Food banks (the hidden tax)

I can remember using toilet paper in my knickers in 1965 so upset. But it happened.
And there were no food banks.

Again, I’m not saying it was right. It was horrible (and embarrassing whilst I was at grammar school with ‘posh’ girls) but I’m still trying to get my head around the absolute need for the proliferation of these foodbanks.

I didn’t go hungry though. Although the school uniform must have cost my poor parents an absolute fortune.

Indeed the Trussel Trust are not the only providers but that still doesn't answer the question of compliance.

Perhaps the best way to find out is to help out and really get a feel for the work and the people shuffling in desperate and embarrassed.

Truly boat I am not heartless I am genuinely trying to ascertain WHY foodbanks are so ubiquitous these days.

Surely this can’t all be laid at the door of heartless Tories and benefit reform - otherwise why did France have them first (2004) and Germany (2005) - the Tories policies don’t stretch that far afield!

Many, and sitting there with toilet paper in their pants because they haven't got sanitary protection and a banging headache because they had crisps for breakfast.

Because the Trussell Trust are not the only foodbank providers Lily65 and they don’t all have the same strict policy of compliance.

Urmstongran

I grew up in dire poverty in the late forties/early fifties. My parents were members of, "The Undeserving Poor". Did that make me a member?

Does having useless parents make any child culpable?

Have a little charity. I'm sure you are not as heartless as your posts sometimes suggest.

If only there had been food banks in those days and my parents had had the gumption to use them.

I still remember going to bed with that dreadful ache in my stomach due to lack of food and being covered by only an old army greatcoat.

I remember turning up at my junior school one Monday morning when I was eleven and being told we were going to have a special test. It was the Maths paper for the 11+. I'd never heard of it; neither, I suspect, had my parents Despite not having eaten since lunch time Saturday I passed it.

How many kids in Britain are facing this sort of situation today when they take GCSEs, for example?

How do you know rules are loosely enforced?

Wee reminder about donations:

Families living in 'temporary' i.e. B&B accommodation have no access to refrigeration OR cooking facilities.

So stuff donated to food banks that needs more than a kettle to prepare it is no use to them.

They are supposed to have access to a microwave but in practice many don't. They are also not allowed kettles and have to try and use them on the quiet.

Just something to remember when donating. Stuff that can be eaten cold (beans, spaghetti hoops) is a great help.

Urmstongran I think the majority of people would prefer not to have to use foodbanks. I don't care who doesn't give or why. Well I do really but I can't base what I do on what others do. I will continue to help if I can. We all should help each other.

Nice idea to put this on ‘chat’ rather than politics boat

You'll never stop them existing now that people know they exist.

They offer a valuable product for free, so the only thing preventing infinite demand are the rules on referrals and maximum usage (which are only loosely enforced) and a sense of common decency which holds people back from claiming food they don't need.

I think there is now no way to completely do away with food banks now the genie is out of the bottle.

I wanted to avoid this thread becoming too political which is why I used this forum rather than News and Politics.

Urmstrongran. I would quite like to get a dig in at any government that presided over what is a tragic situation for the one million plus children in this country living in poverty but I would think supporting an organisation that sets up food banks to try to alleviate the effects of austerity would be a fairly feeble way to go about it.

So the Trussell Trust is Christian. I didn't know that.

It makes for an intriguing though deplorable situation.

We have a government, whose leader is frequently pictured in the press on Mondays entering or leaving church, whose policies are definitely not Christian. Among other things she is happy about austerity and set up the Hostile Environment when she was Home Secretary which led to the illegal deportation of some of the Windrush Generation and now many Europeans and others who have a perfect right to live here.

If Jesus Christ were asked to choose between her and the Trussell trust I wonder which way he would go.

Well I don't really. It's obvious.

p.s. I am not a Christian.

Teetime in the main I shop online with Ocado and donate to food banks via their system, so don't have to worry about what's best to donate. All the items you suggest sound suitable but I understand your dilemma.

With Ocado if you donate say £5, they double this to £10 worth of goods. They provide what's been asked for by their charity partners.

www.ocado.com/webshop/product/Donate-food-with-Ocado-250/271532011

It's a scandal that such things exist in this day and age.

What is the evidence that those just above food bank level give more to Food Banks than better off families?

I always donate food from the supermarket I usually shop at and brands/own brands I usually buy. Going somewhere to buy cheaper, lower quality food, even if I could afford more, always strikes me as insulting to those I am hoping to help, suggesting that they should be expected to eat food I would not eat myself.

