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I always thought that foodbanks were given out of date stock when I saw them collecting from shops and supermarkets.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

You need a referral for a Trussell Trust food bank but Independent food banks have their own criteria. I used to be on a regional food co op committee that had food banks and food projects share I formation etc from all over the county.

I give to an independent homeless charity, I am friends with the guy who runs it.

Do you know how many regular foods have gluten it's not just bread and why do you assume they are not working?

@Nanny0gg that's good to know as I always donate 'treat' items - biscuits, crisps, etc. (as well as basics like cereal) as families need nice things to eat as well as tinned goods and the basics often donated.

Do you think people that use foodbanks don't deserve to have the same food as the rest of us?

I never donate out of date food, but quite frankly I’m happy to have it myself.
Some expiry dates are utter fiction and only lead to waste of food.

Well said but I'm guessing the answer from some will be get a different job then....unless of course they need the NHS then it will be why are they short staffed.

Thank you, that's really useful - some things I'd never have thought of since I don't buy them for myself, e.g. custard.

@Newgreensofa

That's a great idea, I'm going to tell the one my church supports, they offer me bits when I drop off the weekly donation box, typically anchovies, tapenade and cans of pate, if it's something i can use I'll put a couple of pounds into their collecting tins. They also let people like me take foods well past best before dates (not use by) if we want them as they can't distribute them

I struggle to understand how anyone doesn't think that this a bot posting.

All, I'm sure @RegulatorsMountUp must be on a wind up.

I refuse to believe anyone is that ignorant of the working poor in this day and age.

“You… you… you mean things cost… money? It doesn’t all just appear as if by magic?! Delivered by little pixies? But… but… I don’t understaaaaaaand!!!”

@girlfriend44 we donate £1k to foodbanks before christmas to enable them to buy what is needed. many people and businesses do this! also will buy the whole list in tesco occasionally

I know many people who use food after the marked use by date, including myself.
Some dates are more accurately 'best before' dates.

I wouldn't donate items past their use by dates however I would trust large charities to use their own expertise to decide how to utilise donations of large batches of just out of date canned food. They might bulk cook nutritious meals to freeze.

How ignorant.

I eat out of date food... I also only donate cash to the food bank. I hate fundraising for the food bank though. It's the only type of volunteering our local foodbank wants

@SantaBakula I saw it yesterday and just edited our current shop to check where it was. You can choose your own amount to donate too. It's on the very last page after you've paid for your online shop. My computer is a bit slow to load all the elements on the page, and it's one of the last ones, but it's blue and appears at the top. The text says it's part of Tesco's winter food collection for the Trussell Trust, so presuming it won't be there all year round.

You can also donate Tesco clubcard vouchers too (for anyone who's interested).

donations and donators etc or people offering their time and resources etc to assist

There are two types of Mumsnetter/people in this world.

Those who donate their time, money, or goods to food banks when able, and can display empathy and understanding of the society they exist in even if not able to donate.

And miserable buggers who wouldn’t give you an out of date biscuit if they thought you were beneath them.

I'm so tired of these threads. Nobody could possibly be genuinely wondering how a charitable concern has obtained money. And as usual it has brought out all the people who love nothing more than to cast as much doubt as possible on the genuineness of food banks and their clients, with a clear agenda of discouraging donors dressed up as faux concern.

My company donates very large amounts of food to the local food banks so some must get it that way. I also donate sanitary products via my local supermarket as I heard they were needed.

We go to a community shop sometimes where they leave unwanted surplus and out of date supermarket food out for people to take. We're not very hard up so don't take any good stuff just if they have kilos and kilos of parsnips we'll take a bag to make soup for example. It's not the same as a food bank though as you have to pay to access the non surplus stuff.

I used to volunteer at our local foodbank. I'm retired now but when l can afford it, l ask my friend who runs the foodbank what they need, rather than just buy random stuff.
When l asked in November, she said "Everything, except beans and pasta. We run out of stuff every week now."
So l assume they buy (what they can afford from cash donations) what they need most. A storeroom full of surplus beans is okay, but not if they've got no other staples.
A while ago we got coupons for free sanitary items/incontinence pads through our front doors. The foodbank posted on our local Facebook page asking people to not just throw them away if they weren't going to use them, but to please either redeem them and put the items in the foodbank container in the supermarket, or hand them in at the foodbank so they could redeem them.
I worked in a supermarket, and l never saw any kind of incontinence pads in our foodbank bin. I don't think it occurs to people, it didn't to me, until then.
I imagine that's just one of the items they'd buy if they knew a foodbank user needed them.

My arsehole ex (primary school teacher) used the food bank in the same deprived town as his school.
He was a cocaine addict at the time.
Stopped him having to waste his drug money on food I suppose.....

donations. they can't give out out of date food.
do you think people needing a food bank deserve out of date food?

people donate in date food and toiletries, and people donate money so they can specifically buy what they are short of to supply to people. and they can usually get a better, bulk deal for goods

I've had to use a foodbank before. should I have been pathetically grateful for mouldy food?

We often donate through the church in our village to the food bank even though we aren’t Christian. They ask for cans of meat, fish, fruit and veg. I usually get sausages, tuna, sweet corn, peas, pineapple, peaches etc. They say they have enough rice, pasta etc.

That's absolute nonsense, you can only use food banks with referrals. They don't just hand free food out to anyone.

Lucky you are here to explain the realities of current poverty in the UK , consequent on 50 years of neo liberalism. IE political choices for the slow ones at the back

It’s about time the shirkers and skivers laid down in ditches and showed gratitude for hot gravel and rickets