Food bank

[Bexicles83]

Hello, I have been waiting for a voucher for a food bank referral but there now aren’t any food banks open today near me! What do you do - it’s so amazing that there is a system in place to help but only if it’s a weekday. I’m not sure what to do / doesn’t anyone have any advice ? Thank you

Most of those are credit scores, and based on income (used to run these for a big bank) and even then the money isn’t instant, it’s a good few weeks.

@Bexicles83 where are you based? If you’re local I’ll bring you food

Try posting on your local community page asking where the local food banks are. You might be lucky and someone will offer something or know somewhere local.

That gas/electric is astronomical, our gas bill without the log burner being lit is only £150 for the month at most as we simply don't put it on! Going forward I think you need to cut back to say a small lamp in your main rooms on an evening and 1/2hour of heating at most a day. Yes it's been a chilly winter but we have also done it for ethical reasons (Russia) and the thought of not putting money into their finances has actually driven us to wrap up in a blanket or go get fire wood when we really wanted to turn on the heating.

Even our December bill with no solar and the heating on for elderly family in a 5 bedroom house was only £356 and I was horrified at that

Do you have friends with children you could offer to do babysitting for? If I knew you were in this situation I’d happily buy your shopping to exchange for some babysitting later in month?

Alternatively you don’t say if you are urban or rural? Quite often villages have small food banks run by the village volunteers who drive people to appointments.

We are on prepay - we also have a debt from a previous property that we pay back through the key abs card - I have been trying to contact Scottish power for almost 3 months now to get the amount taken reduced - but they take roughly 60% of our top ups for this debt hence why I am always topping up to actually have gas and electric to use

Surely you knew yesterday that you would have nothing today? Yesterday there were places open that you could have accessed.

Does your local council not have a leaflet of where to eat free? Do you have the voucher now to use tomorrow?

Go to church they may well have supplies. Local police station too.

If you genuinely can’t feed your child call the duty social worker line they have a duty to help children.

Someone will likely send you some money over though, even though advised not too.

Oh my goodness this is awful send them emails and call them don't get off the phone till they have picked up and resolved

I meant the energy company, they need to reduce the amount you are paying

Have you contacted ofgem I have heard some real horror stories about fuel companies these last couple of months. Are your meters calibrated to deduct each time you top up? If so top up once or twice where you can rather than four times a week.

Moving forward if you get UC ask for split payments to be paid fortnightly not monthly if you have problems budgeting.

With such a young child in the house it is vital that a situation like this is avoided. Hopefully the OP family will help, even if it just means that they feed the child, until the food voucher materialises.

If you’re near a few shops, sign up for their loyalty program and put in today as your date of birth. I’m sure you get a free donut in Greg’s for example with no spend needed

www.moneysavingexpert.com/deals/birthday-freebies-discounts/

Keep trying the Olio app - it's too early in the day for the food to go on right now. Where I live all the yellow sticker food tends to go on in the afternoon or early evening when the volunteers have drive driven round the supermarkets to get it. Often there's multiple items available from the same person.There's also a "wanted" tab - maybe put a post asking if anyone has anything to spare.

Have a look at the website Warm Welcome (sorry can’t do a clicky link) to see if there is anywhere near you open today. They can provide hot drinks, snacks or small meal for free to sit and eat at the venue. I was volunteering in one but it’s just closed down because only two people were turning up each week; we provided free hot drinks, soup, biscuits or cake, and either sandwiches, baguettes or pasties. Such a shame when there is clearly people in need and it was well advertised.

Also google for any social supermarkets / community larder near you open today.

Facebook - ask if anyone could spare some food items today. Ask a neighbour for a can of baked beans, eggs etc - I’d absolutely help anyone out.

Wow! That's loads! Are you on a meter you top up?

Hopefully the food bank will help tomorrow. In the mean time please ask your neighbours if you can borrow some pasta.

How have you got to the point of "finding a potato"

Do you really have no other foods, no tins anything?

You are 2 adults with a child, are you working? If not, why not? Do you have disabilities? If they are stopping you working, then you can get benefits. If they are not, then why not work?

As standard please don't give anything out that you can't afford or that might end up you needing help yourself.

Will do

Ah sorry didn't see this.

I'd keep trying to contact them.

Have you looked at this?

www.scottishpower.co.uk/support-centre/help-paying-your-bill/hardship-fund

Also Scottish power have a live chat function. I'm not with Scottish power but have always managed to get through to someone at my provider when they kept upping my bills, you might have to stay in a queue for a while, but even my £5 a month sim tariff has unlimited calls on it, so it's just about waiting.

Do you have a food share project anywhere near? Worth having a google.

We have a brilliant one near us that collects all the potential food waste from supermarkets and distributes it on a "pay what you can" basis, max £3 for a bag full of food. Any money gets put towards running the community cafe that they also run.

Which fuel company are you with? AFAIK mine have stopped collecting debts while the fuel crisis is on. It might be worth asking yours if they can do the same. Or at least lower the payments.

The live chat is so useless it’s unreal bits the most frustrating thing ever

Go to a church/other place of worship and explain your predicament. Our local church has a produce table , free of charge. Bread and veg mostly but other stuff too. Otherwise, I am sure they will get you a few items.

Where are you OP?

Scottish power don’t even have a hold function most of the time you call and they say they are too busy and hang up on you

South east