An alternative to food banks?

But you have to accept that some people cannot manage their money, and my friend is dealing with those people .It doesn't mean that they are profligate or feckless btw, there are all sorts of mental health issues around and some are regular drug users who get through any money fast .

They have to go hungry FarNorth, people really are going hungry but many refuse to believe it or put it down to bad management of income

If people can only use a food bank a certain number of times, what happens to people who need it because they are working but have very few hours or a zero-hours contract?
Surely they will need to use it long term.

I remember a thread when GN first started out, where we spoke about how some of us really struggled financially in the early days of being married - or not - and having the children (this isn't a thread about a thread). If foodbanks had been around in those days, I would have been entitled to use them, I think. The girl in the flat downstairs was a single mum with 2 children and she was given a box of groceries from the local church. I was so envious.
To be really hungry, and not to know where the next meal's going to be coming from, even though there's a (small) wage coming in at the end of the week, is soul destroying. How on earth do these families cope, having to get a voucher form GP, DWP, church etc? A small bag of food doesn't last very long.

A friend is a volunteer there, and she says certain people come every week, they know that these people cannot manage their lives and money.

Yes, I did know that Djen, and you can only use them so many times.However there are church food banks that you can turn up to and they will always give a hand out of tinned stuff, packets etc. we have one in our nearest town.

Inflation's not that bad at the moment Marelli!

People who go to food banks have to have a letter from their church, DWP or doctor in order to get food from them. You cannot just turn up and be given a handout. Did you not realise, roses?

AB I was responding to Parliament's post that a well paid job was the alternative to food banks.I agree with a living wage, but there are people earning that and more, who still can't manage to budget and will run out of money before the end of the week.Food banks do serve a purpose.

True not everyone can have a well paid job but everyone should have a living wage

In 5 years time what will £9 be worth? The foodbanks frequently ask for food that doesn't have to heated and this is because the people who need to use them don't have the money to put cards into the gas/electric meters so that they can use their cookers.

George is bringing in £9 minimum wage by 2020.

There always seems to be more beggars on the streets of other European cities, including very old people, and people with dreadful deformities. How come they are not better looked after?

Unfortunately, not everyone can have, or do, a well paid job, for a good variety of reasons. even some people who are paid reasonably well cannot manage their budget, for a good variety of reasons.Some do no job at all and are drug users, have mental health problems etc.

Western Europe? As in Spain (1.5m people using food banks), France (over 1m people using food banks)...?

I could go on, but you could find that information our for yourself if you weren't so determined that everything is the fault of 'this government'.

Go on then...

I have an alternative to food banks. A good well paid job. A well funded welfare State with much higher and universal social payments as they have in Western Europe.

I cant believe some of the responses on here????????????????

There is no point anyone living rough going to a food bank - they have no way of cooking the store-cupboard supplies from there, and you can't sit in a food bank for an hour over a bowl of soup and a roll.

The users of food banks are not just those with no money at all, many of them are working and find there is too much week left at the end of the money. Providing a good meal at low cost for someone in the middle of their workday feeds them so that they can concentrate on the family and not go without themselves.

The problem needs to be tackled on all fronts, some people wouldn't go near a food bank but would buy themselves a cheap meal in a cafe. Macdonalds is all very well, but there is a temptation to have chips with everything.

The cafes I am talking about are not grey canteens for dishing out gruel to the destitute paupers, they are enterprises run by church members with simple but pleasant surroundings and wholesome food. They cover their costs but don't make a profit. Injections of "welfare" grants would make it possible for them to do more and keep their prices even lower.

Rant ?

Yes, it certainly is Elegran...

It is, of course, much simpler to rant about the iniquity of the government allowing there to be people with little or no money, and to dismiss any ideas for helping them which do not follow one's own preferred policies.

The cafes will be too expensive the other days of the week I suppose. Cost price is still not low enough.
Plus people realisticallyhave to live near the cafes.

That Manchester project sounds excellent jendurham Donations only (pay what you can afford)

The real junk food project

You go to a food bank because you have no money to buy food. Nobody who has to use a food bank will be able to buy from these cafes.

The Junk Food Project in Manchester?
Red Tower community cafe in York?

I think the government should be embarrassed that these places have to exist in the sixth richest country in the world.
Will the budget help? I doubt it.