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

Agreed. Going to Costco to buy in bulk can save a fortune, for instance, but requires an outlay in the first place.

I'm beginning to wish I hadn't posted on this thread, as this topic brings out the worst in people who make assumptions and judge others, whatever they are saying. It seems like people start out thinking that there is one solution, and anyone who suggests a different one is either over-privileged, a rampant Tory, a loony leftie or doesn't live in whatever their version of 'the real world' happens to be.

I don't think anyone could make a balanced map for 30p, whether they are skint or relatively comfortable, but if they are starting with a full pantry and the gadgets to help them they will have a better chance of making one more cheaply than someone without. Regardless of that, as long as people are expected to work for less than it takes to pay high rents and fuel bills there will be food poverty, and it is a disgrace in a country as rich as the UK.

I don't think it is unusual to assume the post that comes after yours is in reply to it Doodledog and you were cutting towards whoever you were addressing.

A saying my gran had, was something along the lines of money begets more money, she wasn't wrong

Missingmoominmama

It’s much easier to work to a budget when you have money. No expensive card meters, the time and ingredients to batch cook and get creative with leftovers. Big freezer; fuel to cook…

I’ve been on the bones of my arse and I’m much thriftier now I’m not, because my circumstances make it possible.

Yup I remember the days when I could afford to snap up offers and bargains, bulk buy things we use all the time, was definately cheaper then

It’s much easier to work to a budget when you have money. No expensive card meters, the time and ingredients to batch cook and get creative with leftovers. Big freezer; fuel to cook…

I’ve been on the bones of my arse and I’m much thriftier now I’m not, because my circumstances make it possible.

DaisyAnne

^I don’t think that learning to prepare for dinner parties or to be ‘a housewife’ is the point. Men cook too, in my world.^

If that was a comment on learning to a "cordon bleu standard" it's a very ignorant one.

My point, which you were so damming about, is that now is not the time for the 'cookery lessons'. This is an immediate crisis, not a moral or educational one. It is about not being able to feed your family because you don't have the money to enable you to do so. All else is obfuscation and a cover-up for the government.

Hang on!

I wasn't referring to your comment at all. I wasn't damning anything, and I am certainly not covering up for the government.

As i have said in all my comments on this topic I think that teaching people to cook would be more sensible than teaching 'cutting skills', but also that the root of the matter is poverty, not an inability to cook, so there is absolutely no need to be so aggressive.

Pushing tax cuts for the rich uses an illusory truth effect which talks about their beneficial effects on economic performance. Governments have had to say this because such a policy has no moral foundation. The reasoning goes that it will focus the economy on efficiency gains and remove behavioural distortions.

This twisted view of the truth has been proved wrong, in both the USA and the UK. Yet here we are again with a government telling us the lies about the economy are truths and that they don't need to do anything to help the poorest.

Piketty, detailing the growth of top incomes over the 20th century, demonstrated that steady reductions in tax over the decades caused a rapid rise in income inequality. Studies, in both countries, found that lower taxes on the rich, especially top marginal income tax rates, strongly affect the economy in favour of the rich and to the detriment of the poorest.

This government is so antediluvian that it seems some truly believe that the poorest will benefit by the rich getting richer. With such uneducated views, it is time they went.

Nannashirlz

You obviously didn’t listen to him ? his words have being twisted by scum media. If you had checked before you posted he used to work in a CAB for many years and he helps out in a food bank and in his food bank they teach ppl to cook meals on a budget. And give ppl debt advice to help them. Maybe watch his interview on GBnews from last night. The problem is ppl want fast food quick and don’t know how to cook and it should be taught in schools. One of my staff didn’t even know how to boil an egg and Yes I’m now on benefits and I’ve never used a food bank but I don’t have debt or smoke or drink. Or eat takeaways I actually am a chef.

Actilually, you're a good candidate for the £1 per day meal challenge, with your cooking skills.
There is a thread about it, if you're interested?

Shropshirelass

Perhaps he shouldn’t have said what he said, but he is right. I have said for years that schools should not have stopped domestic science lessons (or reduced to 6 week modules). When they do cook in schools they use packet mix and processed food. Many people are frightened of trying to cook and have no idea what some of the ingredients are. All of my children could cook at an early age and still do so now. Cooking skills are passed down the generations, this seems to have been lost for many people.

To be able to cook, you need a few basics in the cupboard already, pepper, salt flour oil, spices herbs etc......... AND the cookware and utensils required to prepare and cook it, you get the idea, and the fuel to cook it with. No amount of lessons at school is going to help with the lack of the basic items. Example, I am not the worlds best cook, but could manage to follow a recipe and cope with substiituting missing items untill recently.
Today, I have been given a carrier bag of swedes, a local farmer had lots stored for animal feed and thought I might make use of them....great, but for the fact I have no butter, no pepper , a tiny bit of salt left, and 83p left on the leccy meter that needs to last all weekend. Currently wondering how ill we'll be eating raw swede....

And?
I'm also on benefits and don't smoke, drink or need a foodbank.
I'm not a chef though.

You obviously didn’t listen to him ? his words have being twisted by scum media. If you had checked before you posted he used to work in a CAB for many years and he helps out in a food bank and in his food bank they teach ppl to cook meals on a budget. And give ppl debt advice to help them. Maybe watch his interview on GBnews from last night. The problem is ppl want fast food quick and don’t know how to cook and it should be taught in schools. One of my staff didn’t even know how to boil an egg and Yes I’m now on benefits and I’ve never used a food bank but I don’t have debt or smoke or drink. Or eat takeaways I actually am a chef.

