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.

I think we should leave them be. They might be embarrassed enough to be in a position to have to use food banks without us throwing shade at them. None of us know when we might need them. I have a good job, own my own house, but once found myself on the brink of losing everything. I would have really appreciated the use of a food bank at that point.

There's some very strange ideas on here, my understanding is that you have to.have a referral from a professional to use a food bank
Personally I would find it very hard admitting to the kids school etc that I couldn't afford to feed them but if I had to I would which is why I can't see anyone thinking ,I know let's just not bother shopping and get some free food from the food bank.

Some people sell the stuff, we had a clothes rail. A few people completely abused the system.I spent hours and hours going through bags of donations, put things together in an attractive way to try and lift spirits and help people.

A couple of them were like locusts.

You don't have to donate to them if you think it is going to people who you would rather not have it. Judging by the amount of posters on MN that shoehorn in that they donate to the food bank, they must have loads anyway if MN is representative of the country for donations.

Sell to who ?
Again it's not exactly luxury food items is it?

YABU.

you don’t know their circumstances. You don’t know what’s happened to mean they now need the food bank. Maybe they had very good jobs, nice cars etc., and now one of them has an incurable disease and can’t work, putting the family into financial difficulties? Maybe they’ve lost their jobs? You have no idea.

are you in charge of the food bank,
you should be less judgy op

YABU. You literally have zero idea about other peoples’ lives! Huge huge assumptions being made on nothing

Presumably people with big mortgages and commitments to car finance etc can still lose their jobs or have unforseen expenses like interest rate rises, energy bill rises, new boiler etc. The cost of living has risen astronomically in the last few years. You also can't just hand back finance cars or instantly sell your house should your lifestyle become unaffordable without massive impacts on family life so I am sure many people would try to muddle through and hope they can raise their incomes again.

I know someone with a portfolio of properties who regularly uses food banks ... disgraceful IMO

This smacks of the Victorian "deserving and undeserving poor" ideology.

If a food bank can help someone with a house and 2 cars to keep their head above water while they pay off debts, get back into work, or whatever else is holding them back, so that they come out the other side with their home and the means to transport themselves to work/kids to school etc then that's surely only a good thing. Do we really need people to be on the absolute bones of their arse, having sold every item they own, and lost their home before we will help them?

People got extra and sold it on to mates. I'm sorry. I have seen this, it's not great.We also had decent donations of food just about in date. I picked it up in my car ( free) It was rather galling to be told I couldn't have a loaf of bread and watch other people pile it high into their cars.

I suppose with any umbrella system there will be flaws.

I am a food waste hero for olio

It is about preventing food waste. Someone's financial circumstances are irrelevant to me as it isn't a food bank. I don't allocate according to need but try to split what I have fairly between the number of requestors I have and if I collect 50 use by items at 9:45pm which have to be picked up that evening I just want as many requests as possible.

Essentially there are different types of community food

Food banks using donated food usually long life - only for those who really need it

Community larder - short dated food donated by shops which is at its best before - usually available for a small donation but open to the community

Olio - predominantly use by food where the use by is midnight that evening (so has to be given away that night or binned) and some best before usually when there is too much bread or no available charity collector - anyone who request it and can turn up at my door before 11pm is welcome to it as I don't want to bin it. Food is given away for free.

@Sodastreamin Although this country does not offer the same support something similar could be going on here. One person loses job but they are looking for work and need to keep a car as nothing local, other starts studying so they can get a better job and has a student loan. They expect their financial position will improve and are focusing their efforts on finding work. Meanwhile they still have to eat and their only income is not covering the bills.

We donate to food banks, knowing that some people will have made bad choices. Still dont want them to starve.

What is a 'fancy house'?

And again, if someone is flogging tins of beans from the food bank to ‘friends’ they’re not exactly making millions are they?

I’m not a fan of the way food banks have rapidly become an accepted part of the infrastructure of this country. I particularly dislike supermarket food bank boxes where they suggest you make more profits for them, to help people who might have more secure work if there were more small local shops, by donating food you buy from the big multinationals; I give directly to the Trussell Trust instead. I also accept that tbh probably a large proportion of those who use a referral food bank spend money in ways I wouldn’t like. None of this is squeaky clean. BUT when my patients get hoofed out of hospital and sent back to their chaotic HMOs with one leg still barely functioning, I can ring a food bank and know that at least they can get the means to make themselves a cheese sandwich that night, and for a few nights until their benefit goes in. At least there are some kids who will have some kind of meal, which otherwise they might not. And the supermarket does have somewhere to put their out if date fresh veg that otherwise would get dumped. In the absence of a better solution, how about letting other people live their lives?

Unsure as to why most think they are in need . They could just be CFers , plenty of them around .

Agree, it's such a mixed situation. At the place I mentioned, I have seem kids woofing down sandwiches, clearly very hungry.
Not easy to organise these places.

Of course they should not exist. Perhaps the RF would care to donate a castle or a diamond or something?

🥱

There are but I wouldn't like to admit to my kids schools I couldn't afford to feed them to get a referral for a food bank unless I really needed it would you?

Maybe they temporarily have hard times, perhaps they need 2 cars to get to work and keep money coming in. You can't just sell a big house quickly, maybe it they have negative equity so it would bankrupt them anyway....

I would try to be kind. Honestly none of us know when we'll hit hard times and what you see from the outside maybe reflect the reality.

Well, we don’t know their circumstances. But I don’t like the thought of people with enough money taking resources from those who are desperate.

The op hasn't said what kind of place it was. Food bank is used as an umbrella term. If it is an anti food waste initiative where anyone is welcome regardless of need then it doesn't matter if they have money as the objective is to prevent food going to landfill. If it is a proper food bank on a referral scheme that is something else entirely

Agree. Hear hooves think horses not zebras.

As many have already stated there are food banks that a person would be referred to as they meet the criteria fancy house or not. Then there are community shops or pantries that require membership for a fee and receive a certain amount of food.