Food banks

M0nica

swampy I had forgot, the poor should always be grateful, for every crumb that falls from the rich man's table. Given nothing but baked beans one week (would you want to live on baked beans for a week?) how dare anyone complain.

It seems to me that anyone with a plethora of beans would be being sensible by trying to trade some of them for spaghetti so that their diet is more varied.

But, of course, I forget, this lady is poor, she should be effusively grateful for everything she gets, whether she wants it or not.

I wonder if notions about 'the poor' are media-led, or come from simply not understanding what it's like to be poverty stricken - or indeed from thinking (as some do) that nobody is that poor in this country anymore?

I've heard people say things like, "you don't know what real poverty is... and then go on to describe the squalor of some people's lives in countries like India, or on the African continent. Obviously, if you compare someone living life as a beggar on the streets of Bihar or Uttar Pradesh to a family struggling to make ends meet in the UK, the difference is stark. But how does that help? And, anyway, we also have individuals living on the streets. London is full of people sleeping in doorways.

Anyway, poverty is relative to the country you live in.

There's also a difference between the short-lived periods of poverty, and the long-term soul-destroying poverty that grinds you down. With the best will, some people just can't hack life and end up in a downward spiral. I read, some time ago, Jack Monroe's description about her experience. Jack is an intelligent but troubled individual. Some people make bad choices and I think she made a few, but, oh boy, did she ever pay for them! It is well worth the effort to read what she's written. I know about her because I use some of her recipes when I have tinned food sitting in the back of the cupboard - tins of food that on their own are unappealing, but which she can, for pennies, turn into a dish worth eating. And she knows about nutrition and food values, not to mention having priced every ingredient to within an inch of its life...

Her triumphs, and her setbacks, are an eye-opener to anyone who wants to understand poverty in the UK.

Forsythia

Having been poor and my parents never had the opportunity of using a food bank, I have every sympathy for those who desperately need that lifeline. I know what it’s like to go hungry as a child, have free school dinners, the works. So I don’t stigmatise those who use them. I think the OP might have expressed her concerns better. I myself wonder when I see segments on TV with women with tattoos, fake nails, the eyebrows, fake eyelashes etc saying they can’t afford to eat, heat their house, feed their kids etc. if that makes me an evil bad person then so be it. I’ve been there, I’ve been hungry, been poor but my mum and dad didn’t have money to waste on unnecessary items. Just my opinion,

I'm with you on this Forsythia, I remember many families who were on free dinners, their fathers sneaking illegally to take coal from the pit tips and balancing sacks on old bicycles to get it home. None of their mothers ever looked or aspired to look like models. Non looked overfed especially the mums. I knew families where the man got the meat and the mother and children the gravy and never want to see it again.
Maybe the OP did not express herself very well, as I said in my earlier post if we owned up a lot of us have wondered at first from their appearance or home why people need to use food banks.

Monica It seems to me that anyone with a plethora of beans would be being sensible by trying to trade some of them for spaghetti so that their diet is more varied.

But, of course, I forget, this lady is poor, she should be effusively grateful for everything she gets, whether she wants it or not.

👍 Exactly Monica ...equal sarcasm alert BTW! 😏

M0nica

swampy I had forgot, the poor should always be grateful, for every crumb that falls from the rich man's table. Given nothing but baked beans one week (would you want to live on baked beans for a week?) how dare anyone complain.

It seems to me that anyone with a plethora of beans would be being sensible by trying to trade some of them for spaghetti so that their diet is more varied.

But, of course, I forget, this lady is poor, she should be effusively grateful for everything she gets, whether she wants it or not.

Well said MOnica.

Sago

We support a local food bank, it does not work on a referral basis.
I’m sure there are people that abuse it but if our contribution means that just one child goes to bed with a full tummy then I don’t care.

Yes. Well said, Sago.

Very well put MOnica, I was thinking the same.

swampy I had forgot, the poor should always be grateful, for every crumb that falls from the rich man's table. Given nothing but baked beans one week (would you want to live on baked beans for a week?) how dare anyone complain.

It seems to me that anyone with a plethora of beans would be being sensible by trying to trade some of them for spaghetti so that their diet is more varied.

