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I always thought that foodbanks were given out of date stock when I saw them collecting from shops and supermarkets.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?÷

Oh blimey. Really?? They're knowingly giving it to their employees???

About as much as you are on the 5th of January...

No! That's the point. Say they are giving to charity..but the employees are so poorly paid they need a food bank. Pay better. Do better.

This!! These big companies like to make a song & a dance about donating, but the reality is some of their staff are the clients.

What if every pedantic, badly informed, callous person who thinks "they just need to learn to budget!" had to learn the actual income/outgoings of people using food banks? What if they had to learn about the circumstances of some people's lives? What if they had to learn that it's not actually 'choices' that lead to shit circumstances, but luck?

If, after essential expenses, despite working and claiming every benefit you're entitled to, you have £9.56 to feed your kids for a month, what would you do? How do you budget your way out of that one?

I understand that it's very easy and comforting to think that the world is perfectly fair, and the welfare state is adequate. But it's not. You are either badly misinformed or willfully ignorant.

I think maybe both?

They are knowingly not paying their employees a living wage, while making themselves look good donating to charities who help people who can't manage because they are not paid a living wage.

Exactly!!!

Who do you think you are? Google it if you’re genuinely interested instead of attacking people on this thread and being goady.

No you definitely said ood

Yes in date ones

You cannot rely on food banks or factor them into your budget or shopping. I give out foodbank vouchers to families in need and am unable to issue more than 3 vouchers in a 6 month period.

When I get an ocado shop I quite often add a £5 food bank donation, at least then the food bank can buy what's really needed.

I use this too. It's called You Give We Give. For every £ voucher a customer buys Ocado will match it and then allow the food bank to create a wish list of goods up to the price of all the matched donations.

Is this a serious comment? Like people with allergies and autoimmune conditions, such as coeliac disease, can't be in need of the food bank? Also, how dare you judge someone when you've no idea what it's like to live on the breadline with no means to move away from it... The food bank allows people to not have to chose between heating and eating. That's the reality more and more people are facing in a far less than temporary basis... And dietary requirements aren't fads or something to take lightly, they can be life threatening, and the food is sometimes 5 times the cost! Just because you have not lived it, doesn't mean it's not the reality for many people, whether temporary or not.

The first line of your post is literally:

" I always thought that foodbanks were given out of date stock"

Zzzzzz

What if you're also disabled and working your arse off isn't actually feasible? What if you've got young children and you can't afford childcare? There are so many scenarios here that, because you've not lived them, you're too blinkered to even think about... It's not as simple as work your arse off and it's all rosey

What planet are you people on ? Buy it for themselves ? Factor food banks in so they can buy other things ? Reliant on food banks for all the wrong reasons?
You sound so judgmental and snobbish. People who use food banks are largely working people on shit wages trying to feed their families. Who would want to have to go cap in hand to a food bank ?
Remember people that a third of households in the U.K. are only one pay check away from poverty . Hope that’s not you and you never find yourself having to use a food bank.

Don’t forget if you donate cash to a food bank they get gift aid too, so your donation goes further than if you donated food. You give £10, they get £12.50.

I work as a delivery driver for a big supermarket. We deliver to a local food bank probably once a fortnight. A complete full van load of food. And I mean full van load. Takes 6 people to unload. At first I thought it was odd. But no. It’s normal

One Christmas (quite possibly during COVID) I wanted to donate to my local food bank but was unable to physically get there myself; I managed to organise a Tesco online shop delivered to my local distribution centre. It only took one phone call to customer services and they were happy to do it.

Useful thread. I never realised that it would be more helpful to donate cash than to put random items in the basket in Asda. (I say 'random', I always hope they are useful). I suppose it makes so much sense thinking about it.

I suspect it’s easier to blame “bad decisions” for poverty than to recognise the horrible truth that poverty in Britain is, to a great extent, an inherited characteristic. You are more likely to experience poverty as an adult if your parents also experienced poverty. The effect is particularly linked to living in a single-parents household, or having parents who had low levels of education, were unemployed, or suffered long-term disability or ill health. People from non-white ethnic backgrounds are more likely to experience poverty. So are disabled people.

None of this is “bad decisions”. Of course there are people whose “bad decisions” lead them from a situation where they have a financially stable life and good prospects for maintaining it, to one where they are in poverty. But that’s not most people. People are far more likely to be in poverty because their childhood circumstances put them at a disadvantage from the beginning, or because accidents or ill health later disadvantaged them.

I suspect you've not read all of my posts and have jumped to typical do-gooder concluding.

There’s one key thing that those being arsey or goady about food bank users are missing.

Most of us far closer to being food bank users than we are to being millionaires. A pandemic, an illness, bereavement, disability, redundancy, mental health issue or sheer bad luck can happen to anyone and burn through your safety net at any time. No one is immune no matter how clever or resourceful you think they are.

I grew up poor and though we didn’t have food banks there were schemes to help families in poverty with food. I am grateful for them but I will never forget the shame I was forced to feel when I or my parents did not provide the requisite gratitude dance to our benefactors. The only shame in that scenario belonged and belongs still to those who wanted payment for their help in tears and stigma.
And the irony is now I know many of those people are in far more straitened circumstances than I am due to alcoholism, DV, inheritance disputes or bad business choices. No one can afford - literally or metaphorically- to condemn anyone else.

If you don’t agree with food banks, don’t donate, shut your mouth and hope you never need the help you begrudge others.