What are your views on food banks and warm banks?

My point being that of course, children love to help but is this normalising the idea for them?

I know people give to charities out of the goodness of their hearts - BUT doing this is often actually exacerbating problems.

The Tories stated that the 'Loved Foodbanks'' Of course they did, these helped to take away from the state itself the necessity of ensuring that ALL its citizens had enough money to eat properly, and allowed their government to continue the policies which helped the rich become richer.

So food banks (2,500plus) of them are an accepted way of life along with zero hour contracts, extremely low basic wages, etc. Now it is Warm Banks - not very off we will return to the Victorian means of charity medical care for those same workers, etc.

Any Society can only be judged by how they look after their more vulnerable members. UK - 2022 is totally failing.

On the subject of charities, a lot of people that were going to run in the London marathon will struggle to register in time because of the rail strike. Whatever one’s views are on charities a lot of people run in the marathon to raise money in memory of a loved one and it’s not easy to get a place in the race. Mick Lynch said on HIGNFY that the rail strike won’t affect the marathon but it will because you have to register by 5.30 the previous day. DD had to travel down on Friday night as she was worried that she wouldn’t get there for 5.30 today. It also meant having to pay for another nights accommodation. Running the London marathon is often a once in a lifetime for many peopleI know I keep saying that I totally support unions and the right to strike ( and I really mean that) but I think it’s important that those strikes don’t alienate the wrong people. My son did a charity run last week to raise money for something close to his heart and we would have been very upset if any strike action had prevented that as it was a long time in the planning.

If we don’t have food banks people will suffer at the hands of this uncaring government. Our local council have set up warm hubs in the Youth Centre which I might add is also run by volunteer. Here you can get a hot drink and cake, keep warm even take part in some activities or just chill out with a book. It shouldn’t be so but what’s the alternative.

Regarding volunteers taking on the role of the state, it is something I am very concerned about too. Expecting volunteers to deal with complex issues that require specialist input just isn't acceptable. Befriending schemes are being asked to provide respite and specialist support to families who have disabled children for example. Women volunteering for women's groups are being asked to provide counselling and support for women on witness protection schemes. I just don't feel it is acceptable.

A very good point JaneJudge?

It shouldn’t be so but what’s the alternative.
Simple: a change of government!

Gandhi said, ‘the true measure of any society can be found in how it treats its most vulnerable members’. This government has shown, loud and clear, how little regard it has for its most vulnerable. Very, very sad and worrying!

Yes Lizziedrip but what is the alternative until we have that much needed changed.

I know Barmeyoldbat - it’s a very worrying situation. Hopefully it won’t be too long before we have a GE and a government that cares???

It's not just us. I just googled food banks in Europe and found that there were 962 in Germany alone. The Scandinavian countries also have them. I'm not excusing the government but it seems that relative poverty is not rare in Western Europe.

MayBee70 the people who sponsored runners who were unable to attend due to the rail strike are perfecting at liberty to pay up anyway under the circumstances.

Ilovecheese

MayBee70 the people who sponsored runners who were unable to attend due to the rail strike are perfecting at liberty to pay up anyway under the circumstances.

I know they can. But it’s still sad for the runners who have trained for a long time for this event. And the point I was trying to make is that Mick Lynch said on national tv that the strike would not affect the marathon and that was wrong.

Aveline

It's not just us. I just googled food banks in Europe and found that there were 962 in Germany alone. The Scandinavian countries also have them. I'm not excusing the government but it seems that relative poverty is not rare in Western Europe.

You might find the numbers here more depressing

commonslibrary.parliament.uk/research-briefings/cbp-8585/#:~:text=How%20many%20food%20banks%20are,least%201%2C172%20independent%20food%20banks.

I suspect that is an under estimation too