Food banks, community larders and payment

Yes, a voluntary donation rather than a charge, if it is necessary at all to pay bills eg electricity.

Some people may not even have a couple of pounds left after paying essential bills.

I volunteer at a local Community Larder open for a couple of hours each week but ours was set up by Sofea www.sofea.uk.com/purpose-projects/community-larder/
and has a £3.50 per week charge.
It's very popular, well used and we also push the food waste side of things.
I think we will soon be expanding it so people can bring their surplus allotment produce.

Jaxjacky

My daughter uses a similar scheme to growstuff but it’s £5, this covers food being collected, refrigeration if necessary and a degree of admin. You register online the day before that you’ll be collecting, the food would otherwise be dumped and is principally from Waitrose and M&S.
If your overheads are covered somehow Katek I wouldn’t charge.

Most of the food in my scheme is fresh veg, fruit and bread, so doesn't need refrigeration. There are vacuum packed bags of ham from a local farm shop and a very small amount of ready meals/sandwiches, which fits in to a large insulated picnic box.

The food is usually a day after it's "best before" date and is sometimes very ripe, but usable. I find it will keep in the fridge for a couple of days or, sometimes, in the freezer. Tomatoes, for example, are usually on the soft side, so I freeze them and cook them.

The food comes from all the local supermarkets, the farm shop and a local fruit/veg wholesaler.

I think £5 is too much and would put people off. I'd certainly think twice. To put it into context, somebody who works in the local Tesco superstore told me they throw away £1.5 million worth of food every year.

To put it into context, somebody who works in the local Tesco superstore told me they throw away £1.5 million worth of food every year

Yes. It is quite shocking.

However, the woman from the Community Fridge told ius that most wasted food is from households.

Hmm, tricky one. If you emphasise the 'not being thrown into landfill' reason it is hard to request donations, what about a collection tin for your local foodbank so you then have no issues of accounting as GSM detailed? Voluntary donations of course, and away from where people pick up the food so nobody feels shamed into donating? Mind you, even £1 can help. A great initiative.

Thank you all for your considered and helpful comments - very much appreciated. We have a meeting tomorrow so I'll share your thoughts/ideas

GN at its best!

There are many Community Fridges in the UK and I saw this online:

Volunteers collect surplus food donated by supermarkets, local retailers and other sources, and make it available free of charge to anyone who can use it

So free of charge to anyone.

They usually set up a Facebook page and sometimes there will be a message on FB saying they have an extra large donation of surplus items from a supermarket, please come and collect at a certain time.

The supplier I use runs six collection points a week - each lasting an hour - in different places. There are no restrictions on who can collect food and I know there are people from outside specific towns and villages. The only restriction is that you can only have one bag. It's all very civilised and I've never seen anybody trying to take mountains of food. I think if you tried to introduce restrictions or charges, it would destroy the community "feel", as it would become too formal.

As I wrote, it's free, as is a cup of tea or coffee. It's run by a group, which also runs other community events such as cheap meals (for a small charge) and films. It has its own permanent base and receives a grant from the council. It's taken over some of the work previously carried out by SureStart and other community organisations.

Callistemon21

^To put it into context, somebody who works in the local Tesco superstore told me they throw away £1.5 million worth of food every year^

Yes. It is quite shocking.

However, the woman from the Community Fridge told ius that most wasted food is from households.

The scheme I use doesn't take food from households.

I'm not sure if this is relevant, but when I suggested a 'pay what you can' arrangement, I was thinking of a conversation I had with someone recently. She was talking about a coffee shop arrangement which had become a 'warm space' and offered free coffee and cake one day a week. She made a point of saying that she always offered to pay, and that she didn't need free coffee. I felt that this was thoughtless, as the people she was with may not have had spare money, and IMO there shouldn't be a 2 tier system that could make people feel inferior - either it is free or it isn't. A 'pay what you can' donation to cover room hire etc is different, in that it should be anonymous and not happen with fanfare.

growstuff

Callistemon21

To put it into context, somebody who works in the local Tesco superstore told me they throw away £1.5 million worth of food every year

Yes. It is quite shocking.

However, the woman from the Community Fridge told ius that most wasted food is from households.

The scheme I use doesn't take food from households.

I don't mean it's donated but that it is thrown away, unused, by people who have bought it.

The biggest contributor to food waste in the UK is households, making up 70% of the overall total; overall food waste produced by the UK fell by around 15% between 2007 and 2018.
www.ons.gov.uk/economy/environmentalaccounts/articles/areviewofhouseholdbehaviourinrelationtofoodwasterecyclingenergyuseandairtravel/2021-11-01
Latest release

I'm not disputing that Callistemon. I don't use Olio, but I understand private households give away unwanted food from the household - maybe if they're going on holiday and have fresh produce they won't use or have bought tins on offer and then find out they don't like it.

It doesn't detract from the issue of supermarket and wholesaler waste, so if schemes can prevent it going into landfill, it has to be good.

