What do you think should be done about food poverty?

This has really made me think. Two of my adult children and one adult DGD has had to ask for help in this way, and I really wouldn't have wanted them to feel they couldn't ask me. If it was me....I can't imagine asking them for help as they have enough roads for what money they now earn. I think I would have to go to my local community and ask for advice.
In our early years together DH and I really did struggle sometimes, to put food on the table for the family. I think I would have to be really, really without the chance of anything coming in, before I would turn to anyone for help.

I think when you're in that situation you just don't think to ask for help - or even if you do, you don't know who or where to go to. The first Christmas after my husband left I really was totally penniless. My family was geographically hundreds of miles away and in those days our only communication was by letter; it never occurred to me to ask anyone for financial help. I was very, very fortunate to belong to a church who deduced my situation and as a group and as individuals they set about helping me, unasked. They gave me food parcels, cash, bought winter shoes and coats for my children, Christmas and birthday gifts for the children (one has a December birthday) and offered lots and lots of emotional support. As soon as I was financially able (1990) I started (with my current husband) a food bank and 'paid it forward' to others in the situation I was once in.
I am very good at managing money and have never been in debt in my life; 'make do and mend' has been my lifetime mantra. So to find myself in that situation had me feeling I didn't know myself and I truly was at my lowest ebb ever. I hate to think of others feeling so trapped and am very glad that food banks have received so much publicity. If I was ever in that situation again I would go to a foodbank without hesitation.

grannyactivist, I know what you mean when you say that you hate to think of others feeling so trapped. I remember so well the feeling of having nothing - and (I'm ashamed to admit), also remember stealing an apple from a market barrow when we lived in London. DH made me go and put it back - he was horrified, thinking I may be thrown into jail or something. I was 20 at the time.
If foodbanks had been there then, I would have asked for help, most definitely.

I think sort out fuel poverty and then there will be more money for food. But the government have just eased back on the obligation on energy companies to do this.
But when I was 20 we were a couple and a baby living on a mature student grant. We had no spare cash at all (for clothes, entertainment, drink, toys, treats etc) and I was learning to cook using things like bacon scraps, pasta etc. I don't think it would have occurred to me to go to a food bank - but then we were not actually hungry, just living very,very frugally. There was also the expectation that we would have a salary coming in at the end of 12 months so I think we were allowed a small overdraft at the end of every term, which would not be the case if you were on benefits.

When we had a young family we often had "too much month at the end of the money". We then had soup and bread weeks. Giant pots of soup and homemade bread. We managed ok with that but I can't imagine having no money for food at all. It must be awful. I think though you can get a bag of vegetables for pound in the co-op which with some lentils and stock cubes makes a very filling healthy meal. One week a month was ok but I would hate to have to live on it all the time! I can't imagine going to a food bank though (my mother's voice would be in my head saying "don't tell anyone your business!!) They provide a wonderful service though.

wisewoman - my children hardly believe this but I remember digging down the back of the sofa cushions to find pennies to go and buy eggs for supper.
Waiting for Dad to come back with monthly wages.
All grew up healthy TG.
Where I live now (SW France) there are food banks which are used very heavily. I've seen people come to take what's on offer, mostly dried out baguettes and overdue veg.

I do believe that the big supermarket chains are now donating out of date food to these centres !
Jolly good idea , hopefully will be of benefit !

That's big of them...they couldn't sell it anyway!

But every little helps.

well they could , TO ME !!

I don't think it is out of date, just short dated so they would need to sell it soon - those receiving it will eat it before it is out of date. Previously they would throw stuff in the bin if there was too much to sell within the date. It is an improvement that something is happening to it.

frankly though , it better donating the stuff to these centres.

If the big supermarkets didn't charge so much in the first place, and in the process make such huge profits, maybe there wouldn't be a need for them to donate 'out of date' goods

They can't give away out of date food because of h&s issues and that is another subject altogether. The "Social shop" I heard discussed on You and Yours was given * surplus* food - over orders, damaged packaging, imperfectly labelled etc goods. Brilliant idea. Greed and profit margins and squeezing the smaller supplier all lie at the door of our supermarkets - they have a lot to answer for . Oh and nonu iI assume you were joking, we are talking about * families in need* here.

When my daughter was a Mc Manager she was appalled at the amount of perfectly good food destroyed and thrown into the skips. Without mentioning the HUGE shop she worked in, there were quite a few homeless people who waited at the back of the store for the "timed out" food to be thrown into it. There are cameras watching the staff so the food cannot be handed out (serious trouble) and HAS to be seen to be binned. My daughter used to be very upset at this. But hey it's company policy!

Perhaps the supermarkets etc are scared of being sued if someone becomes ill after eating out of date food.

Food banks and social supermarkets are one way of tackling the problem and are necessary in the short term - and I would certainly use one if I had to.

In the long term, I feel that wealth should be more evenly distributed - so it is not only the ordinary working person who pays tax while very rich individuals and corporations pay little or nothing.

