Food banks

[Westdene Seagull]

My point was that if you had as you say debt and was struggling then you have a responsibilty to liquidate/downsize some of your assets, be it a car, your phone, perhaps your alcohol, tobacco or gym mebrship etc etc..

If you think you shouldn't then you shouldnt expect me to use my time and efforts to come a deliver a hamper to your door, when my time might have been better spent delivering two hampers to the homeless guy living in a doorway down the road from you.

And it is exactly people like you that need a dose of unemployment to understand what it is really like. You seriously think with receiving £300 a month we didn't cancel all luxuries and anything unnecessary ? Didn't sell things like laptops ? Despite this bills still keep coming with ever threatening letters - gas, electric, water, council tax, mortgage - and you still have to get food on top of that. Food banks are there for a very good reason and as with any 'benefit' there will be those that abuse it, a vast majority that use the service need it.

 

[BigGully]

And it is exactly people like you that need a dose of unemployment to understand what it is really like. You seriously think with receiving £300 a month we didn't cancel all luxuries and anything unnecessary ? Didn't sell things like laptops ? Despite this bills still keep coming with ever threatening letters - gas, electric, water, council tax, mortgage - and you still have to get food on top of that. Food banks are there for a very good reason and as with any 'benefit' there will be those that abuse it, a vast majority that use the service need it.

I have been there, I was under the stress of impending bailiffs, anxious to open letters, its tough, draining, stressful, sleepless nights you name it I experience it perhaps more than you who knows, but that doesnt qualify me or you during those times for food parcels.

I had to responsibly cut any 'extra' off of my expense sheet, I never once contemplated a food parcel, perhaps I might have seen it as free money as it could offest it against my own food expenditure so it might have helped, but these foodbanks are not meant for you and me during those testing times, I was under extreme pressure but not hungry, I made sure of that.

Why should you access food that might be better used by someone with real hunger, you weren't unique nor was I, if you were that desperate go bankrupt, I nearly did and would of if it meant feeding my kids, but I am guessing your house had equity and this option would of cost you money maybe lots of it.

Your explaining a totally different set of circumstances than I am, your situation isnt a validation of foodbanks.

 

[GreersElbow]

I have been there, I was under the stress of impending bailiffs, anxious to open letters, its tough, draining, stressful, sleepless nights you name it I experience it perhaps more than you who knows, but that doesnt qualify me or you during those times for food parcels.

I had to responsibly cut any 'extra' off of my expense sheet, I never once contemplated a food parcel, perhaps I might have seen it as free money as it could offest it against my own food expenditure so it might have helped, but these foodbanks are not meant for you and me during those testing times, I was under extreme pressure but not hungry, I made sure of that.

Why should you access food that might be better used by someone with real hunger, you weren't unique nor was I, if you were that desperate go bankrupt, I nearly did and would of if it meant feeding my kids, but I am guessing your house had equity and this option would of cost you money maybe lots of it.

Your explaining a totally different set of circumstances than I am, your situation isnt a validation of foodbanks.

So you're sceptical of food banks, I assume you'd prefer better welfare provision? What alternative is there to food banks if you don't believe in a welfare system that doesn't trap people into poverty. The fallacy of your argument is that you're taking your analogy as a total portrayal of a network and discrediting everyone else's argument as subjective, much like how you're arguing. It's a circular argument that's just a series of contradictions rather than premises and inferences....

 

[mikeyjh]

How many people who go to food banks have the latest smart-phones, designer brand clothes, pets that cost a fortune to feed, Sky, massive TVs, tattoos, smoking habits?? If they got their priorities right most of them would not need food banks.

I'm going to have a guess - Zero. You do realise you can't just rock up and do the equivalent of a weekly shop in Waitrose don't you?

 

[BigGully]

So you're sceptical of food banks, I assume you'd prefer better welfare provision? What alternative is there to food banks if you don't believe in a welfare system that doesn't trap people into poverty. The fallacy of your argument is that you're taking your analogy as a total portrayal of a network and discrediting everyone else's argument as subjective, much like how you're arguing. It's a circular argument that's just a series of contradictions rather than premises and inferences....

I havent got time to work out that bit .......

No no, you havent read my posts.

I have become skeptical that there is actually any need for them.

Through my own experiences it is clear that there will be recipients, most food banks either have a vague or none qualifying criteria, so they are used and used quite extensively, of that I have no doubt.

To then use it as some kind of indicator of the nations poverty driven hunger is totally flawed, even in this debate some posters have concluded that anyone on benefits should in someway qualify, or in actual fact need it as a necessary associated benefit.

My experience is that when I delivered them there was not the poverty that might then prompt hunger issues, but there were many qualifying recipients.

 

[MissGull]

Lots of supermarkets collect products for food banks.

To use the food bank you have to have a referral from social services and be facing extreme hardship, or a sudden crisis. It's not for people who forget to budget for food. Sometimes, things happen in life that cause considerable expense and there's no alternative. How many people have savings these days??

 

[Mr Banana]

This is pretty good: http://www.offthefence.org.uk/antifreeze/

They have an Amazon wishlist as well.

 

[Thunder Bolt]

Lots of supermarkets collect products for food banks.

