Food banks (the hidden tax)

EllanVannin there are clothing banks in the U.K.
I volunteered in one when my children were small. I expect the YMCA has them now? They do a lot of good work.

This scheme for one benefits from supermarket donations:

fareshare.org.uk/getting-food/fareshare-go-support/

I don’t think we do have a “greedy country”. The businesses round here, including the supermarkets, certainly do support the food banks and other charities in many ways. And charity shops exist purely to raise money for those in need, so they have to charge fair prices.

Even charity shops are cashing in on this greedy society with their now inflated prices !

When there's been a disaster abroad, warehouses are opened up and donations are given. Why not the same for OUR desperate people ? Clothes, bedding etc.

In the 40s and 50s if you were in need of help you had to apply for national assistance and it was always means tested. I recall older family members referring to being impoverished and no way were they going " on the parish ".
We always grew fruit and vegetables and neighbours had chickens so there was a ready supply of eggs.
The thought of being unable to provide hot food is dreadful.

I know exactly what you are talking about grannyactivist. Once people are down they cannot get back up again.

Its utterly soul destroying.

Sometimes " poorer" areas are well served by donations from the community. Fair Share is also a very good organisation.

Thank you Riverwalk that's brilliant I can easily do that and pop something in the box when I do the mid week top up.

Grannyactivist, that's truly heartbreaking and this country should be thoroughly ashamed of putting people through this indignity.

Why isn't there a shop stocked with goods/foods from businesses who throw away tons of stuff ? Never mind about reducing prices in-store, give the damn stuff away to those who are desperate. What a greedy country it is to squeeze the last penny from folk !

My mind boggles at wanting let alone, getting tax relief for food bank donations.

I certainly gift-aid charitable giving if I can, but that benefits the charity not me. Apart from that I do not claim any tax relief for the charitable giving I do . The sheer hassle of going through paperwork for relatively small sums of money given to different charities isn't worth the effort.

Tax relief for charitable giving is for those giving large amounts, not for the day to day donating most of us do.

grannyactivist, I echo anno's words.
It's a small thing, but something that sticks in my mind:
seeing a small family with a young child, kneeling on the ground looking through their bag of groceries that they'd received from the Foodbank. The real nitty-gritty of it. The clients go to the front door and the deliveries are handed in at the back door. I was driving away after my own delivery of a couple of bags of groceries and saw the family and this sight has stayed with me. My heart goes out to these people. Really, never knowing where their next meal is coming from.

boatWhile it is true that anyone, not necessarily the well-off", can claim charitable donations against income tax, they can also elect for that claimable sum to be donated to charity. Most charities have a form that a donor can complete to ensure that this happens.

grannyactivist, thank you. Just thank you for being you.

For me the problem should be solved by tackling social housing. Private renting is a scandal and blight on millions of peoples lives. The costs are extortionate .

We need billions of pounds of investment now. 59% of people used to live in social housing . Property should never be a commodity that people can make money on. It is a human right, not a privilege. And the cost impacts on personal disposable income = foodbanks.

I spend almost all of my time with the people we are talking about on this thread; people who use food banks because they literally have nowhere else to turn in order to feed themselves and/or their children. I have never met one single person, I'll repeat that, I have never met one single person, who is glad to be there and take advantage of having free food. Some of them are almost dying of 'shame', some of them are crying with the seeming indignity of it, most of them are just deadened to the hopeless, helplessness of their fate and live with the sense of inadequacy that comes with not even having the resources to eat properly.

Almost every week I hear that someone has complained to the foodbank because they think that Mr. or Mrs. so-and-so is 'cheating' the system. What people don't often realise is that those of us who refer to the foodbank have EVIDENCE of income, expenditure and the situation that has led to a referral. We don't just hand out vouchers because someone has told us a story; we check and double check and ask our clients to show us their bank statements, their rent accounts, their bills etc.

People are poor and/or homeless for many, many reasons, but most of the people I meet have had few advantages in life, often have little or no family support, have a mental or learning disability or a physical one. They come in their wheelchairs and limping with their dodgy hips and knees, they come in dying of cancer or something equally horrible or after a family bereavement; they come in tears because they've been denied DLA or PIP, or because they've waited for five weeks with NO MONEY for their Universal Credit claim to be paid and have just been told that there's another problem with the paperwork and they'll have to wait even longer.

And I sometimes come home and read another thread on here about foodbanks and if I'm sick and tired of dealing with it day in day out I end up crying myself because some people still just don't get it; because working alongside these poor, poor people is heartbreaking and I feel so desperately sorry for them and I worry that one of my clients is the one who is going to break and walk in front of a lorry or a train one day!

This is an interesting collection of papers regarding food aid and food banks in general. It collects together papers covering the post-war French "societal good" ideas as well as the rise of food banks over the last 10 years.
openaccess.city.ac.uk/14988/8/Final%20with%20changes%20copy.pdf
Re the Trussell Trust. In 2014 they were responsible for about half of the UK foodbanks. No idea what proportion they run now.

The job centre here has a poster, advising people who have no money about food banks and how to access them.

well paid

I don't believe there is a normalisation of food aid - I can't think of anyone I know or any person I've ever worked with who thought it was normal to use a food bank.

Coincidentally, I was thinking this very thing two days ago. I was in a supermarket out of town, in a very deprived area and I noticed the foodbank donation box was full to overflowing! Maybe being nearer to poverty focuses the mind on the poor people who are even further down the ladder. Whatever the reason, bravo to every lovely person who stops, thinks and donates to these much needed foodbanks!

Urmstongran daughter is a single parent of two. Maintenance topped up by pt work and UC. UC is a s**t benefit to be on. If she hadn't me, many times she would have starved waiting for money to be paid. Many people on benefits don't have anyone to help. People on sickness benefit turned down by assessors often starve and can end up on the street.
Believe it or not real poverty exits in this country.
When I worked ft I had to take on a pt job. without it I might have had to resort to foodbanks. (incidentally I worked in the --well paid--civil service)

Wasn't it the case that Labour refused to publicise the food banks because they were embarrassed that people needed them? Then the Conservatives came to power and said why not advertise them if people need them? Certainly when I went hungry in the late 1970's to ensure my DD had food, I would have been extremely grateful if food banks had existed. I donate 3 times a week in Tesco because I certainly do remember being hungry - as a young single mum due to poverty and as a child due to having a useless mother.

I think somewhere along the line there has been a normalisation n of food aid in the UK, with food banks on many high streets and food donation points in supermarkets. This is despite the UK Government’s commitment to the right of citizens to adequate food under the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights.

My point is that even if we completely abolished poverty, there would still be demand for food banks now.

It's not as though the people running them are going to shut up shop and go home while there are still people turning up claiming to be starving, is it?

Lily65

I think you have the core of the problem. "Because austerity pushes people into starvation".

When you only feel hunger on the minibus coming back from an an away match to your boarding school and say, "I'm starving", although you know will have your tea when you arrive, how can you possibly understand what it is like for people in real need?

Also, when donating, take into account that tins should, if possible, have ring-pulls. Not everyone has a tin opener.
I buy items for the Foodbank from Aldi when I get my own shopping. It's good quality food there, or I wouldn't be buying it for myself.
I usually add in a couple of bags of children's sweets, too.
Most weeks on their Facebook site, the local Foodbank will give a little list of the things they are running short of. Bread can also be handed in, because it's put in the their freezer and handed out as required.