But, of course, I forget, this lady is poor, she should be effusively grateful for everything she gets, whether she wants it or not.

MaizieD

Doodledog

Grantanow

A stupid post. Go back to school.

What? Whose post is 'stupid'? And why?

How rude!

I think she's critiquing the OP

Ah, that makes sense. It looked as though it was directed at someone immediately at Rosie or HettyBetty.

Thinking of needing referrals to Food Banks. In my town we have Food Banks which do need a referral from professionals but we also have something called a Food Hub.

This is different, where volunteers collect excess/sell by food from supermarkets. After delivering to Food Banks and other charity organisations, what remains is sold for a donation, at regular weekly venues, available to anyone, and saves waste.
Some can feel very humiliated going to a Food Bank, but this offers cheap food without stigma to all comers. There is always a queue when it opens.

Doodledog

Grantanow

A stupid post. Go back to school.

What? Whose post is 'stupid'? And why?

How rude!

I think she's critiquing the OP

Armynanny

Wondering this because in two of our local towns there seems to be plenty of people eating out with several children, all with the latest phones, others getting deliveries from Deliveroo etc.,

One has to ask - do you know for a fact that these "people eating out with several children" are using food banks? And are they the same people who are getting Deliveroo deliveries?

I ask because if I go into my local McDonald's, I haven't a clue who my fellow diners are, where they live, or how they live. It never surprises me either that there are quite a few children eating with their parents because they (the children) like fast-food and the "happy meal" environment.

??

Grantanow

A stupid post. Go back to school.

What? Whose post is 'stupid'? And why?

How rude!

A stupid post. Go back to school.

That's so good to know HettyBetty I love it when people start donating more luxury items, even though the basics are still needed. Christmas can be tough on kids whose families need the help of the food bank, I love the idea of giving 'stocking' items. I will suggest we put out similar appeals next year.

Rosie51 our local food bank helpfully posts a list of what they need most each week on Facebook. For a couple of weeks they have been asking for Christmas treats and things suitable to go into stockings (as well as other more ordinary food). The response has been huge, they have enough to give several items to each family.

I am sorry, I can see no reason why we should be kind to people like the OP who posted what I consider to have been a deliberately provocative piece.

Yes, there are a few people who are as ignorant as she professes to be about those using Food Banks., but she writes too well and too fluently to think that a post like hers based on supposition and fantasy would get other than the dusty put downs she has received.

While I oppose all personal abuse, I do think that if someone publishes views like hers, based entirely on suppositions with no evidence to support them, then we are entitled to criticise her post from response 1

Re the pony at the livery stable - it is possible that the stable is using the pony themselves to offset the livery fees. It's what always used to happen if you couldn't afford the full livery fees. As far as swapping the beans is concerned; surely it is better to swap something a child doesn't like instead of wasting it.

At Harvest Festival my mother used to be given a basket of groceries by local school children. Anything she didn't like she passed on to me. She wasn't being ungrateful, she just wasn't wasting things she didn't like.

Having been poor and my parents never had the opportunity of using a food bank, I have every sympathy for those who desperately need that lifeline. I know what it’s like to go hungry as a child, have free school dinners, the works. So I don’t stigmatise those who use them. I think the OP might have expressed her concerns better. I myself wonder when I see segments on TV with women with tattoos, fake nails, the eyebrows, fake eyelashes etc saying they can’t afford to eat, heat their house, feed their kids etc. if that makes me an evil bad person then so be it. I’ve been there, I’ve been hungry, been poor but my mum and dad didn’t have money to waste on unnecessary items. Just my opinion,

M0nica

The horse was probably owned from the time when the family were much better off. Being rich, or poor is not necessarily a life time situation.

By the way Ex-Dancer, did you confirm that this lady was paying her own livery fees? Because, it is possible that they were being paid by someone else, probably a family member, until this lady is back on her feet again and a child need not lose a beloved horse.

When we were going through a jobless period, an aunt offered to pay the children's school fees, until we were on our feet again. Fortunately DH was soon back in work, so it wasn't necessary, but we in our turn have offered to pay for all DGC's extra-curricular activities if DS and family have any problems.