To use the food bank you have to have a referral from social services and be facing extreme hardship, or a sudden crisis. It's not for people who forget to budget for food. Sometimes, things happen in life
that cause considerable expense and there's no alternative. How many people have savings these days??

It's been admitted that a lot of people using food banks is down to red tape & delays in paying benefits. Anyone who has had to deal with the benefits system knows how that can happen.

 

[turienzo's lovechild]

This is pretty good: http://www.offthefence.org.uk/antifreeze/

They have an Amazon wishlist as well.

thank you, that's actually who I work for. We're a day centre rather than a food bank though...we do refer into food banks and receive food from fareshare.

 

[BigGully]

Lots of supermarkets collect products for food banks.

To use the food bank you have to have a referral from social services and be facing extreme hardship, or a sudden crisis. It's not for people who forget to budget for food. Sometimes, things happen in life that cause considerable expense and there's no alternative. How many people have savings these days??

That is absolutely not true, each food bank can compose their own qualifying criteria, any agency might refer someone and inevitably they can then advise someone thats its available and they might then become a recipient, another reason for the flawed analysis.

If social services indentify genuine hunger issues prompted through either dysfunctionality or neglect, their priority wouldnt be to refer that family to a food bank, there would be other avenues to deliver care to that family, although at some stage they might access a food bank, that is an example where the recipient of the food bank wasnt accessing it due to poverty moreso a consequence of their neglect.

I have to ask what is the unexpected considerable expense we are all exposed to, that might then throw us into the necessity for food banks ??

 

[Mr Banana]

thank you, that's actually who I work for. We're a day centre rather than a food bank though...we do refer into food banks and receive food from fareshare.

Nice one! Would you recommend donating to you, a food bank or somewhere else? I've been meaning to do it for ages - the phone at yours often doesn't get picked up.

 

[clippedgull]

It's been admitted that a lot of people using food banks is down to red tape & delays in paying benefits. Anyone who has had to deal with the benefits system knows how that can happen.

That would probably be the major cause of the need for food banks, along with sanctions imposed, sometimes incorrectly. In both cases it just highlights the shambles the DWP has become under the Tories especially the idiotic bumbling fool IDS and his thick scouse sidekick.

 

[turienzo's lovechild]

Nice one! Would you recommend donating to you, a food bank or somewhere else? I've been meaning to do it for ages - the phone at yours often doesn't get picked up.

for food i'd go for a food bank...for clothing, toiletries etc. then we'd gladly receive it. Out of interest what number are you ringing? We try and respond to all of our answerphone messages pretty quickly

 

[Mr Banana]

for food i'd go for a food bank...for clothing, toiletries etc. then we'd gladly receive it. Out of interest what number are you ringing? We try and respond to all of our answerphone messages pretty quickly

774140. My fault - I've never left a message

 

[aolstudios]

Not too sure about these burgeoning schemes, my own experience has been a little disheartening if I am honest.

Not withstanding homelessness and their undoubted hunger, cold, drug habit and mental health issues beyond them I am not convinced that poverty driven hunger really exists.

I delivered a hamper to a single parent and turned up at her house ( albeit rented ) with a kitchen island and a house considerably more luxurious than mine, her children obviously not undernourished, unfortunately just one example of the majority of houses where I squeezed passed cars worth £1000's + before delivering to a grateful qualifying recipient.

Do it and fill yer boots, but I think we are primarily doing it for ourselves, damning I know but outside of the extreme cases which should ultimately be supported from other agencies it was not really as expected.

Well, who could argue with such a huge & exhaustive survey?

 

[turienzo's lovechild]

774140. My fault - I've never left a message

thats the right number at least! you can always PM me with any queries

 

[Herr Tubthumper]

My point was that if you had as you say debt and was struggling then you have a responsibilty to liquidate/downsize some of your assets, be it a car, your phone, perhaps your alcohol, tobacco or gym mebrship etc etc..

If you think you shouldn't then you shouldnt expect me to use my time and efforts to come a deliver a hamper to your door, when my time might have been better spent delivering two hampers to the homeless guy living in a doorway down the road from you.

I hope you thoroughly checked out "the homeless guy living in a doorway down the road" to ensure he had enough holes in his shoes and had been living rough long enough to qualify for your hamper.

 

[nicko31]

They had a phone in a few weeks ago on Radio 5 about food banks. A woman rang with 5 children and claimed she couldn't afford to feed them proper food, "I can only afford to give them chicken and chips for a quid"

They are people that are hungry but in most cases it could be completely avoided. They just can't cook a cheap meal with decent fresh ingredients or the money is going somewhere else

 

[Barrel of Fun]

Well, who could argue with such a huge & exhaustive survey?

Ha! Quite. It beats Lancome when they survey 96 women and come out with a 76% happy rate.

 

[beorhthelm]

They had a phone in a few weeks ago on Radio 5 about food banks. A woman rang with 5 children and claimed she couldn't afford to feed them proper food, "I can only afford to give them chicken and chips for a quid"

They are people that are hungry but in most cases it could be completely avoided. They just can't cook a cheap meal with decent fresh ingredients or the money is going somewhere else

careful, someone recently dared to say this may a problem for some families, and was predictably pilloried for it.