Don’t donate Frey bentos pies to food banks

[isitworthit124]

They need a special can opener to get into them

Yes , ours too. I couldn’t believe how expensive they were though, sainsburys had them on special offer a while ago so I donated a few.

Tin openers cost a pound. There's no excuse for anyone not to own one.

My brother still loves them! Always several in his cupboard!

I'm the same - all of those layers of soggy sludge were just heaven to my tastebuds.

I have been tempted by them recently, but I am on a low fat diet and suspect that those delicious layers are 98% lard.

I use the BanktheFood app to see what my local bank is asking for, they are definitely asking for them

I used to sit next to a girl at school called Fay Brentos

Do you/your kids have access to proper cooking facilities etc? Because not all food bank clients do. I possibly wouldn’t donate Fray Bentos because they require use of an oven which not everyone has/can afford. I would donate things that can be made using one ring or a microwave regardless of them being on my usual shopping list as I’m aware of how fortunate I am.

I opened them, for DH, with a standard tin opener.

People in temporary housing will usually be provided with a kettle and microwave in the kitchen which is shared, They are unlikely to be provided with personal crockery and cutlery.

Yes, a tinopener is cheap. Most people will be able to get one but you’d be surprised how many are without. It is a standard item for many food banks to ask for.

Some charities do home packs which include a couple of towels, some sheets, a couple of plates and cutlery - basic things. People using foodbanks include refugees and those who for a number of reasons have had to move speedily and taking little with them.

Of course things which need tinooeners are useful to food banks. It’s just worth being aware that some food items won’t be accessible to all. It’s why some things like pot noodles or microwave rice pouches can be useful - all you need is a spoon or fork.

Food poverty means many people can’t afford to heat their oven. They will cook purely on rings and use as little fuel as possible as they will need to feed the meter more. Lots of people do t ever or rarely have a hot meal but live on sandwiches etc. it’s why there’s such a campaign for school dinners as for lots of kids it’s the only hot meal they get. And don’t forget the people who’ve grown up never learning basics such as cooking anything beyind frozen food or even that, Again, far more people live in ways many can’t really imagine. ‘Only £1 for a can opener’ is a £ that many do t have.

It's a lovely bit of comfort food and if I knew there was a drama about bloody can openers I would have donated them

What's the long-term solution to this, though?

It's one thing if people are struggling to make ends meet, for whatever reason, so they need to be given a few meals' worth of food to prepare/eat at home, as they can't afford to buy it... but if somebody has no home, no bed, no money, no means of eating anything unless somebody gives them a packet that they can open and eat the contents cold and ready - how does society need to step in to help them when they're pretty much incapable of independent living? Just a bag or two of food from a foodbank certainly isn't going to cut it.

I can see why some homeless people deliberately commit petty crimes, so that they will be sent to prison and get free accommodation, food and a warm bed.

Any Early Doors fans? Frey Bentos pies always remind me of Duffy.

Note its cup a soup. It’s an item that only needs a kettle. No can opener or microwave container or saucepan needed.
Of course there is a range of people and range of facilities available to them.

People like to buy food etc and everything is welcome. The most useful gift though is money so the foodbank can buy exactly what is knows is most useful. Any gift will be welcome (within reason) but the £4 people might soend on the teabags they’d use at home (because they don’t want to give stuff they wouldn’t use themselves) could probably buy 6-8 packs of tea bags. Lovely for a family to get the nicer version though.

Food banks need the givers to feel invovled and people often like to choose items rather than give money. They can easily add 1 or 2 items to their weekly shop if in a supermarket and retain flexibility about not giving each week. There’s a place for all these different types of giving.

I just read "It's a lovely bit of comfort food" upthread and was fully expecting to see 'squirrel' rather than 'comfort food'

@WombatChocolate You are right about refugees. We have Ukranians living with us. They turned up in Poland with the clothes they were standing up in, their passports and other papers which thankfully they managed to grab and about half the contents of their medicine cupboard - their logic being they'd be passing through a war zone and pain killers and wound dressings might be useful either for them or others. By the time they got out of the refugee camp in Poland they'd accumulated some more clothes and toiletries but not a lot of stuff

For some bizarre reason they forgot their tin opener

This!!!

Nooooooo

🤣🤣
That's ace if true

If you were poor to start with then I can't imagine not owning a tin opener as the cheapest tins don't have ring pulls.

Maybe donate tin openers too?

How does that help with access to a oven and the money to run it?

Any gift will be welcome (within reason) but the £4 people might soend on the teabags they’d use at home (because they don’t want to give stuff they wouldn’t use themselves) could probably buy 6-8 packs of tea bags. Lovely for a family to get the nicer version though.

I always donate the supermarket gold coffee I use myself. I figure that's more likely what the person would be used to and different coffee to what you are used to doesn't always taste better. I think nescafe is horrible!

It doesn't, obviously. But the main issue on this thread has been tin openers, and plenty of people have testified that they are welcome and sought after items at their local food bank. So shove your sarcasm.

Maybe we need to go back to community/communal ovens as a stop gap.

Campaign to make energy companies fund them.

What I mean is a version of second-hand healthiness. The subtext being that people who go to food banks should only be given healthy fuel to live, the bare, boring essentials. If your shopping trolley is full of biscuits and chocolate, give a few of them to the food bank as well. Not just worthy food.

They sell them on ocado so must be posh

apart from low beef content the ingredients aren't that awful! No worse than other similar. Yes I have added one to my trolley