Tory MP blames food bank use on people not knowing how to cook or budge

He's just another Tory trying to defend their appalling attitude to those in poverty and blame the poor for their alleged ineptitude. But what can you expect from Johnson's Tories?

Doodledog Fri 13-May-22 12:28:42

Yes.
Cooking anything to make it reasonably palatable requires condiments, herbs, possibly oil, stock cubes (making stock means having a chicken carcase or other leftovers to start with and requires long simmering using gas or electric).
Mayonnaise, ketchup, brown sauce, soy sauce?

I could probably feed a toddler a nutritious diet on £1 for a day but it would require an outlay of larger packs of meat, fish, vegetables, fruit to be able to do that.

Most foods aren't packed in single adult portion sizes on the supermarket shelves either.

As a volunteer at a foodbank for 3 years now, I see both sides of the argument.
I do think more should be taught in schools with regards to budgeting, cooking, general household living, including decorating and basic electrics.

A lot of people who come to Foodbank are immensely grateful to be given the goods but I do also see people arrive who, yes, do have mobile phones (but they are a necessity as client has to ring for a foodbank voucher /job application) but also (in no particular order) have a large family, expensive car, spray tan, bladed eyebrows, Shellac nails, top of the range pram for baby, ring for a taxi to take them home as they 'won't get the bus'.
Others will only accept 'branded' food, i.e only PG Tips. If other tea bags are all we have on offer they say no. Only Basmati rice is wanted, any other kind, it's a No. Only certain cereals, etc.

Anyone who disagrees with what I have written, perhaps you too should volunteer/find out more about how a food bank works and what is on offer, for free.
Clients even get coffee and cake whilst they wait for their orders.

I could probably feed a toddler a nutritious diet on £1 for a day

No, I couldn't. One pint of whole milk is about 60p.

Was it Nadine Dorries who mentioned arrogant Tory posh boys who didn't know the price of a pint of milk?
Oh dear, I had to look it up!

Lucca

Schools should do this schools should do that, the government tells schools what to teach !

Yes - it would take an overhaul of the system to make it work, but it might help to ‘level up’ in a small way. I suppose it depends whether we see education in terms of preparation for jobs or for life.

Milk is far cheaper to buy in bigger quantities, but then you risk it going off if you're a single person.
You can freeze it, but then need to weigh up if your freezer would be better to contain main meal items.

JdotJ

As a volunteer at a foodbank for 3 years now, I see both sides of the argument.
I do think more should be taught in schools with regards to budgeting, cooking, general household living, including decorating and basic electrics.

A lot of people who come to Foodbank are immensely grateful to be given the goods but I do also see people arrive who, yes, do have mobile phones (but they are a necessity as client has to ring for a foodbank voucher /job application) but also (in no particular order) have a large family, expensive car, spray tan, bladed eyebrows, Shellac nails, top of the range pram for baby, ring for a taxi to take them home as they 'won't get the bus'.
Others will only accept 'branded' food, i.e only PG Tips. If other tea bags are all we have on offer they say no. Only Basmati rice is wanted, any other kind, it's a No. Only certain cereals, etc.

Anyone who disagrees with what I have written, perhaps you too should volunteer/find out more about how a food bank works and what is on offer, for free.
Clients even get coffee and cake whilst they wait for their orders.

Now we're getting suggestions that the schools should teach decorating and basic electrics. ??‍♀️

Do people actually order things at Foodbanks? That's not at all how I thought they worked....

Do they teach cooking and budgeting at Eton? Or is it only the people who go to bog standard comprehensives who are expected to learn that sort of thing?

www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/w3ct38mm

Perhaps he should listen to this episode of The Food Chain entitled 'Food Poverty in a Rich Country'. One of the contributors describes living in food poverty whilst working full time for the National Health Service.
It's tragic that those who claim to represent constituents are so woefully ill informed.

Love this tweeted thread from Jack.

All the white wingers saying cooking on a budget is easy, let’s see it. I want your shopping list & 7 day meal plans, to include all 3 meals drink & snacks. Has to meet 5 a day fruit & veg, daily vitamin RDAs, protein targets & fibre. Off you pop, I could do with the competition.

