Children going hungry in the summer holidays

Fennel, I do believe some supermarkets, such as Aldi do donate unsold food.
Morrisons donate fruit and veg and Gregg's, unsold bread if the Foodbank van can get there before 5pm. Eggs have a date-stamp on them, so they're accepted.

"My DH used to work for a poultry firm, and we get eggs at a reduced price, so a dozen or so gets taken along, too. A person (client) is allowed 3 eggs. "
When in France we had chickens, and often had a surplus of eggs. I offered some to the french equivalent of food banks - a voluntary organisation - but they said they couldn't accept perishables.
"France
In total, around 3.5 million people rely on food banks in France.[94] One provider, the Banque Alimentaire has over 100 branches in France, serving 200 million meals a year to 1.85 million people.[95]"
In 2016 a law was passed making it an offense for supermarkets to throw away unsold food, instead donate to foodbanks. Does this law exist in the UK?
Back here in the NE I see many signs of poverty. It's difficult to know when to intervene and offer help. In my view it's mostly due to the lack of suitable jobs, in this digital age.

Reading some of these comments has made my blood boil ?. How good it must be, not to have to walk a mile in the worn-down shoes of those who need to use a Foodbank.
I also give a couple of bags of groceries, hygiene products, etc to our local Foodbank each week. My DH used to work for a poultry firm, and we get eggs at a reduced price, so a dozen or so gets taken along, too. A person (client) is allowed 3 eggs. I usually include pet food, too, because this is as much a necessity as is family food. One checkout assistant commented on the amount of pet food I’d included in my shopping, and I replied that most of it was for the Foodbank. Her reply was similar to an earlier poster’s about children - ‘They shouldn’t have pets if they can’t afford them’. She just about got her head in her hands. Without the comfortable presence of a much-loved pet, a lonely life might just about be pointless for some.
I also take clothes to the Foodbank that would normally go to the charity shop. If a person can’t afford food, then they can’t afford to buy clothes from a charity shop either.
We’re not encouraging laziness by helping people who have little, we’re sharing what we have. Anyway, what right have any of us to judge others, when we really don’t know their story?

People saying that being on benefits means that people shouldn't need food banks really have no idea. Have they heard of sanctioning and do they understand how unfair a system it is? Have they heard of delays? People often start off getting benefit having been pushed into debt. It is not a generous amount whatever the right wing press and poverty porn programmes may tell you.

I have made my local food bank my charity of choice. I know people that volunteer at it, so hear about the good work it does.

I understand people saying that the benefit system means that people shouldn’t need the food bank but children don’t get a choice in how their parents spend the money.

From the work I do at my local council I hear stories of children not having a hot meal from Friday lunch time until Monday. Also teachers giving children breakfast in school because they are too hungry to learn. It’s a very sad situation in this day and age.

The people running the food banks will deliver in some areas Miep1 - can you make enquiries at your surgery or from CAB?

I’m so sorry to read your post Miepl is there no charity organisation who could help you ? Being unable to physically get there should not exclude you from help! Where are you in the country roughly ?

I wish I could use a food bank; I certainly qualify and my doctor has suggested it on several occasions. BUT,in a wheelchair and with no car, nor access to one...getting to my local FB would take 2 buses there, and another three back, none of which run more than hourly. Then the million dollar question; how do I get home with whatever I am given? So yes, I understand only too well why some people have the audacity to* turn up in cars!*

Here in our small town in East Anglia one of the local churches provides packed lunches for three days a week for schoolchildren who are receiving free school dinners.

I support our local food bank by donating groceries every week.

I know a Mum who has had help from the Food Bank and I give her bags of Bramley apples - the children jump with joy and ask for an apple pie for tea please Mum!

As gillybob says, a family outing is expensive - yes, even if you take a picnic. I bought our toddlers an ice cream each for almost £5 at the van in the park this week. Bus fares are expensive, about £3 for 3 miles in this area.