You should never leap to judgements until you have carefully checked all the facts.

Well said MOnica.

At the moment people who use food banks are not asked to sell off all their worldly goods, prior to using them. Though some do sell various items to make ends meet.

It's not impossible that the horse the child owns is owned on a shared basis - a friend of mine has that arrangement, thus a shared cost.

Also, selling a horse is not a five-minute job if you need something to eat. Who knows, maybe the family intend to sell it...

We know that 'welfare' is abused by some, it's not a new thing. But to make judgements about people using food banks - to suggest that because you have anecdotal evidence of 'someone you know' who might be doing so - that it is rife among the users just adds to the stigmatisation that poorer people already face.

You do not need to be homeless, jobless or destitute to use a food bank. Some families tick by OK and manage... until an unplanned-for bill arrives, on which they spend the money ear-marked for that week's / month's food shop. They are then eligible - but for them, it might only be a one-off.

I thought the original post was provocative. The usual stereotyping of people because they ate fast food, had nail and hair extensions and the latest iPhone - how many times has this been said? And how on earth does the poster even know that these families with young children in McDonalds are using food banks? You'd have to follow them around to find out, as you would also if they had Deliveroo.

I wonder if anyone thinks we should close down food banks then because a minority of people may abuse them?

Personally I think the acceptance of food banks is a disgraceful indictment of a relatively well off country such as ours, and helps us to salve our collective consciousness about the terrible inequality in society without actively trying to change anything.

Old African proverb. As the waterhole gets smaller the animals get meaner. Scapegoating the poor is the same as scapegoating any other group. You would think we have travelled past the stage of being animals at the waterhole.

Our country set up an insurance system. Would the OP criticise those who used properly claimed private insurance to do something to upgrade Jwhat they had before? Actually, she probably would. Judgemental people don't care who they attack or whether what they say is substantiated.

Those who accept others' help or claim on their National Insurance are doing nothing wrong. Those who don't have to do this seem to want to punish those currently in difficult circumstances, making their lives as bad as possible. The help is there for us all, should we ever need it. Of course, the well of National Insurance has been/is being run dry. Not because there isn't enough money, but because the government, and some on here, believe they will always be entitled to more than others.

It's maladministration that has caused the problems, not the poor. There is plenty to go around. But just as the German government could not own its economic problems in the 1930s, it appears those in power currently and those that support their scapegoating have learned nothing from those desperate times.

The OP was not wanting a conversation. She wanted others to join her in her scapegoating.

CatsCatsCats

Ziplok

Strange the OP has never been back …

I would have been surprised if she had been back given the insults that have been flung in her direction.

Why couldn't people have enlightened the OP to how food banks work, without all the nasty comments?

The OP might have been remembering when people could and did exploit 'the system'.

I agree with you Cats cats cats,the OP asked a question and got a load of insults and name-calling. You all followed each other.
She is allowed her own thoughts and asked if anyone agreed she did not ask for the abuse she got.
If we all think really hard wasn't there a time until we found out differently we wondered why people with tattoos, hair extensions, and homes that look like something out of Homes and gardens needed help? When TV crews visited to interview answered the door in shorts and t-shirts and then confessed to having to use food banks. Maybe a manicure makes you feel better, though how many of us have them on a regular basis?'
She didn't ask for a barrage of abuse, too much of which is happening on this forum, just your facts of actual circumstances that might have informed her to change her mind would have been enough.

Giving pet food to the food bank is really good, but may I also suggest that if you can afford it a small selection box for children is really appreciated at this time of year. The look on a mother's face when you hand over the bags and she sees a box for each of her children is priceless. Those children are suffering enough, just a small gesture like that can really lift them. (we do Easter eggs too)

Sago

We support a local food bank, it does not work on a referral basis.
I’m sure there are people that abuse it but if our contribution means that just one child goes to bed with a full tummy then I don’t care.

Well said - at the end of the day, no child should be going hungry. No matter the causes, who is to blame etc, it's never the fault of the child.

We support a local food bank, it does not work on a referral basis.
I’m sure there are people that abuse it but if our contribution means that just one child goes to bed with a full tummy then I don’t care.