What do you think should be done about food poverty?

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.

Perhaps the supermarkets etc are scared of being sued if someone becomes ill after eating out of date food.

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!

They can't give away out of date food because of h&s issues and that is another subject altogether.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.

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much in the first place, and in the process make such huge profits, maybe there wouldn't be a need for them to donate 'out of date' goods

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

I don't think it is out of date, just short dated so they would need to sell it soon - those receiving it will eat it before it is out of date.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.

well they could , TO ME !!

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

But every little helps.

I do believe that the big supermarket chains are now donating out of date food to these centres !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 !

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.

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.

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.

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 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.

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.