Also no specialist equipment, no dipping into your store cupboards, nothing that uses the oven or more than 20 minutes cooking time, and all ingredients must be available at the Big Four supermarkets. Let’s be having you, come on and put your menus where your mouths are.

And no shopping at multiple shops, and no yellow stickers, and no using any of my recipes. If a single one of you can do this by the end of the day and meet ALL of the above requirements, I’ll donate £500 to the Trussell Trust.

£20 for 2 adults for 7 days (21 meals). Must show all ingredients and all their quantities for all the recipes and meals in the meal plan. I’ll be doing the nutrition calcs and checking your maths. Good luck!

Gosh, JdotJ, that's not my experience at the foodbank where I volunteer. Our parcels are made up already, so no one chooses anything. There's sometimes a little trading amongst the clients "I'll swap you my tinned pears for your rice pudding " kind of thing, but they hand back anything they don't need/like to be recycled. I've not seen many fancy nails, either, or spray tans , although one of my fellow volunteers sometimes has blue or green nail polish, thanks to her enthusiastic granddaughter !

Pammie1

Skydancer

In the 70s when my children were small we had little money. I bought vegetables and made vegetarian dishes. I learned how to make cheap nutritious meals from scratch. If we couldn’t afford something we did without. Show me a “poor” family who haven’t got a mobile phone each. I don’t consider myself right wing but it’s sadly true that a lot of people haven’t a clue how to budget or cook.

The notion of the ‘undeserving poor’ is alive and well isn’t it ? A mobile phone is pretty much a necessity these days rather than a luxury and with the offers on contracts and pay as you go, are probably cheaper than a landline these days. It’s a myth that poverty is the fault of the poor. How on earth are you supposed to make ends meet on a zero hours contract that pays minimum wage ? Rents are sky high and buying your own home is out of the reach of many these days. Benefits are means tested to the bone and so complicated that people often lose out because they don’t know their way around the system. The gap between rich and poor is widening all the time, but as usual, it’s all the fault of the poor, and if you could just learn to cook and budget all would be fine. What a load of codswallop !!

we have two mobile phones between 4 of us, needed to do online banking, a way of employers contacting us for the odd not the same every day let alone week shifts that they want doing, contact with family, and from what I was told when I was signing on, lack of a smartphone to access the gov site would mean a sanction! Oh and just maybe those people bought those phones cheap, at a time when they were actually earning enough to have a bit spare form living costs...

OakDryad

Love this tweeted thread from Jack.

All the white wingers saying cooking on a budget is easy, let’s see it. I want your shopping list & 7 day meal plans, to include all 3 meals drink & snacks. Has to meet 5 a day fruit & veg, daily vitamin RDAs, protein targets & fibre. Off you pop, I could do with the competition.

Also no specialist equipment, no dipping into your store cupboards, nothing that uses the oven or more than 20 minutes cooking time, and all ingredients must be available at the Big Four supermarkets. Let’s be having you, come on and put your menus where your mouths are.

And no shopping at multiple shops, and no yellow stickers, and no using any of my recipes. If a single one of you can do this by the end of the day and meet ALL of the above requirements, I’ll donate £500 to the Trussell Trust.

^£20 for 2 adults for 7 days (21 meals). Must show all ingredients and all their quantities for all the recipes and meals in the meal plan. I’ll be doing the nutrition calcs and checking your maths. Good luck!^

Nobody here has risen to the challenge, interestingly.
Not the chefs, the scratch cooks, those who learned at their mothers' knee and passed it on to their children.

at the Foodbank I volunteer at we have standard bagged up food for a family or single person; the usual pasta, tinned meat,fish,rice,beans etc., enough to provide a reasonable meal for three days or so, but we also give people the dignity and self respect of choosing food from the extra section; toiletries, sanitary products, biscuits, etc., and at the main branch there is always a load of fresh bread, fruit, veg which is added as people wish. All because people are hard up, it doesn't mean they have to take what they are given, choosing your own bits and pieces at least has the semblance of normal shopping.

Cos the first thing I did when my income disappeared was to rush out and buy the biggest telly I could and the poshest smartphone!

