What do you think should be done about food poverty?

Thinking about Germany where I live and where there are also foodbanks now, I remember what it was like in the 60s. The Germans believed in potatoes. nothing new there. The potatoes grown here are for storing and all German houses have cellars, and flats have a little part of the cellar they can use. The potatoes go in the cellar and when that box is full then no one will go hungry. That is how they think.
I can imagine that Scandanavians think on similar lines. The winter is something you plan for either with bottled fruit, or potatoes. Scandanavian children go berry picking when in school, and this provides Vit C in the winter.
I can remember in Munich the potato man coming round in autumn ringing a bell and calling out 'Kartoffeln!' and then you went out and bought a sackful.
Like many in GN we a were students with a baby and I lived on herrings, and porridge in the UK. Today I would go to a foodbank there is so much thrown away these days.

My son had been out of work for many months and is not computer-literate, so he had to come to me (a £6 return bus fare) in order to search for work with me helping him on my computer. It is a case of logging on through a Government Jobsearch site, so the Job Centre do see if you've been looking or not. I couldn't take my computer to him, obviously, and there was no point in his going to his library to use the computer facilities because he had no idea how to use them. Many times, I had to look on the Jobsearch website for him, as he couldn't afford the bus fares to come to me. Thankfully, he's now employed again, though it wasn't through finding anything on that website.
My granddaughter is a single mum and works 28 hours a week in a residential care home. She struggles to pay her bills, and there are many times when she and I go and just do a 'bit of shopping' together - which means she can get a good load of stuff in and I have no problem with paying for this for her, because she really is doing her very, very best and she's a good mum.
If it wasn't for these wee shopping trips now and again, she may have had the need to visit a foodbank.
It's not just people who aren't employed who are in near-poverty, ninny.

ninny, people on benefits DO have to show they're looking for work. They DON'T get all their rent and council tax paid for them, just a portion. Some of them live in their own, rather than social/council properties. They still have to pay for utilities, home repairs, clothing etc. and if you're only on benefits for a short time this is doable. However, living on benefits for a long time leads to a cycle of diminishing resources. If you can't afford a holiday then maybe getting a tattoo or a manicure might just be an acceptable, cheaper, alternative?
And why wouldn't you take everything that's on offer if it benefitted your family?

Surely it is not much to ask to show you are actively looking for work (if indeed you are) and trying to get an interview with a company in exchange for benefits.

As for Food Banks, I agree some people will have genuine need for them, but some I feel with take everything that's on offer just because they can. Young mothers will be getting Child Benefit, free school meals, even free breakfasts in some schools for their children. Also their rent and council tax will be paid as well.

Do they want their bums wiping as well!

With new ones the colours are much fresher petallus and the surrounding skin is slightly inflamed. Very new ones are often covered in a type of cling film. (I have a tattoo btw )

About 10 years ago when visiting a friend in Stockholm I bought a winter coat in the sales - I mentioned that I would be giving my current coat to Oxfam when I returned to London.

My friend and the shop assistant had no concept of a charity shop, especially one selling cheap second hand coats!

Durhamjen I like your posts.

Even if their parents are spendthrift enough to waste a tenner on their nails every few weeks.

Computers aren't so much of a luxury these days. They are needed for school homework for one thing. Mobile phones can be cheaper than land lines. Televisions are often the only means of entertainment for poor children (parents cannot afford to take them to the cinema or theatre) and many programs now are quite educational.

As for cars, well even good bus services have their limits.

I don't resent my taxes going to provide a basic decent standard of living for children who live in poor families.

I'm intrigued Notso. How do you tell a new tattoo from an old one?

Food poverty is sometimes a result of the parents not being educated on how to manage food. They don't know how to cook cheap and nourishing meals, how to get the best value when shopping, and how to say "NO' to kids demanding junk food or takeaways. Of course, this isn't always the case - if your income has vanished for any reason, no amount of skill can help you: you need a food bank or very generous friends and family.

During my various hard-up periods I drew so heavily on the training in cooking, shopping and budgeting that my Mum gave me. But many young men and women have not been brought up properly, they have been deprived of such training, and this is definitely not their fault.

Jamie Oliver has tried to fill in this gap - not sure about the extent of his success though.

The huge gap between rich and poor, and the government reluctance to increase taxes to narrow that gap doesn't help, especially when government is run by 'posh boys' who have no idea what a lifetime of struggle is really like.

They've got it right in Scandinavia, but right wing governments the world over, denigrate their high taxation, high welfare societies.

As for me - when I left Britain for Australia just after Thatcher was elected in 1979, I should have gone to a Scandinavian country. It would have fitted my personal political beliefs much better than the mean-spirited government we have here. But that's another story.

In every Scandinavian country, the difference between the rich and poor is closer than in this country. There is not such a disparity in income.
They complain just as much as people in this country about high taxes, in fact their taxes are higher, but they have a better welfare system. They look after each other.
My son's partner is Danish. My other son's wife is Spanish. Having listened to them both, I know which system I prefer.
Subsidiarity is a system where central government only controls those systems which cannot be run locally. This government says that's what it likes. It wants education to be run locally, but it takes financial control away from local authorities, and free schools and academies are paid by central government. Pickles is always going on about localism, then tells the councils they have to collect rubbish weekly after everyone has got used to fortnightly collections. The government does not know what it believes in, except it will not be told anything by Europe.

You go to the jobcentre to sign on, and take proof of the jobs you have applied for. You are given a target every fortnight of so many jobs. If you do not reach your target, your welfare payments can be stopped straight away. No money for heating or food.
The jobs are on the computers, but because there are so many people there signing on, it is virtually impossible to stay and look at them. You have a special sign on password, and the people in the jobcentre can check up to see how many jobs you have applied for.
Two years ago today my husband died of a brain tumour. He stopped eating and drinking and died three days later. But at least he chose to do what he did. His life was not taken from him by a government which left him with no dignity or self-respect.

I don't understand the decision not to support the funding jen. What's subsidiarity? I'll have to look it up. It's getting to the time of night when my brain aches trying to understand these things.

I wonder what they do differently in Scandanavia? I believe they have reasonably priced childcare that is readily available....this must make it easier/financially beneficial for young mothers to return to work...that has to help the overall economy I would imagine.

An young unemployed relative's experience was different to that you describe...he had a basic PAYG mobile phone, but it didn't have internet access and he didn't have a computer. He used the JobCentre for online job searches. Mind, that was 3/4 years ago, things may have changed. So if you don't have a mobile and a computer these days, can't you sign on or receive benefits? That's awful!

I agree with your last comment, Notso. What are they trying to prove?

I have just done a search for foodbanks in Scandinavia, and guess what, there aren't any.
Does this corroborate what Eloethan said earlier, that we need to redistribute the wealth in this country?
My son's partner has been unemployed for six months and had to go and sign on. You are expected to have a mobile and a computer to be unemployed these days. Can't go to the jobcentre or library to fill in forms, because there aren't any libraries open - she knows that because she was a librarian before she trained to be a teacher, and there were no librarian's jobs for her - and the jobcentre is somewhere you go to find out online if there are any jobs before you prove you are looking.
My sons have been trying to persuade me that I should get a smartphone on contract because they can be had for £10 per month, and cost no more than that if you text all the time. I prefer to have a landline and listen to a voice, but it costs me more than their smartphones.

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

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.

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.

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

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.

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 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.

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.