Another food bank opens. Hurrah!

Stupid isn't it, are they really so stupid that they think they are a good thing.

Bit like celebrating the fact that Elsie can use her bus pass to keep warm.

If it gets as bad as they seem to think, the busses are going to be packed - be quite a nice meeting point for the elderly?

It’s probably very good news for those who sadly need it.

Food bank use was negligible until the Tories took office in 2010, since then it has risen hugely.

People using food bank year on year to the nearest 1000

2008
26000
2010
61000
2013
913000
2015
1113000
2017
1354000
2019
1906000
2021
2537000

This year set to rise much further.

A record to be proud of and excited to be able to celebrate the opening of more to feed the hungry.

Pity they can’t sell heat as there would be massive takers for that as well.

There will come a time when those who add to the food bank can no longer afford to do so. That time is closer than we think.

When did soup kitchens become food banks

Anniebach

When did soup kitchens become food banks

They didn’t, they still exist but provide for the absolute destitute and homeless. So you will find them in big cities feeding the homeless who have no facility to prepare and cook their own food.

The run alongside food banks.

They look positively gleeful - instead of shame-facedly admitting that it's desperately needed.

We will soon be hearing about our WORLD BEATING food banks. And calling it good news misses the irony.

Thank goodness there are such places.

Oh good god! - what must they be thinking of? They are not opening a sports/arts facility (hooray!), but a lifeline for the poor who should not be in that situation in the first place if it were not for the Tories' miserable policies - I've seen it all now.

The irony. Let's celebrate how many people can't afford to eat.
Awful situation. Nothing to be proud of.

Like Tory Natalie Elphicke who was asking people to support Dover food bank last December when it's she and her fellow politicians who should be addressing the crisis. This is the woman who said Marcus Rashford should spend less time playing politics.

It was her husband, former MP Charles Elphicke (who she divorced after he was jailed for sex offences) who criticised an Oxfam campaign against the government's austerity programme. The charity had called for all parties to reduce food poverty in the UK; its posters highlighted a "perfect storm", which included references to zero-hour contracts, unemployment and benefit cuts. Elphicke described the campaign as shamefully political.

What makes people think this way?

Parsley3

We will soon be hearing about our WORLD BEATING food banks. And calling it good news misses the irony.

Like the World First shipping people off to Rwanda - what a boast!

Parsley3- hilarious ?- world beating foodbanks!
I wonder if the government are planning an Ofsted style inspectorate for them?
Hmm: mine might be "Requires Improvement, " as it's pretty amateur!

Makes me think of the report of the Hartlepool voter who said that he was voting tory because when \labour was in power there weren't any food banks...

Didn't Rees Mogg say that the existence of Food Banks was 'uplifting'?

Don't we just love a tory...

I assume that the leader of Dartford was thinking along the lines of the ancient system where the lord of the manor used to hand out the leftovers of a feast to the poor and destitute !

Charity is always a good thing, regardless of whose 'fault' the need is perceived to be.

Baggs

Charity is always a good thing, regardless of whose 'fault' the need is perceived to be.

Charity should not be needed in the fifth richest nation in the world to pay for basic necessities of life. Charity is a good way to supplement peoples lives, to enrich them and support their quality of life. Something is very seriously wrong with a rich society that expects people to use a food bank to survive.

Baggs

Charity is always a good thing, regardless of whose 'fault' the need is perceived to be.

Gosh - I do not think I can agree with that entirely. Charity is of course a good thing in general - but for those who have created the need for this charity and put people through misery and anxiety to be smiling merrily at the opening of a charity to try and deal with their actions sticks in the craw somewhat.

It is good that food banks exist; it is not good that they have become necessary. Those folk opening this facility with their big grins should be back where they belong working to prevent the need for them. I find it sickening.

Baggs

Charity is always a good thing, regardless of whose 'fault' the need is perceived to be.

Channeling your inner Rees Mogg, there, Baggs?

Casdon

Baggs

Charity is always a good thing, regardless of whose 'fault' the need is perceived to be.

Charity should not be needed in the fifth richest nation in the world to pay for basic necessities of life. Charity is a good way to supplement peoples lives, to enrich them and support their quality of life. Something is very seriously wrong with a rich society that expects people to use a food bank to survive.

I agree that it shouldn't be necessary but it is so people who are helping the unnecessarily needy are being charitable, which is a good thing.

Which is what I said above. Do not assume I meant more than I actually said. Nor you, maiz, because that's what you're doing too.

Baggs

Casdon

Baggs

Charity is always a good thing, regardless of whose 'fault' the need is perceived to be.

Charity should not be needed in the fifth richest nation in the world to pay for basic necessities of life. Charity is a good way to supplement peoples lives, to enrich them and support their quality of life. Something is very seriously wrong with a rich society that expects people to use a food bank to survive.

I agree that it shouldn't be necessary but it is so people who are helping the unnecessarily needy are being charitable, which is a good thing.

Which is what I said above. Do not assume I meant more than I actually said. Nor you, maiz, because that's what you're doing too.

Baggs your comment was meant in a political context, otherwise you wouldn’t have highlighted the word ‘fault’ - I didn’t assume, I knew exactly what you meant. What do you mean by the way when you say ‘unnecessarily needy’, that’s also a political comment?

I sometimes, and today is one of those days, feel as if I have had a bad 'trip' or slipped into an alternative universe. Yesterday we had the farcical transportation, by gold coach, of a jewel encrusted crown, today we have a self satisfied, smug politician congratulating themselves that there are so many desperate people in their town that another foodbank has opened.....then to cap it all, it seems that the Minister for substances and fooling the populace has been talking in silly voices mocking accents on BBC ( USA and Liverpool if you missed the edifying moments).