The big screen tv's in houses where people have low incomes or are on benefits are often one of the first things to be named as extravagances by judgemental folks. Children don't play out or roam about as we did. We were lucky to have far fewer cars on the road and more open countryside. Also, our parents hadn't been indoctrinated by fear, into feeling if they took their eyes off us we'd be stolen away and it would be their fault. TV provides endless entertainment for children. Netflix isn't expensive and has great channels for children.
I'd much prefer they were outside playing but I've no problem understanding why a big tv is seen as essential. Especially when children have little else in comparison with many others of their age.

People really need to stop pretending the benefit system is generous and works. It doesnt.
Im disabled. Because of a computer mess up I was sanctioned. Which meant i only got 18 pound a week.
For six months.
In my voluntry work i have met hundreds of people in simalar situations. These are the people using foodbanks.
And the single mothers i know whos exs dont pay maitenance. They work as carers. Which is disgustingly low paid. But no one minds that the woman looking after there elderly relative is being paid under nmw when you take travel into account.
These woman are paying out at least over a grand every month on rest and food alone. Sometimes two grand.
Its easy to judge when you have loved through a time when housing was cheaper and jobs easier.

A cleaning vacancy came up in a care home near me and it had over a hundred vacancies.

Excellent post loopyloo I couldn’t agree more.

We live in a seaside town with beautiful beaches and old fashioned parks with a boating lake, playground, fair ground, swimming pool etc. Unbelievably there are children at my DGC’s primary school. who have never been there. The bus fare for a family of 2 adults and 2 children would be around £14 return, an awful lot of money to a family on benefits and that’s before you do anything else at all. I feel so sad for these poor children.

I merely suggested that in some cases we are subsiding expensive habits.
Such as eating?

Thanks icanhandthemback for your response to the nonsense about liberal/leftie/pc people.

The bottom line is, surely; yes,there are feckless parents, drunk parents, addicted parents, generally useless parents who will show off their latest tattoo in the queue outside the foodbank as they smoke a cigarette. I wouldn't have a tattoo or smoke, especially if my children were hungry, but it is not ME we are talking about is it? The children who are born to feckless and unfit parents need to know that others care, that there is another way, and by doing that perhaps we can stop perpetuating poor parenting. However, only very few at foodbanks are what some on here would refer to as 'undeserving poor', the vast majority have arrived at the door despite their best efforts, perhaps family illness causes a parent to lose their zero hours job, maybe the birth of a disabled child means one parent can no longer work as planned. We do not know, and must not judge.

I'm not anti-Tory, I am not necessarily liberal, I just consider myself humane. That doesn't seem an offensive thing to be.

Absolutely, Bagatelle. I always find it entertaining how the leftie-liberal mantra of "respect others' opinions" REALLY means "so long as they're PC." LGBT, muslim, anti-Tory - absolutely! Negative observations on the "deserving poor" - you should be silenced!

No child should go hungry. Simple as...

Some children will go hungry because their parents’ benefits have been messed up or they are drug addicts or have lost their jobs.
Others because their parents are irresponsible or stupid. I just spent a day with a highly qualified girl who fed her toddler 4 packs of crisps and nothing else that day, during which the baby wore the same nappy for 12 hours.
Is it the state’s role to feed hungry Children? Yes, if nobody else is doing it.

I can understand that a smart phone is now a basic essential. With it you can apply for jobs, contact relatives and friends, be contactable for work., find things on Freecycle, contact letting agents to look for a room to rent etc.
My heart goes out to families stuck in grotty flats over the summer holiday, while the middle class depart for holidays abroad or in Cornwall.
The things is when you are down it's difficult to climb up. Sometimes we need a helping hand.

No, not at all angry Missfoodlove, just telling it like it is. And some people can't (or won't) take it.......

Why can it not be accepted there are people who genuinely need food banks, people who do not but line up for anything going free. Same as people who claim benefits, but so wrong to assume the majority are scroungers.

Margs. You are clearly very angry. Why have you felt the need to be so rude?

I resent being referred to as judgemental by people who know nothing about me. I agree. There's too much self-righteous indignation.

(Now wait for it.)

Glad to hear you wish to volunteer to help out at your local foodbank, Missfoodlove - then you can really play at being "Lady Bountiful", eh......?