Foodbank - 3 cars

[TalkToTheHand123]

Am I being unreasonable to think a family with 2 cars and a big fancy house shouldn't be using foodbanks regularly? No disability issues.

1. This poster has already said she's in the US. 2. It's not irrelevant. It's interesting to hear how other countries do things. 3. The OP hasn't posted again but didn't say she was in the UK either.

You're possibly describing the 'squeezed middle' here.
Your working families e.g. teacher and nurse, both need a car to get to work. One or both cars might be on the work car lease scheme so coming in cheaper than from the dealership.
Mortgage rate has shot up when their fixed rate ended, washing machine broke or something. They need the food bank to help one month because their pennies don't quite stretch.
It's well-documented that working professionals are needing to use food banks. In my view they shouldn't need to, but the financial crisis of recent years has seen a lot of families finding it tough.

If, however, you're referring to community pantries where the focus is on reducing food waste, the more the merrier. We should all be looking at these for fresh goods that we will use up quickly. It's similar to the Too Good To Go scheme. Keep food from being thrown out because it's on its date.

I stopped donating to our local foodbank. They advertise themselves as requiring referrals but my friend volunteers with them and said in reality, they won't actually ever turn anyone away. They have a lot of regular users and know it - some are people who fall through cracks in benefit system etc but she said they know a lot are substance users and they are aware of some piss takers who have other money.

Yes. Because where does your judgement stop?
The house is probably mortgaged and the cars on finance. It’s not always as simple as turning these things in. If they’ve both been made redundant then it could be a brief interlude and a difficult stop gap they’re trying to survive. The job market for some sectors is brutal at the moment. I don’t buy into the position that people should immediately sell everything and ‘look poor’ just because they’ve hit a bump in the road.

I think it’s best to mind your own business.

Our local food banks and food clubs all started pre-2008 as a way to cut food waste. So although they now also are there as referral banks as well, they tend to be explicitly open to anyone.

I went to a talk by the local food bank and they said a lot of their users were people like this. His explanation was that people from poor backgrounds were generally pretty good with eeking out what money they had, because they'd grown up having to do it out of necessity.

There is a big problem with people earning a decent wage who've been able to put purchases on credit, bought houses, cars etc but not made any contingency for what would happen if they were made redundant or were unable to work for whatever reason. Lifestyle purchases are not financial assets that will recoup their investment if you suddenly needed money to pay your bills.

They said there are a great number of people who are one pay cheque away from needing a food bank.

Food banks are not like benefits, they are charities that people and businesses donate to so taxpayers money isn't being used so criteria won't be the same, it comes from donations not tax.

I run a food bank. What OP is describing is unusual but does happen. You can’t eat a car or a house, and they aren’t especially liquid assets. Plus if you need a car to get to work, selling it off would be shortsighted.

Yes we serve people in work - lots of carers especially, where their salary doesn’t cover their basic costs.

Yes we serve people with substance abuse problems if those people need food / are at risk of going hungry - it’s not for me to pass judgement on their circumstances.

The vast majority of people though have cut back and back and there isn’t more to cut.

I have been in a situation where I have had a large house, but not a penny to live in it, when my exH left. I didn't need to or use a food bank, but I might have been forced to in different circumstances.

I don't think anyone is going to a food bank unnecessarily I mean it's not exactly luxury hampers they are getting is it ?
I have never had to use one ,Im lucky when I have bern skint I have always had family to help me out but not everyone is in that position and you have to be referred it can't be easy asking for a referral unless I was totally skint and couldn't feed my kids I would try to avoid them.

This.

But whilst they are considering Wether to sell the house and maybe put it up for sale they still need to eat, it's not instant.

FFS really??? You can't comprehend that a family where both people work (hence needing 2 cars) may fall on very hard times and the priority is (and should be) prioritising the mortgage to keep a roof over their heads???
Due to illness, our household income has reduced by approx 25% and whilst we're fortunate not to need to use food banks, unexpected expense that was not an issue a year ago will cause us problems in future. A car bill, washing machine dying etc.
Maybe dont judge. Choose empathy and don't believe the shit you read in some areas of the press.

Most people use foodbank for a one off crisis leaving them temporarily short of funds. You can't just sell a car or a house which will leave them in an even more precarious position regarding work and housing. I volunteer in a foodbank where people need referring from elsewhere so we don't know the full story unless they tell us. If it starts becoming regular we can refer them to Citizens Advice or other agencies to help sort debts etc out. Most of our regulars have obvious problems like addictions, leaving prison or homelessness.

I doubt if someone who is actually well off in terms of cash rather than apparent assets which themselves need paying for would bother coming in for tins of beans and spam.

There may be very little equity in the house and if they sold they might be paying rent that is higher than their existing mortgage payments. Besides there are quite a lot of costs in moving house like legal costs, removal expenses, having to come up with bonds etc.

They may have pets which they got in better times and Mumsnet would howl if they put the pets in a shelter becsuse they couldn't find a rental with a dog.

The cars may be leased and it's more money to get out of the lease only to be left carless and unable to get to work.

Or their husbands may have just told them them they don't love them any more and are leaving to spend time with the person they passed off as a platonic friend, colleague etc. Things are very dire for SAHM in that situation.

We used to have two cars and live in a very 'nice' house in a fairly affluent area. The truth is each car cost us 500 each several years ago, we pay interest only on a mortgage as we can't afford to pay more and our entire household income is under 40k. We've luckily never quite needed a foodbank but in my job I refer people to them and I can assure you I wouldn't be referring someone who I didn't think actully needed the help.
I also don't judge like the people on here who have no fucking clue about what actually happens behind closed doors

I’ve never thought to ask how many cars someone who I’ve given a food voucher to has. Oops! Usually I ask if they can feed themselves or their family. Thanks for the tip op!

Well said Walthelakes! I agree 100% with your motives and actually, there’s nothing wrong with second hand, it prevents so much clothing going to rag processing or landfill plus children grow so fast they’ve often had hardly any wear out of garments before they no longer fit them. Well done you! 💐👏

Yet another goady thread posted at midnight & non returning OP.

I used to be flogging away as a volunteer at such a setting. Damn hard graft.
People in fancy cars going with armfuls of stuff, me wondering if I could afford to visit the dentists that month.

I dunno? Something wrong.

It’s all down to disposable income, if they are working, paying tax, rent, council tax, energy, car payments, insurance, road tax, fuel etc etc (tax, tax,tax) …they probably have no money left to afford food so need the good bank as they get no other help!! The cost of these day to day expenses have massively escalated (my car insurance went from £300-£700-£1000 in 2 years, I had full NCD and nothing changed other than market conditions 🤷🏼‍♀️) and if they need cars for work then they probably got stuffed. Mortgages up, energy up…everything up but generally wages haven’t increased so you get squeezed.

Maybe? I'm all about redistribution and a helping hand but something has gone wrong.

Why on earth would somone go to a food bank unless it's absolutely necessary, fancy car or no fancy car it's hardly luxury food is it ?

If it’s free people will use it. Some will be in genuine need, some won’t. Human nature isn’t the same in everyone, some are givers, some takers. I’m long time retired, seen and experienced real poverty in my younger years, worked frontline in local authorities and met people from all walks of life.

The best thing about some foodbanks is the help available to sort out finances, as major causes of poverty are debt, high interest borrowing and lack of budgeting skills. Income isn’t the only indicator. Foodbanks ideally should be a sort term solution, if people are between jobs, waiting for benefits etc.

Stop being so judgemental, you have no idea on their personal circumstances.

earlier this year my husband had a life changing accident, right after Christmas. He couldn’t work and I was considering using a food bank to get us through a very tough time.