What to do with all the unwanted food gifts?

[Titsywoo]

We have been given tons of gifts from work customers and friends/family that we just won't eat or drink. Things like liquer filled chocolates, tin of Roses, biscuits etc. What does everyone do with bit like this? Food bank?

No need for such nastiness. It was a genuine question, some food bank premises have very little storage space. People like us at Trussell Trust have warehouses, but the smaller charities do not.

Maybe eat some humble pie and apologise to all the posters who are asking questions to get a better understanding of Food Banks.

This really should not need saying but please don’t donate open bottled of anything. We cannot use them plus trying something, then not liking it passing it on is not in the spirit. This applies to shampoos and the like as well as food.

Maybe the staff could have them if they can't give them away

You’re getting very snippy about this when you basically told the OP she shouldn’t be clogging up the food banks with her old chocolates. How much do you think she’s got? She’s not the seconds department at the Cadbury factory!

There's is a story told here by a v prominent activist in the homeless sector re his disgust at at a woman coming for food parcels while driving a v nice car, BMW I think. Eventually he spoke to her to find she had been in an abusive marriage and had to leave her home, was now living in her car while trying to save a deposit for rent. Appearances can be v deceptive

“Psychological impact”? Jesus.

You do realise how many food bank users have kids, right? Maybe they’d like to be able to give their kids a treat, rather than worrying that a pound spent on chocolate means missing out on four tins of own brand beans or tomatoes. I somehow doubt those children will be mortally offended that the chocolate they receive is seasonally inappropriate.

The dates on quite a lot of this treat food are pretty long.

So I expect the excess I have (which might not prove to be excessive if the DC take it back to university) will go to the food bank at some point.

Because people might like chocs for their birthday, or just because

Here we go again another poster losing the whole point of the threads @JoannaGroats . I hope fuzzychic heads to the shops today for a very large tin helmet before any more bullies jump her. They have explained several times since they started their first post that they are trying to understand. If every bully on this thread donates just one tin to the food bank it will be worth while.

Most foodbank staff here are affluent volunteers
our foodbank always says no advent calendars buy something else more practical and no dumped Christmas food- no-one wants pickled walnuts
no room to store it all

There’s no harm in having more. Chocolate is a nice treat any time of year.

Times hundreds of people

find a homeless project- they will take chocolate usually or a community pantry

Even affluent vols sometimes like to eat chocolate, no storing req

Yes psychological impact. It can't be easy not being able to afford food and being given what is clearly christmas left overs might have an impact on their mental health. That's why I raised it. Another poster helpfully pointed out the users they have encountered don't mind.

@OnePeppyDenimHelper and @JollyHollyMe - again, here and at every other food project I know it is not the norm for volunteers to help themselves to stock and it isn’t something we want normalised, for the obvious reason. An unusual item (which chocolate isn’t!) would be in a “help yourself” section for a few weeks and then we’d have a conversation about whether it would be better at x organisation that we work with which serves a different demographic, and if no luck it’d either stay with us some more or eventually a volunteer would take it, and pay the supermarket price at least.

That all sounds very laborious etc but it isn’t; it’s one of dozens of tiny conversations we have each week about whether we have any tinned fruit for X who seems to live on fresh air or any tinned fish with pull tabs for the homeless chaps.

It isn’t a common occurrence for volunteers to take ambient items away with them for their own use. The last thing I took home was a packet of dishwasher salt, about 2 years ago.

Not sure why I was tagged?

I was saying that I didn't think volunteers would want someone second hand Christmas chocolate as they could afford their own.

I volunteer at 2 different ones.

One is a food project and they basically take everything- they offer cooked breakfast daily and hot meals in the evening most days. They also have a community supermarket (free) twice a week (but they can always get a bag made up for anyone that asks at any time) and they tend to put chocolates out during those events. But they have loads of space and massive freezers. They also take alcohol and either raffle it off or offer it out to clients. I bought a few bottles of Baileys in for coffee which is always morning success at Christmas. They always need pet food which other projects reject. They do a home run meal service to a small group of people. They are closely linked with a homeless hostel as well. The best donation is gift aided cash as they can then buy everything wholesale to fit around the regular donations that they get from businesses.

The other is a homeless project. They would take chocolates and they get loads of cakes from shops/hotels. They don't have a lot of space but a couple of night projects pick up from there as well to take out. They wouldn't take pickled walnuts or chutney (well maybe 1 jar to go in sandwiches that day)

Homeless charity

I tagged you in response to the suggestion that because food bank volunteers are “affluent” they wouldn’t want the donated chocolates themselves.

One of the most pernicious bits of misinformation about food banks is the old “Oh but the staff help themselves to the good stuff” / “my hairdresser’s auntie’s daughter drives a BMW but gets a food parcel every week because her mam volunteers” etc. We don’t help ourselves, as you know, not because we can afford our own Cadbury’s but would otherwise, but because when people donate food to food banks they want to be secure in the knowledge that jt is going to people who need it.

At the risk of incurring wrath by asking...would homeless charities want alcohol? I suppose it depends on their user base but I don't think any charities would want anything to do with alcohol really. And yes...I know homeless people can have alcohol.

But isn’t all food bank food, to an extent, food someone didn’t want to keep for themselves? Does it make a difference to the “psychological impact” if the Christmas chocolates in February are from a supermarket donating rather than destroying their old stock, rather than someone like the OP donating gifts she cannot use?

And seeing as you ignored it the first time, I’ll ask again - what about all the children of food bank users? Do you think they care that their chocolate is Christmas chocolate? I would doubt it - and I think most parents would be happy their child had a treat rather than knowing mummy and daddy can’t afford to buy it for them.

Alcohol based items are usually distributed to staff as a thank you or raffled off.

Food Bank
Women's refuge
Nursing homes

I don't know do I. They might think why have I got a santa in February. I think it's a valid question to ask if it matters or not.

Amazing how many of your questions sound like needless digs…

Food bank will divide them into bags as treats for their clients
I put some bits into the trolley at my supermarket( pre diabetic so can't eat many!) as I don't drive