Tinkering about at the edges with food banks, etc., does not address the systemic problem.

Feel the need to resurrect this - either that or go out and hit someone.
An article in the Guardian today mentions that the Trussell Trust is handing out kettle boxes or even cold boxes to people who cannot afford to put any money in their electricity meters.
I think it's absolutely appalling, particularly as even the Labour Party are now saying they are going to cut benefits more than the government.
This is not my Labour Party.
This is the Morecambe Bay and Blackpool areas. One family had their electricity cut off because they owed less than £100, so the volunteers arranged with the power company to reconnect the house and had the outstanding sum repaid.
This government is immoral.

I remember a few years ago a girl got taken to court (and I think sent to prison) because she was taking food out of the skips behind a supermarket. It is dreadful the amount of food wasted in this country - we are blamed for the amount we throw out, but I think the supermarkets are mainly to blame. We have farmers in the family, and it is equally annoying to think how hard they work only for perfectly good food to be discarded in this way. Food banks are filling a need, but surely there is a better way? When we were extremely hard up over the years, I think food was our priority over heating, always made sure our DC got a hot meal of some sort. However, I do appreciate how dire some people's situations are.

durham this is something close to my heart, not so that many years ago I was in the position that had there been food banks around then I would have needed their help, but would I have had the courage to ask for their help...I dont know.

But this is 2014 not 1914 what is our Government doing letting things get this state.

On Friday I was dropping some bags off at the food bank in Newcastle and I was later than I expected and the queue had already started to form and my heart went out to those proud people who were stood cap in hand waiting for their food, I have thought of nothing else since.

But I still say this is a disgraceful position for people to be in and its about time something was done to put things right.

I hardly dare type this........

I've also seen the queue at our local food bank when I've dropped off food items and clothing as they also run a small shop for second hand clothes. Mostly young Mums in the queue. Most park their cars outside(expensive to run, we have an excellent bus service) All are using smart phones (expensive) Many of them have numerous tattoos (expensive) Most are smoking (expensive)

I can remember on the day before DH's payday, pushing my three little ones in one big pram, up and down the High Street trying to find a second hand shop that would pay 3d each for my old paperback books so that I could buy some food. This type of situation happened regularly. It's harrowing, and the memories never leave you. I know there are many, many genuine cases of such hardship today and I shudder for those people and despair at successive governments' failure to address this situation.

BUT.....there are also lots of people who do have the money to buy food for themselves and their children and choose to spend it on other things. It's a free country. There are no laws to say you should spend your money responsibly.

So just pointing this out but not drawing any conclusions as to why it happens.

Just shows, Glass, the difference betwen your message and Notso's.
Yes, Notso, people who go to foodbanks might have cars, smartphones and tattoos, but they probably had those before they became destitute.
You cannot just turn up at a foodbank and be given handouts. A GP or the dole office have to say that you need food because you have none.

When my kids were little, we had nothing but soup for months in order to pay the bills, and not the nice homemade from fresh vegetables soup I make now, but Bachelors packet soup - just add hot water.
I used to work in a jobcentre before my eldest was born, and we did help people to find work. Job centres are not job centres now, because there are no jobs. The people who work there are rewarded for stopping people's welfare payments. That's usually when people turn up at foodbanks, because there is nothing to feed the kids or heat the house now, not next week or next month, but now. They are desperate.

Glass says about going to Newcastle foodbank. I would expect there to be foodbanks in Newcastle, but not in Hexham or Morpeth or York or Alnwick. Whatever the government say this is a direct result of their welfare cuts.
Check the False Economy website.
falseeconomy.org.uk

uk.search.yahoo.com/r/_ylt=A7x9QaaBAt9S7xQAvBhLBQx.;_ylu=X3oDMTE1aGM2NWowBHNlYwNzcgRwb3MDNgRjb2xvA2lyZAR2dGlkA01TWVVLMDNfNzY-/SIG=12c5h9kv2/EXP=1390375681/**http%3a//www.eurolabour.org.uk/food-banks-european-funding

Did a search for foodbanks in Europe and discovered this.
Britain could have had £22m towards foodbanks but the government rejected the money last month, the week before Christmas.

Oh please believe me jen, I am completely aware and full of sorrow for the many young and not so young people suffering such awful hardship. I regularly donate food and clothing and toys to foodbanks. 'Glass's description of people waiting 'cap in hand' was heart-breaking. I've been there.

I know you can't just turn up and get hand-outs, you have to get a 'docket' signed by a GP, Health Visitor etc etc. who confirms that you don't have any food.....but that doesn't negate what I have observed. I don't think that all the expensive items I mention can have been obtained before these people fell on hard times. I've stood in a queue waiting for the food bank to open and heard people talking about their new smart phones. Recent tattoos are usually quite obviously new. Smoking? I've heard people talking about needing to rush off and get their gel finger-nails done before the children come out of school.

It's a different generation with different expectations. Some are bound to make different choices. That's all I'm saying....just an observation of what I've seen.

Appalling decision from your link jen, not to support the extra funding.