

Sorry you are getting so many negative comments on here OP. You have tried to do a good thing. I think the answer is to donate something just yourself and accept that a lot of other people don't feel as you do. You will get less aggro but know you have done something positive for people less fortunate than you.

Don't do that! Did you speak to people before sending the e-mail out? One tend to get detached due to multiple requests so it's always good to get specific and personal when helping a charity.

Why and to whom are they providing this reasoning? Are they being directly challenged on why they haven't donated?

Some people have very strong views about charity .

Many think, as do I , that food banks prop up an abject failure of government. People were poor when I was growing up but lack of food was never an issue other for those at the very margins. Now it has become normalized, by charities in large part

Although well intentioned , charity is not without problems. And ordinary people paying retail prices to fill in for government failure is no solution.

The brat comments are massively shit - are people really saying that?

With the not donating....arrrrgh I have to say I get it. My work is insufferable with constant charitable stuff and the colleagues who say virtuously "its the cost of a pint, just have one less drink" and then you go to Tesco and get shoved food bank leaflets in your face, then they're eyeballing you as you walk out to see if you're putting anything in. Then theres chuggers with their "oh but we have chip and pin" when you say sorry no cash.

Then you go on LinkedIn and bombarded with what companies are doing and individuals posting about how they buy the homeless guy a coffee every day - how are YOU making the world better etc 🙄

I kind of get it. I'm weary of being mithered and guilt tripped to donate, and it might be £1 biscuits but id feel.shit only putting 1 packet in, so I start begrudging it tbh (although ill always donate to the little animal sanctuary near me, they don't hound people at all and get no extra funding from anywhere)

Just so I have this right in my head- you sent one email, presumably along the lines of “Hi all, there’s a box in the corner of the kitchen area for donations anyone would like to make to Main St. Food Bank this Christmas” and you received multiple responses back calling hungry children brats?

@toastofthetown when they walk past the collection point they just sort of stand there and start talking about it all

Honestly, I think it’s because people like you put peoples backs up. You’ve taken over, and appointed yourself the dogooder in the office. You are judging people for not giving, when you have no Idea what’s going on in their lives. This is a difficult time for many people, especially around Christmas.

It’s absolutely none of your business how much people spend on their lunch, or what they eat/buy. It’s ridiculous to say “we’re all meant to donate” as it’s unreasonable to force people to donate to any cause, no matter how worthy. You don’t know if or when your colleagues contribute to charitable causes. Just because you’ve appointed yourself as in charge of this current collection doesn’t mean it’s any more deserving than anything else people are doing.

The fact that you need to tell us that you’re considering donations directly yourself, because you don’t feel your colleagues are giving generously enough for your liking means you are probably enjoying the feeling that collecting and donating is giving you. Perhaps your colleagues sense an air of superiority and are critical of the cause, when really the subtext is that you’re irritating people with the way you’re going about things?

I sent the email, signposted to the collection point and people are talking about it as they walk past it

I regularly give to charity via a direct debit and it’s no one’s business but my own which charities I support. True charity is often best expressed through quiet generosity rather than seeking recognition or harassing your colleagues.

Most food banks don't accept formula.

So multiple people have walked past this talking point, situated next to your desk by the sound of it, and said about brats and parents getting jobs?

They sound tight, cruel and selfish. Wow. Sadly a lot of people are like that

Virtue signalling as well as being to invested? It's either or. How can it be a bad thing wanting to help people less fortunate than yourself? You ought to praise her rather than criticize her for what she's doing.

You have no idea that people are going home to warm houses by the way. If people are struggling financially then they don't usually broadcast that in the office to their colleagues....and then you complain that they buy themselves lunch as if they're somehow unreasonable for using their wages to buy themselves a sandwich. You sound like a bit of a nightmare quite frankly.

"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."

Yep, but they'll still find £10 to buy a chocolate willy or a fucking scented candle for some random colleague in the Secret Santa.

I don't get why you're bothered about what other people do? Just donate yourself, you can't control other people.

I donate to charities but I don't often buy for foodbanks because I get overwhelmed with that to buy so money donations are easier for me.

@Megifer yes. I can hear them from my desk. It just breaks my heart.

Really? People are walking past seeing the branded products in the donation tub and calling the recipients (young children) ungrateful brats?

Get a grip

Absolutely reasonable for anyone not able/willing to donate not to do so.

Its disgusting to comment like that though.