What are your views on food banks and warm banks?

Charities certainly have their place in any society, but for a society to ensure that there is a comprehensive safety net for the disabled, sick, pensioners and unemployed it needs to employ the full force of society in the form of the state.

The trouble is it just seem to get, eventually, accepted as normal. First people need food banks. Then they need places to eat and keep warm. It’s like the way the country has been for years. Just as you don’t think things can get any worse they do. And then do again. What happened to getting people off the streets and into hostels which happened at the start of covid? It now just seems acceptable again for people to sleep in cardboard boxes. Unacceptable things are constantly being normalised.

Charities (thousands upon thousands of them) exist because we live in a caring society and people want to do things to help others. People who contribute to charities, either buy donations or with their time and effort, are the same people who pay taxes to fund school, hospitals, roads, etc, etc.

I'm not sure I'm ready to accept that charities never solve anything. Take, for example, Cancer Research UK. Their push for research into the causes of and new treatments for various cancers have solved a lot of problems so that, for many cancers, people are more likely to die with cancer than of it.

I suppose there have always been placed where people could go to keep warm. Libraries and other public buildings or even just staying on the bus all day. Churches have always had lunch clubs and social groups. Calling them warm banks is a rebranding rather than an innovation.

I do know what you mean Lizzydrip and the author too, but unless we reach a position where all, literally all ,are in a good enough state not to need any intervention, then it will always be needed.There are always those who slip through the cracks in any society and an easy to access charity has to be there.

There’s a huge dichotomy here isn’t there. On the face of it yes, as you say Prentice, anything that helps those in need is a good thing. However, food banks (and possibly warm spaces) have now become embedded in our society in such a way that they actually detract from the real problem. That problem is that many people simply do not have enough money to live. The author of the article works for the Trussell Trust and poverty action groups - I think he articulates the issue very effectively.

I agree with LizzieDrip

Good comments DaisyAnne and Jane Judge
Yes, there is a place for warm welcoming places and for food banks Lizzydrip and other European countries have them too.Anything which helps and is accessible for those who need it is always a good thing in my view.

Someone I knew was involved in the Church soup and cake clubs that offer, well soup and cake (!) one day a week. She said they were put on so people could go and eat something and keep warm, but it was done in a discrete way so people didn't feel stigmatised. The clubs moved to different churches on different days.

One of our local groups is opening a "pay-as-you-feel" cafe, once a week, in our local Town Hall, from October. This is designed to offer a warm, safe, affordable environment. I do think it's a good idea as I worry that some people may go into a form of self-lockdown in order to try and save money.

I can see the problems, but then charity has never solved them, has it. You need a society that cares and a government that makes that care work. It has to happen if that is all people can do though.