Welcome to Britain’s Victorian Christmas……..

It isn’t right but it seems to be normal in every so called ‘developed’ country throughout the world.

The poor are always with us. That doesn't make it right.

And what is "poor"? Not having the latest iphone? Or not knowing where you're going to lay your head tonight?

Some people will always have more than others and should be helping those less well off. But governments should not be relying on that charity to deal with society's problems.

Food banks were unheard of until fairly recently. Our veterans sleeping rough, no comfy hotels for them. The list goes on and on with the skewed priorities our past and present Governments have.

Poverty was far worse in the past. It is just that we know about ti in the past. Food banks exist because modern technology enables them to be fully publicised.

None of the above makes modern poverty acceptable, but more help is available now than ever in the past.

My late mother was not born in Victorian times, but, as the child of a widow in the thirties and forties, was often in receipt of charity - in those days from the local church.
There will always be those in need, for whatever reason, so there will always be a place for those who help. Today it's foodbanks - often supported by donors from...the local church.

It’s not the existence of foodbanks at all that’s so much of a concern to me as the growth in the number of them, driven by demand as more and more people live on the breadline.
‘Trussell Trust, which support the largest network food banks in the UK, had around 35 food bank centres in 2010/11, 650 in 2013/14 and nearly 1300 in 2019/20 [1, 2]. (By food bank centres we mean individual venues.’
pure.hw.ac.uk › files
Something has gone badly wrong when so many need them.

I agree. I used to put items in the food bank collection when shopping but I stopped a few years ago.

We have a new community store opened locally but hardly anyone uses it because it doesn't really sell stuff people need, just excess items the supermarkets can't sell.

I have become as cynical about them as I have about charity shops- the volunteers taking items home and selling them on e-bay.

I do wonder if food banks are like this too- how much of the produce actually gets to the invisible needy?

I know someone who worked full time but whose neighbour brought him sausages and bacon every week from the local food-bank where he was a volunteer.

It is about time we got to the bottom of what is really going on.

This is what is really going on! Gross inequality.

Despite being an increasingly wealthy country, Britain’s wealth is ever more concentrated in fewer (private) hands, at the expense of millions of people and the public realm more generally.
The value of assets has grown enormously in recent years, and this factor alone accounts for more than half of all wealth accumulated since 2008. This is intrinsically unfair, in part because most wealth increases have been “passive”, rather than being earned through hard work or entrepreneurial brilliance.
Source LSE

The poor are getting poorer and the rich richer.

We have a lot of people who have come here for refuge with nothing so they also bring social problems. The poor are always with us not necessarily through any fault of their own. The collection in church last night was to support the work of the Debt Relief agency in the town which does amazing work.

Report from the Social Metrics Commission. 2024

The report finds that the rate of poverty in the U.K. is now higher than at any point in the 21st century.
16 million people in the U.K. are living in families in poverty. 5.2 million are children, 9.2 million are working age adults and 1.5 million are pension age adults.
Nearly one in four people in the U.K. now judged to be in poverty.

Whenever something like the Trussell Trust finds a need that makes people feel unconfortable the urban myths will start about the food going to the helpers not to the needy etc etc. Theveidence is always 'a friend of a friend'

As *keepingquiet' says, the same myths are passed around about charity shops. One would be very naive to say this sort of thing never happens, but what is the evidence? It is all hearsay.

For all keepingquiet knows, those sausages and bacon could have been paid for or be perishable food that was no longer useable by the food bank and the alternative was binning it.

No one ever does a good deed but someone will find an evil motive for it.

Of course there will be cases of theft, but I doubt it is as a high as in the retail sector.

Correct MOnica I have two friends who work in different food banks, they only bring perishables home if they will otherwise be binned. Most food banks don’t have freezers or can afford to run them.

I thought food banks only dealt with foods that were NOT perishable, for the very reason that they would go off if not used within their use-by date?

My sister goes to somewhere that has surplus food free for the taking, not a food bank. She says she never orders mushrooms on her Tesco order now as she always gets them there.

Should say she can afford to buy her own groceries, but says they just get thrown out if no one takes them.

It seems to be a regular weekly outing, in an affluent area! Not just her, but others in the same position.

Seems very odd to me.

People perpetuate these myths about food banks and charity shops to make themselves feel better. Or make little dogs about "cosy hotels" to try and blame other people who have little.

Yes I agree Iovecheese. I suppose it’s a version of the undeserving poor.

We have what’s called a Food Hub here. Food is collected by volunteers from supermarkets which is near sell by date and is sold for a donation at various locations, after first depositing any suitable foods at the food banks. It’s a way of preventing food waste but is a different thing g to the food banks.

Farzanah

Oh, I think the Food Hub you describe is what my sister must use, (see my post upthread).

That explains a lot!

Calendargirl

My sister goes to somewhere that has surplus food free for the taking, not a food bank. She says she never orders mushrooms on her Tesco order now as she always gets them there.

Should say she can afford to buy her own groceries, but says they just get thrown out if no one takes them.

It seems to be a regular weekly outing, in an affluent area! Not just her, but others in the same position.

Seems very odd to me.