GagaJo

Woodmouse

I have always worked to a budget but am amazed at the number of people who don't. I have met folk who don't check their bank statements, use up food leftovers, shop around for the best deals or save up for things. Some people are in hardship because they have been reckless with money.

Let's be clear. They are not the average poor person. The average poor person is in work but is not paid a living wage. Anytime they can't pay rent/mortgage, bills and eat, that isn't poor budgeting, it's poverty.

I had a friend judge me the way you've judged some people when I was poor. I was poor because I didn't earn enough. Not because I was wasteful with money.

My late dear ma, used to say "I don't know WHAT you do with your money" when I had to decline invites to expensive theme park days out with her and my son.... I was always expected to pay our way, and on a low income just couldn't. All she kept saying was... when I had you kids I worked three jobs blah blah, yeah mum but nowadays you cannot take your kids to work with you like you did, and we lived in a large town then. It took one almighty row one day when I just snapped at her, followed by a weeks silence then I wrote all my ins and outs down and posted it to her...we got along much better after that blowup, and my son got to spend much more fun with Grandma doing silly stuff for free!

Twerp, to be polite, and saying buy value foods! What does he think people have been doing????
The sooner we're rid of these overprivileged spoilt brats running the country the better

I don’t think that learning to prepare for dinner parties or to be ‘a housewife’ is the point. Men cook too, in my world.

If that was a comment on learning to a "cordon bleu standard" it's a very ignorant one.

My point, which you were so damming about, is that now is not the time for the 'cookery lessons'. This is an immediate crisis, not a moral or educational one. It is about not being able to feed your family because you don't have the money to enable you to do so. All else is obfuscation and a cover-up for the government.

Accusing people of not being able to cook or budget is just part of the culture war.

So true Maizie.

Not only do people not believe that inequality is getting worse but they don't want to give up what they have.

choughdancer

Whitewavemark2

I think that we have deviated a long way from the subject?.

The reason people can’t cook proper food is poverty.

Nothing more or less.

I agree with so many comments on this thread, but I think this one sums it up perfectly. Every crisis we have (Covid 19 for example) ends with the rich getting richer and the poor getting poorer. Please correct me if I am wrong about this.

It seems to me that we are encouraged by the rich and powerful to blame and misrepresent people in need, by calling them 'benefit fraudsters', 'illegal migrants', 'homeless addicted to drugs and alcohol', ' lazy', 'obese'; anything to make it seem that they are at fault.

The problem is that inequality increases year upon year; the gap between the richest and the poorest widens consistently; the people in power have demonstrably no idea of the situation of people using food banks, filling up tummies with the cheapest carbs and fats. The 'big reset' needs to tackle this, but I don't honestly think it ever will with the system as it is.

I don't think we'll manage to get back to the serious stuff now that this has turned into a Food thread

Threads about inequality are never very popular anyway because few people seem to believe that a very large percentage of the money that the government feeds into the economy is drained out of it by the wealthy, leaving very little for everyone else to share.

I don’t think that learning to prepare for dinner parties or to be ‘a housewife’ is the point. Men cook too, in my world.

My point was that rather than teach things in isolation, lessons could incorporate calculating quantities of various ingredients for a dish, how much they will cost, how leftovers could be used for other other meals, and how much each one would then cost per portion- that sort of thing would be far more useful than ‘chopping skills’ and wouldn’t have to be done at the expense of other subjects if there were a rethink about the curriculum. They could be built in to history ( food through the ages), geography (food in other cultures) RE and so on. I’m talking primary, or at least pre GCSE, probably- I’m not saying that the whole school experience should be about food, but life skills such as running a bank account and paying household bills could be included (calculating interest payments on loans would be more useful than learning the necessary skills in isolation in maths). Maybe there could be an exam in life skills which brings all this together- why not?

All of the above would be useful IMO, but obviously no use unless people have money to spend on food in the first place.

Exactly!

DaisyAnne hear, hear.

DaisyAnne - well said. We need to deal with the situation as it is right here, right now.

Callistemon21

Dickens

Callistemon21

I never had cookery lessons at school and seem to have managed over the years .....

I'm sure you're not alone in that.

Do you think it's a good argument against teaching basic cooking skills?

I think if you can read you can follow a recipe.

... well that's certainly true.

But cooking is about more than just following a recipe.

However, I suspect you don't approve of the idea of teaching basic cooking skills in schools. Fair enough. I'll not expand on it further.

volver

If you can't afford to buy bread and can't turn on the kettle because you can't afford the electricity costs, it doesn't matter if you are cordon bleu trained. You need a food bank.

In one of my life's digressions I was taught to cook to cordon bleu level. I can bone a chicken - but what help is that when inflation, and the disruptions to trade provoked by this government, will put chicken out of reach. I also learned to fillet fish. How many of those living in poverty in this country have a wet fish shop near by or any access to any fish except frozen - which they may not be able to store.

Right now it's a time to feed people. We have two choices; we may need both. We can set up more food banks and extend them into food kitchens. Or we can ensure they have enough money in their pockets to feed themselves.

Moralising about whether we have taught them to cope with these conditions is as useful as trying to decided if Ukraine taught it's people to cope with war. This is an exceptional circumstance. You cannot teach people about all the exceptions that occur in life. You can only put governments in place to ensure we get through them. This government has made it very clear it is not prepared to do that. Please do not attempt to normalise what is happening.

Trying to blame the capability or the morals of individuals who have been pushed into poverty is just an excuse for the government that has actually brought it about.

Callistemon21

I bought mine a student cookbook

So did I! And sent her off to uni with enough pasta, rice, mushy peas and lentils to feed herself for a year!

Necessity here.
My boy is learning to do some cooking because I often can't.