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I always thought that foodbanks were given out of date stock when I saw them collecting from shops and supermarkets.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

Anyone only taking home 1950 a month but with children and no other adult contributing an income to the household will qualify for universal credit. Some of that childcare, potentially quite a bit of it, will be covered, they will qualify for child benefit and probably a bit of UC top up. If in rented accommodation they may well qualify for housing element.
Im not saying life would be easy but we do have a welfare state its not quite the bleak picture you paint here.

Food banks have picking lists which are used to make up the bags of food, and which have been worked out centrally - at least the ones aligned to the Trussell Trust do. While they often get lots of some things (tea bags, pasta and beans) there are other things which are rarely donated unless someone has checked out the website before they go shopping. The food bank I volunteer at is incredibly creative - we get donations from shops if they have too much of something, or it is short date, trade with other food banks if we have a lot of something and they dont. But what is really helpful is cash - because then we can fill any shortfall in stock. A lot of people switched to giving money rather than goods during the pandemic and it is really helpful. And food banks are not allowed to give out of date food to people for health and safety reasons.

Thank you , I will have a look at both of them.

I’d think it’s obvious they have to buy some stuff because donated goods won’t cover all the things that people need. They can hardly operate on 100 tins of beans and 50 packs of biscuits, or whatever was donated that week. Likewise if it was out of date stuff.

I've not seen that counter system in (my local) waitrose for at least a year @godmum56 &@SantaBakula

Fair enough, but who pays the van and the running costs?

When I volunteer at my local food bank, I do the pick ups and I use my own vehicle and pay the costs. I consider it part of what I donate, over and above my time and any goods I contribute.

You don't have to be referred in my area. Literally anyone can turn up and get given supplies.

Some people using the food bank donate.
Some times others donate.
Schools donate, churches donate, you may also access council grants or grants from businesses and other societies. Some donate for advertising space.

All food is in date or use by as it is checked before it goes out. Never had any returns but sometimes people donate food which also has to be checked. Best before can still be given out. If it is not being checked that is because they don't know what they are doing or following the guidelines.

There may be costs for storage and refrigeration. Mobile food banks need diesel, maintenance, bags, costs for cleaning supplies. Some people can not collect 're disabilities, age and fragility so a volunteer may drop it off. You may be the only person they have contact with . You also need to keep records.
Cat and dog food is collected and creating new links is a skill.
If you get a couple of birthday cakes it is helpful to know the best place to direct them to because you get to know the people coming in.

Loving the assertion that someone can't be homeless if they're on Mumsnet.

I don’t mean the local charity voting one with the little green discs

Which do you mean then? Think I've only ever seen that kind (I'm not being twatty)

If they only gave what was donated then an average food parcel would have approximately:
5kg of pasta and rice.
2 tins of chickpeas
4 tins of beans
1 tin of tomatoes
1 tin of soup/packet of cupasoup
A random item that someone discovered still in date at the back of their cupboard that they didn't know what to do with.

Our local one asks that anything has at least a month left on the date and you have to be referred.

Used to be like that near me, but it tightened up because some people were taking stuff and selling it.

Putting this out there in case it helps someone

I know this isn't the case for all allergies/ intolerances, but people diagnosed coeliac can get bread on prescription, which are free for pensioners, children and people on low income (free for all in Wales). In some areas it is restricted on a case by case basis, but anyone with financial issues can ask their doctor to prescribe.

Your OP literally says out of date food.

I find it shocking that you’ve never boughtso much as a 20p pack of pasta for a food bank bin.

Not all food banks operate in the same way... Many are independent, especially in more rural areas. Some will be by referral others allow self referrals. People can self refer to the one I work at. Because it is in a small community we find it is when people are truly desperate that they call us. There is very little / no piss taking.

We deliver in our own cars and I have yet to claim petrol money.

We get cash donations from people who have their own groceries delivered and local businesses. Also some legacies in people's wills.

We buy in groceries of all sorts... Not gluten free because we have a very generous donor that gives us more than we can use. But we do buy in things like nappies if needed as well as things we run out of. We can't rely solely on donations which come in waves... ATM we have more cereal and meatballs than we know what to do with, but have run out of rice and cat food.

The supermarket doesn't give us a discount...we get a standard delivery once a week which we order on line.

Re stuff from hampers... If it has alcohol in then we can't give it out (other FB might). Anything obviously Christmasy packaged we keep forgetting next year now... Unless it goes out of date before then... In which case we offer it up to other FB and community kitchens.

Opened or out of date things we can't give out.

Can't find it online, I will get a pic next time I am in there.

People donate money to foodbanks then they buy what they need. I am part of a group of bakers who runs bake sales to raise money for foodbanks. Our Xmas bake sale raised £2000 so we gave £500 each to 4 local food banks.

Our baking isn't even that good - think some of them just have very generous friends!

To be fair, before I got involved with the scheme, it hadn't occurred to me that money donations are common and very useful.

There's also 'too good to go' (in the bin), which sells food, just going out of date, at massively reduced prices.
Benefit amounts are vastly over calculated on here. Posters don't seem to realise that post heart attack etc you don't just get awarded benefits, you wait and get referrals. While PIP is being reassessed, the money often stops. Benefits don't fully cover rent and sometimes council tax. Free school meals aren't instantly available and if allergies exist, sometimes not possible. Many people don't earn enough to have savings, especially after Covid, many areas don't have good employment. Hospitals don't always provide transport, many don't have a good support system.

We donate monthly by standing order to our local food bank. It's harder for us to donate particular items so I figured they could use the money however helps. Although today I spotted that Tesco have an online donation option on their online shopping website (right at the very end after you've paid, just wait and it appears at the top of the page).

As a family buying GF foods, the cost really adds onto a regular shop and we have a decent income. I can't imagine struggling to buy food and then having to factor a dietary need on top of that. When my child eats gluten, she's unwell, which impacts on my employment as well as her school attendance. Providing GF foods to a food bank could be the difference in a parent remaining employed and a child receiving a good education.

Please don't tell me you dump off your old rubbish in food banks that's "about to go out of date"?

Get a job?

The place I work donates out of date fruit and veg to the foodbank.....it's fine. And tbh if I could buy it reduced I would do. Most of our collectors work for community kitchen type organisations which cook up meals as well as provide food.

Never have anyone come in a van tho, it's always volunteers in their own cars.

Looks like good old David Cameron got what he wanted with his austerity measures eh, us all pulling to help each other and relying on fucking foodbanks.

And as someone who works in retail and helps customers who come in with vouchers from the foodbank I can tell you they literally reek of the sour smell of poverty. They often look grey and defeated and they do their best to make their vouchers stretch I once helped a young lad out by buying him some shopping bags (( bought him the stuff he'd put back too )) because he hadn't factored that into his budget. He looked so ashamed stood there saying he needed a job. Imagine being so destitute you didn't have the money to get the little bit of shopping you were finally able to buy home ? My heart broke for him as he'd looked so pleased with what he'd managed to get and he'd done his best to make that money stretch buying food that would keep him full.

So if people are using the foodbank to make their money stretch onto buying other things then I don't blame them at all. I hope they buy something nice with it !

I thought there was a system where people needed referring to them and it was only short term for each referral?

Our local foodbank are pretty active on social media so always update what they are short of.

They also sometimes ask for Amazon deliveries of toiletries they need so we tend to do that as I always forget when I'm in the supermarket then see the foodbank collection point after I've already paid and forgot to buy extra.