I'd rather see food sold off cheaply than be thrown out, regardless of the monetary status of the purchaser. So long as those who could afford full price aren't depriving poorer people of the opportunity to buy it.

(I'm not implying for one moment that that is what your sister does)

The problem increasingly in many places of the developed world is people can't afford their lives. Not lives of luxury, but just their basic amenities. Here for example, rents have increased exponentially.. Reading the Sunday Times a couple of weeks ago, in their housing supplement, it was reported, it's not so much a question of less housing, although that is also a factor, but more a question of since 2016, 3 million people have been added to the population and many of those will be in the south east where shortages are most acute. An over supply of labour has left salaries fairly stagnant for much of the workforce. On top of housing costs, money has to be found for ever increasing utility bills which have skyrocketed and that's before food is put on the table. With employers now having to find extra money to fund the hike in NI, that poses the question as to how the extra costs will affect prospective wage increases, far more likely to be pared back and quite possibly not commensurate as to keeping pace with inflation, leading to more reliance on food banks.

Maybe if there was some multi lateral consensus to get the larger corporations to pay their fair share of tax, as a plain talker addressing the glaringly obvious at the annual Davos jolly a couple of years ago then we wouldn't be so reliant on philanthropy, but in the words of Greta Thunberg something along the lines of "the very people we look to set an example to the world, are the ones who are actually responsible for ruining it"

I agree with Monica it’s always been so but in those days kids would nick a loaf of bread or a few apples and neighbours helped each other out (they were the food banks of yesterday) and there were poor houses/ institutions for whole families that were quite cruel places where husband and wife boys and girls were often separated
Families lived on the streets far more than today
The homeless of today do often have a choice but because some may be addicted they choose to stay with the addiction over a room in a hostel that refuses drink and drugs in it Of course there are always some who fall between the cracks but sometimes it’s their own choice We used to have two men both called themselves ex services living on the street in doorways But one had a flat and one had been offered one but turned it down because he ‘liked his freedom’

As regards charity shops that is a very harsh statement Keepingquiet and in my experience totally untrue I have worked in a charity shop for ten years and never once has anyone taken stuff to sell on eBay WE BUY our items from the charity shop we do get 20% off the price but isn’t that fair for the free hours we put in, in my case 20 hours a week our items always go through the manager .

I just want to respond as I think as often happens some people have misunderstood my meaning.

Why do we need food banks? The simple answer is we don't- I am sure they began with the coalition governments austerity measures and so put pressure on those with not very much to help those with very little whilst, as some have said, the rich got richer. The inequalities in our society are rising and giving a few packets of pasta bought in a supermarket where the CEO is a billionairre is the ultimate irony.
Who helps out the poor here? The not so better off.

Charity shops are a different matter because they serve a number of useful purposes- but I feel people are a little naive in thinking some contributions are not creamed off.

How to we care better for our society? Consider that we are only as rich as our poorest citizen and stop looking at the very rich as the ones we should be raising up.

The only place I look for evil motives, as some claim, are with those who keep their riches close to their own chests whilst expecting the poor to keep the poor fed.

What kind of country have we become?

I use a surplus food hub every week. 3 carrier bags stuffed full. One is mainly fresh fruit, vegetables and salad stuff; needs using fairly quickly but, once trimmed and washed, perfectly fine. Another bag has baked goods that are on, or approaching, their sell by date; breads, cakes, supermarket in store baked biscuits, supermarket sandwiches, crisps etc. The other bag is usually fresh or frozen ready meals, sometimes frozen desserts, fresh desserts, custards, milk. And there's always a trestle table set up with random tinned and packet foods, slightly damaged toiletries or cleaning stuff. All for £3.00 and it's open to everyone.

TerriBull

The problem increasingly in many places of the developed world is people can't afford their lives. Not lives of luxury, but just their basic amenities. Here for example, rents have increased exponentially.. Reading the Sunday Times a couple of weeks ago, in their housing supplement, it was reported, it's not so much a question of less housing, although that is also a factor, but more a question of since 2016, 3 million people have been added to the population and many of those will be in the south east where shortages are most acute. An over supply of labour has left salaries fairly stagnant for much of the workforce. On top of housing costs, money has to be found for ever increasing utility bills which have skyrocketed and that's before food is put on the table. With employers now having to find extra money to fund the hike in NI, that poses the question as to how the extra costs will affect prospective wage increases, far more likely to be pared back and quite possibly not commensurate as to keeping pace with inflation, leading to more reliance on food banks.

Maybe if there was some multi lateral consensus to get the larger corporations to pay their fair share of tax, as a plain talker addressing the glaringly obvious at the annual Davos jolly a couple of years ago then we wouldn't be so reliant on philanthropy, but in the words of Greta Thunberg something along the lines of "the very people we look to set an example to the world, are the ones who are actually responsible for ruining it"

Deliveroo for example were accused of paying less than the minimum wage, whilst previous executive, Thea Rogers, now married to millionaire and former Chancellor, George Osborne, got a huge windfall payout. I don't know whether I'm alone in feeling "you are so exploited someone somewhere is getting very rich on the back of your labour" when I see those guys riding about in all weathers delivering someone's takeaway

The more food banks are set up the more people will use them until it’s a sort of circle.If they’re there they will be used.