What can I say to my husband (who is furious)?

(I won't say whaat I really think about that sort of American sentimentalism...)

Are only Americans kind and caring ?

They seem to be the only ones who post made-up soppy stories on FB and other social media sites!

You said it before me ana!

Our WFI Group regularly collect food, toiletries and sanitary products for our two local foodbanks. I was in conversation one day with two of the mostly elderly, volunteer drivers who deliver food parcels in their own cars to those who are too ill, disabled or old or perhaps have several children and cannot walk miles to and from the foodbank. The drivers recounted tales of the verbal abuse from passers by they suffered on a daily basis as they loaded their smart cars with bags of food, usually for several families at a time. They said they had given up trying to explain what the were doing as SOME people preferred to think the worst and spread stories of perfectly fit men with good cars walking out of foodbanks with £££s worth of groceries.

Our Church run foodbank is quite formal and sticks to the rules e.g. only 3 parcels = 9 days worth of food for any family/single person with a referral to a benefits advisor. They will only accept donations of tinned or packaged food - nothing fresh. The other run by a community group is much more flexible and while being firm with anyone they consider to be playing the system, will provide daily food to e.g adults with learning disabilities who are unable to comply with intricacies of the benefit system. They accept donations of homegrown vegetables and fruit, home baking, jam etc. and have built up contacts with allotment associations, other community groups who help ensure that there is always a pot of soup, scones and cups of tea on the go.

Sounds great Granny23! Soup and scones - real practical kindness in action.

It must be difficult to deal with fresh food but it must be a godsend if a group can manage it.

I like the idea of it being kind people using a taxi to deliver food to the less fortunate, granny23?.

Yes, I think that's the one I will settle on.

Granny23 - that's sad that people delivering food get idiots assuming that they are abusing the foidbank. Some people seem to like to think the worst of everyone.

It could depend on where you live. If you are a long way from a food bank carrying produce home might be difficult.
The food bank may have a good reason to pay for a taxi.

I do wish people would not jump to conclusions about things when they essentially know nothing about the circumstances of othere people.
It could be two volunteers from the food bank taking food parcels to housebound people.
Having a car may be the only way a person on very low wages can get to any sort of job at all.

I gave to a food bank a few months ago. Not that I have much but I thought I would help out. I came out of the food bank and was waiting to cross the road when a woman came out with a shopping trolley full of carrier bags full of food. There were loads. I thought they only gave to get people over the next couple of days or so but this trolley full could have kept a family of four for at least a week, far more than I could afford to buy. I haven't been back since which is a shame but the food bank themselves were hardly appreciative really neither.

rubylady if there were loads of food parcels in the trolley, the woman was probably distributing them to other people. Read the post above from Granny23

Sometimes people who work in caring professions (I'm one of them) have to collect food for others who cannot get out of their house due to an emergency situation or because they are old and frail. I am also a fat person and probably relatively well dressed and so would be judged for all of the wrong reasons if I had to get food to somebody quickly via a taxi. Before you ask, it would be cheaper for me to get a taxi to deliver the food than pay me for time spent waiting for buses etc and also less of a health and safety problem if I strained my back etc.

It's beginning to sound a bit too complex. I'm beginning to wish that my husband had taken a different route home that day, lol.

Sure you'd get a clearer picture by volunteering.

Rubylady read granny23 `s post .

It's even possible that a generous taxi driver would donate a run for food bank deliveries.

Elrel, sure, didn't you say something similar further up the thread? Sure, didn't I respond?

You must be kept so busy with all your good works, I'm surprised you've to the time to make such valuable contributions on here. LOL.

Following on on the subject of food banks what I feel is so dreadful is that we need to have them at all. We are supposed to be a rich country, we can pay millions out on the Olympics and all that went with it, football clubs pay out millions for someone who kicks a ball around, I could go on. But people have to have to rely on charity to be able to keep their family fed. I just feel it is so very very wrong. . It's a strange world.

A large number of supposedly 'rich' countries have food banks, millyouge, and have done for years. Not saying it's right, but it isn't just this country.

The US have had food banks for years. I always used to think it was so sad that a wealthy country like that had to have them....

We can't just not have any sports or leisure because there is poverty to tackle. Something like the Olympics brings money in as well as taking it from the coffers. Depending on which figures you read/believe, the event may even have been a net earner for the economy.

How does anyone know what a food bank looks like? I've never see one . We have a box at the cathedral and at the big Tescos for donations but I don't know where they go to from there .is there a sign over a door? I live on a steep hill and carrying shopping back is a nono at the moment. The taxi fare this morning Was £3.50 and two people sharing that would be less than the bus fare . I also think it unfair to condemn people being fat if they are poor. Cheap food ,easy to cook is fattening. Rice pasta flour. If they walk they are even more hungry and have less time to cook ( cooking from scratch is cheaper than prepared food but also costs more in fuel) we can only put tinned meat or fish in not high quality protein like smoked salmon and fillet steak so I think people are being a bit harsh. Also I benefitted from fierce domestic science teachers who obliged us to learn the basics . I think part of the food bank should be an offer of wartime cookery lessons. I know I' ts not possible but...

The problem isn't whether the country is rich but how wide the gap is between rich and poor. The gap in the UK has been growing exponentially eversince Saint Margaret promised that wealth would "trickle down" as it was it shot upwards toward the already rich at a great rate.

You could be right there Gracesgran.

OP Oooh, sarky! Peace, man ✌?️