Fair comment ladies.
I too think the whole necessity for food banks is awful BTW I was just trying to understand why there are more and more of them, year on year.

There is a school of thought though that foodbanks are also a political statement. I’m sure I read somewhere that the Trussell Trust, whilst a Christian charity is backed by a Labour politician who wants to get a dig in at the Tory government and their benefit reforms (long overdue in many people’s opinions) and there is a lot of politicking going on with it all too.

I must look it up.

It used to be if people had a job that they new how many hours they would work each week and what they would be paid. However these days many low paid employees are on "zero hour" contracts so have no certainty on the number of hours or pay. This gives people no income certainty and is difficult to budget - as most of these jobs are minimum wage then people never earn enough to have savings for the lean months.

Most Foodbanks only provide emergency food. You need to be referred with a voucher from GP, social services, NHS teams, charities etc. Usually you can only get a parcel to last a few days for a limited number of times each year.

Why now? Because austerity pushes people into starvation. I think that more or less sums it up.

- single mums who don’t receive maintenance from their baby daddies and are happy for the State to be ‘dad’.

Uh huh single parents just LURVE when the non resident parent sods off and leaves them footing the bill...its their fav!

Back in the 50s there was RPM (Retail Price Maintenance) which ensured that essentials such as butter, flour, tea and sugar were affordable for all. People (certainly in my area) mainly lived in low rent council houses, and had little debt - perhaps one item on hire purchase. Some of my school friends Mothers were war widows and seemed to manage fine on their WW Pensions and family allowance had just been introduced.

In the aftermath of WW2 there were jobs aplenty and people were used to rationing, 'grow your own' fruit and veg and keeping hens, etc. I think the biggest difference though is that most extended families still lived close together and they and long term neighbours ensured that no one went hungry.

Like others I think we should not be needing food banks in 2019 in the UK. Its a shocking indictment.

Re what to gift - having helped in an early food bank (one was "hosted" at my place of work) we found that people who couldn't afford to buy food, generally couldn't afford to put an oven on (even if they had an oven). So I would substitute the cake mix (and other "treats" that need an oven such as tinned pies,) for something that can easily be heated by some other cheaper method - or if necessary, can be eaten cold. Although this was a while ago now, I think it will sadly be much the same.

There are bound to be lists online. I tend to give more of cheaper brands as sadly there is a huge need. One family I remember was pleased to have a packet of instant custard and some tinned fruit as they only needed boiling water from a kettle and then they could have a pudding. Some people liked rice pudding too if you want to gift sweet things.

I have never forgotten how hard it was for so many to come forward for help.
It makes me feel so very lucky.

I liked your comment muffin
I don’t think times have suddenly got so much harder than say in the 50’s. I don’t remember food banks back then. Does anybody?
So why now and growing exponentially?

I've wondered about nappies, Teetime, but they never feature on the wanted list of our local food bank, though toilet roll always does, alongside microwave rice and tinned meat and fish. I'm never sure whether to buy value goods, so I could afford more, or branded food (so less of it). The website shows photos of both, so I suppose they'll make sure that people get a mixture. They're currently asking in advance for Easter eggs, so I'm going to buy some while they're still on special offer.

Teetime, they sound lovely. Sanitary products, microwave pudding, Smash, toothbrushes.

I always put something in the foodbank when I go to the supermarket and wonder what the best thing to put is. I try to find something that is a nice 'treat' but wonder if I'm getting it right. Items I have put in are good quality high juice, top end cereals, quality drinking chocolate, peanut butter, tea, coffee, cake mixes, biscuits, soup. I'm sure there is something wrong with all of these. Any suggestions for things to put in. I did read someone said put baby foods, nappies etc in - what do you think?

Dear me, how sad that some people cannot understand why people need foodbanks or feel the cities are full of people with dogs on a piece of string. God its heartbreaking really that in this country there are people who are homeless. The word makes me cringe.

There are no quick answers and its complex. There are a few people taking the and being lazy, but it is a few.

I think one major change is a lack of social mobility. If you in an area of deprivation, your physical growth stunted by a poor diet, your emotional growth stunted by fractured families and chaotic " parenting" what chance do you have? You are trapped.

Urmston, they are off making new families with other girls like they are some sort of franchise operation, or back with their mothers who tell everyone how terrible the ex partner is and how she keeps them away from the precious graaaaandchild.

The funny thing is, when you raise a lad to think he can do no wrong, he often carries that attitude with him into later life.

Not every father who doesn't live with his children is a deadbeat dad, far from it. But there are many deadbeat dads in this country.