Foodbank buying items from shops?

[girlfriend44]

I always thought that foodbanks were given out of date stock when I saw them collecting from shops and supermarkets.
I have now found out they buy items from certain retailers at a reduced price.
They put orders in. Where does the money come from to purchase?
Also they have vans, which cost money in petrol etc.
Anyone else think the same, never realised they were collecting stuff they had ordered in. I thought it was donated to them?÷

There's always a charity collector for the food bank near me. They don't want food, only money. So it makes sense they buy their own stuff if donations aren't reliable. The stock in food banks isn't out of date I don't think? At least it shouldn't be. They know what their own service users need specifically so it's good they supply things that would be popular and well used.

I would try again with your GP. Even in areas where gf food is no longer commonly prescribed, they are supposed to be able to on a case by case basis and a coeliac child in a low income family should be a priority.

If you can get the bread and /or flour on prescription that will be free for a child. And then you can divert any spare money to the other gf things coeliacs need, such as gf pasta etc

Could your SW write to your GP and request gf food on prescription? They are supposed to provide on a case by case basis and bread on prescription is a much more reliable source for your child.

I'm well aware of the concept of taxation, however I'm also aware of how governments waste money.

The only gf items that are accepted are not ones that are prescribable unfortunately. We’ve been told dla applications are up to 6 months wait so when that is hopefully sorted out we can just buy the safe foods

I've not read the middle pages so apologies for any duplication.

I run a food bank which also includes a pantry type setup (people come along, pay £3, and can help themselves to a range of items - typically two shopping bags' worth).

Yes we buy some things from the shops. In my case pasta, rice, oats from a wholesale supplier; beans and tinned toms from Tesco. I write eleventy million grant applications a year so we have money to do this.

Yes people do sometimes use us weekly/regularly rather than as a one-off. Not because it's fun getting food for free but because they consistently can't feed themselves/families well enough without us. Kids eat but parents don't, or they eat the cheapest crap there is, because £, or it's fine during the term but doesn't work during school hols. Or myriad other reasons. I promise, as pleasant as we try to make it, no one queues in the pissing rain for 40 minutes for food, sometimes with a child alongside, unless they need to.

We do redistribute things past Best Before but not Use By. Use by = safety. BB = quality. We do collect fruit, veg, dairy, bakery items, all sorts from major supermarkets and food businesses and redistribute it. We have to adhere to the law. So a UB product that comes in, with a same-day date - it needs to be frozen that day, or binned. But we have good processes to minimise waste.

This week people had beans, toms, pasta, tea, sugar, biscuits, instant noodles, a veggie ready meal and nine different fruits/vegetables to choose from.

NB - all services are different, so the fact that we do it this way doesn't make it universal.

Which, as has been established upthread doesn’t mean they all give out food without a referral.

I donate cash. Better that they have what they actually need.

The foodbank pays to run the van, or sometimes volunteers use their own cars to collect donated food from donation points. Our foodbank gives parcels out at various places including semi rural villages surrounding the row and they have a van for distribution.

Foodbanks also buy food because they need to give more parcels than they receive donated food.

Foodbanks that are part of the Trussell Trust network follow specific contents lists for the parcels they give out. Your local one probably posts in the town’s Facebook group to say what they are most in need of. They may also put a poster up near the donation bin in supermarkets. To get a parcel from a Trussell foodbank you need a voucher via referral from eg a GP, Citizens Advice etc.

Community pantries don’t use referrals and might redistribute food that’s nearing the end of its life and which supermarkets might have given to the pantry.

And (sorry to quote myself) we don't need a referral for the service. Most people do come in via referral, but it's not mandatory.

And re van, running costs - yes, funded by either donations or, in our case, a grant. Though our driving volunteers tend to donate their petrol as it were. We always offer to pay though.

She's the target audience for lotteries though. You don't see wealthy people buying daily stacks of lottery tickets.

Fare Share is a charity that offers close to use by date food to organisations like charities, churches etc. You have to meet their criteria and then you are able to collect food from a store once a week. You can then use this food to distribute to people as you wish or use the food as ingredients to make meals for people. They also offer a separate food collection which you pay an amount for a weekly bulk collection and then you charge people a nominal sum to collect from you.

Some food banks/charities are totally self funded and rely on donations from the public and use money to buy groceries from donations made to the charity.

This is how it works at the community hub I work at.

Edit to say that volunteers or staff members from the charity go to the store to collect the food each week and from the store if we shop ourselves.

Are you sure this is a food bank and not a pantry? At trussell trust food banks there is a limit of how many times you can visit and you would be put in touch with someone to discuss your financial difficulties if repeat referrals were being made. Pantries/food waste initiatives where people pay a little can be accessed by anyone, week in week out.
It isn’t actually easy to access food banks (where I live at least) and certainly not an option people are abusing to spend money elsewhere

This has been explained upthread. The larger charities like Trussel Trust and Salvation Army, etc are run by donations and grants. They operate a referral system for exactly the reasons you outline. Other independent foodbanks, community larders and organisations like Cycle operate a free for all or low cost system and anyone can go and get what they need without a referral. I think CFers do exist - not so much where you need a referral. But in either case I don’t think it’s a reason for rethinking donations - I accept there are some CFers but I wouldn’t want that to get in the way of someone in genuine need getting food.

As a litter womble, we have found bags of babies/toddlers clothes dumped in laybys around the time of the campaign of donations for Ukraine started. They were worn. They were in unmarked bags. As got damaged by weather and lorries driving over them, they went to landfill.

If we found them a day after they were dumped - different story.

Many, many years ago I worked at a shelter for women. Most of our clients were victims of domestic violence. I recall one woman who freely admitted that she and her husband agreed to periodically claim that he had abused her so she could spend the night in the shelter and take a few bags of food from our little food pantry when she left the next morning. We hesitated to refuse her because her husband really was a nasty piece of work, he did have a history of abusing her and they had several children who weren't being well fed. So my answer is, people can be genuinely needy and still be CFs.

It's certainly like that in our local Trussell Trust ones

To be fair that sounds like a genuine case regardless of him saying to admit it.

You keep telling yourself that

Whilst in the real world...

Used to...

They’re a charity. They use donations. How do you think charities do anything?

Basics or not, if someone has a food allergy, then they have a food allergy? It’s not a case of ‘sod the food allergy, they don’t get to choose!’ Of course they do. Their allergies are not their fault, are they?

Just because someone has an allergy it doesn’t make them immune to financial difficulties or any more able to afford food than anyone else at any given time.

I mean, if you have coeliac disease for one thing, gluten free foods can cost a fortune, and you’re not going to expect someone with an allergy to just accept any old food because it’s free, surely? What’s the point if the person can’t make use of it?

What makes a vegetarian less likely to need a food bank? Or someone with a peanut allergy?

To me, those are not the same as Food Banks and their purpose it more to do with preventing food waste than helping people who can't afford food

Which is fair enough

And would she have got a thumping if she hadn't gone along with it?