Doodledog

I'm not sure if this is relevant, but when I suggested a 'pay what you can' arrangement, I was thinking of a conversation I had with someone recently. She was talking about a coffee shop arrangement which had become a 'warm space' and offered free coffee and cake one day a week. She made a point of saying that she always offered to pay, and that she didn't need free coffee. I felt that this was thoughtless, as the people she was with may not have had spare money, and IMO there shouldn't be a 2 tier system that could make people feel inferior - either it is free or it isn't. A 'pay what you can' donation to cover room hire etc is different, in that it should be anonymous and not happen with fanfare.

I agree with you Doodledog. There would always be somebody with a "curtain twitcher" mentality who would note the people who put a few pounds in a collection box and those who don't - and then probably report it on GN . It wouldn't surprise me if there were comments such as "I saw Mrs X take free food without contributing and I know she's got plenty of money".

I talked to one of the organisers of the scheme I use and asked how I could donate. He said the scheme paid for itself with the grant they receive from the council and some other sponsors. They're more grateful if people could donate their time by getting involved, which is what I've done.

I would make a small charge. The reason I say this is we have a free soup and a roll day in our local church . I overheard a couple of ladies in a shop saying they would not go because it was free and looked like charity. I spoke to a friend who is on a low income and she agreed , she refused to go and have the free meal but would have gone if there was a charge.

I’m afraid with prices so high, food banks will suffer.

Free; but ask for voluntary donations into a pot, so it is anonymous.

You really can't charge. The food is donated free and should be free to anyone who needs it.

A voluntary donation might be in order to help towards electricity costs but the local Council may give funds and people could hold fundraising events too.

Thorny question. Freeloaders will grab the most expensive items, whether they need them or not, just because they are greedy. Those on a tight budget may not even have the nominal fee to give you, for things they do not need, if you have run out of things they do. Use your discretion. I help out in a charity shop, and those who haggle are often those who can afford to pay the (very low) prices. Of course, we donate things to those who are in need. However, that having been said, your items are perishable, unlike ours, so there is a market price for them.

Tanjamaltija I don't consider that I live in an especially moral town, but I've been going to a scheme such as this one for weeks and I haven't experienced any freeloaders. The people at the front of the queue obviously take anything which is in short supply, but the volunteers hand the food out and don't allow people to take too much of one item. This is what I get in a typical week. I still have to buy milk, eggs, cheese, coffee, tea and a few other things, but it provides the bulk of my meals for a week.

Callistemon21

You really can't charge. The food is donated free and should be free to anyone who needs it.

A voluntary donation might be in order to help towards electricity costs but the local Council may give funds and people could hold fundraising events too.

I agree with you.

Don't charge as it takes you into the realm of trading which has regulatory consequences and it cuts across the friendly nature of the volunteers' work.

I think you can't emphasise enough that it's to stop food waste and is not a food bank otherwise some people would be put off especially if in a small village. Those in need might not want other locals knowing their situation and therefore might not visit. I also agree with other GN's that once there is a charge things can get very complicated. I would not charge but have a box for any voluntary donations with a note as to how donations would be used eg room hire etc. It might be unwise to use any donations for further, popular food items as then it might appear more of a food bank.

Our village now has a community fridge and table for fresh stuff soon to go out of date and stuff like surplus from gardens and allotments
If shops donate it it should be free. Even waitrose sometimes give away fresh stuff free towards the end of the day
It is just asked that you only take what you need, and to let the staff, it's in the council offices, know you're using it, not what you take
I haven't heard it's been abused, and I guess the electric for the fridge comes under general running costs for the building so paid for by ratepayers and through the rent tenants in the offices that are hired out.
Not easy asking for payment, it's not a scheme which is in a big warehouse with lots of stuff. Why chargea flat £1 when maybe someone just wants a loaf and some apples, had they gone to the supermarket they might have benefited from lower reduced stickers and more choice. Different if you can get a lot of stuff with wider choice.
And this is not what some might describe a deprived area, it's quite affluent but still in need of food banks and suchlike, there are always people in need wherever
To get the vest choice you have to go later in the day, the well off aren't necessarily goi g to take pot luck on going out and maybe finding something, but they may go to one of the supermarkets and pick through the reduced stuff instead
As for people not wanting to go for a free meal because it looks like charity, so be it. No one is stopping them donating to the food bank if they want to or this week a bit extra to Christian aid. Locally there is a free Christian aid brekkie, and you are invited to give extra to CA for the breakfast, no one looks to see what you give, well later the next week but it's not traceable to you
The other yhing about payment, it adds a layer of bureauocracy, someone has to protect the donations, 2 people need to be there to count it up then you have to find a bank, apart from big cities where are there the little branches there used to be

The. Community Pantry near me charges an (optional) donation of £3.00 for a bag of food. The money is used to provide free tea, coffee and sandwiches for users if they wish to stay and have something to eat and drink.
I'll just mention that the 1 bag limit was introduced after a couple of incidents when dealers arrived with vans and took ALL the food - which they then sold on local markets..! 😠
This seems to work very well - and has just won an award 🙂