I have been going through an old blog of mine from way back, that didnt produce a days meals for 30p or close, the best I could manage back then was around 80p for two meals in a day, I just priced that up at todays prices and wow not even those meagre meals are doable right now at that price!

Our meal last night was a mug of own brand bisto gravy each and a couple slices bread

Was all we had at the time that could actually constitute something to eat, we've already tried eating sandwich pickle neat from a jar, not recommended although it likely counts as part of the five a day!

I think he has a point in that people do need to learn to cook rather than relying on cheap ready meals lacking in nutrition. Beans, chickpeas, lentils, tinned tomatoes, potatoes etc are all fairly cheap but unless you know what to do with them that is not helpful. Food banks would be an excellent way of helping people learn how to make ingredients go further.

I do however think that he has no idea of living on the poverty line and probably not the best person to give out advice based kn his earnings and expenses claimed. Food and alcohol are also subsidised in the commons, why? This is not necessary and the cost could go towards universal credit or food banks

Jack Monroe would be far better placed to hell with advice as she has gone through this herself. Why not give out free copies of her books to people that need help.

Of course, we could go back to Pauper Schools to appease those looking so far to the right they must have a cricked neck.

Set up to give a sound, basic education, there intention was to prepare the poor for their future station in life. I suppose, if they are lucky, that might include arithmetic and reading (although as we move even further to the right, I doubt girls would be allowed to read).

Of course, this will agree with the idea of the poor as moral degenerates such as spouted by Lee Anderson and his followers - I mean, nail varnish, for heaven's sake. It will also help deal with the idea that pauperism is hereditary - which I have also seen alluded to on GN.

09:21Grandmabatty

What have you done? We can all virtual signal on here to make ourselves feel good.

That is very apparent.

I volunteered for 10 years at CAB! Mental health issues, long term ill health issues, lousy landlords, redundancy , etc etc! All contribute to poverty ! Many are only one pay day away from being in financial trouble ! None of us can judge what people are experiencing ! At any time we can hit a big hurdle and be floored by it!
Some compassion plus understanding is required in these very uncertain times

Susieq62

I volunteered for 10 years at CAB! Mental health issues, long term ill health issues, lousy landlords, redundancy , etc etc! All contribute to poverty ! Many are only one pay day away from being in financial trouble ! None of us can judge what people are experiencing ! At any time we can hit a big hurdle and be floored by it!
Some compassion plus understanding is required in these very uncertain times

Unfortunately, thinking about that makes people realise how easily it could happen to them, and no-one wants to live in daily fear through choice, so I am not surprised that many just "can't see it" they simply don't want to, or else are soo sure they'd cope better, cook better, not put themselves in that position..

Wouldn’t it be wonderful if we had a government that actually cared about people? It would be even better if they understood that making sure that everyone has access to good food, a decent home and decent education would actually benefit the country? And they and their cronies would make even more money - huzzah!

Yes, well politicians in any country have a habit of blaming poverty on the poor.

A trait shared by the rich, the well-off and all those who have been so fortunate that they have never in all their life had to worry about where the next meal, pair of new shoes or the money to pay the next utility bill or the rent was going to come from.

All of them should know better, shouldn't they?

That said, some people would manage better if they had been taught to budget and to keep to their budget, or taught how to cook and how to shop economically.

But it distinctly unhelpful and unkind to muddy the waters of debate by positing a correlation between poverty and the inability or unwillingness to cook or budget.

Some Victorians distinguished between the deserving poor and the undeserving poor and left it at that. Others, like the founder of the Salvation Army realised that what the poor needed was "Soup, soap and salvation" and that they could not possibly provide any of it for themselves on the wages they were paid.

We seem to have come full circle back to Victorian attitudes, so which of my two examples do you (personally) intend to follow?

That of the fortunate and patronising, or that of Booth and others with a more realistic view of society's step-children?

If a single one of you can do this by the end of the day and meet ALL of the above requirements, I’ll donate £500 to the Trussell Trust.

No, I can't, not providing balanced nutrition as well.
So I'll donate my Tesco vouchers to the Trussell Trust via the Tesco website.