Food banks

Soldato
Joined
16 Jun 2005
Posts
23,975
Location
In the middle
You do know you can't just walk into a food bank and demand food right? You have to be referred. The government think it's a great success that more and more people are having to visit food banks to survive.
'Let them eat cake'
 

233

233

Soldato
Joined
21 Nov 2004
Posts
13,500
Location
Wishaw
i'd imagine a good number of people using foodbanks are indeed needing the support,

i'd also imagine an even bigger number see it as something for nothing and leaves them more money to spend on fags booze and sky tv
 
Associate
Joined
29 Dec 2018
Posts
180
i'd imagine a good number of people using foodbanks are indeed needing the support,

i'd also imagine an even bigger number see it as something for nothing and leaves them more money to spend on fags booze and sky tv

I did some volunteering work for the Salvation Army and they offer a food bank. I used to interview people who needed the food, they are required to get a "food voucher" from a their support worker, mental health worker or from their local church, they are interviewed from them also as to why they need the food (debt, homelessness, crisis etc)

They aren't just given out willy nilly.
 
Soldato
Joined
30 Nov 2005
Posts
13,915
Is the rise in numbers visiting food banks due to poverty or because there are more food banks and they give food away for free?
Spend your £20 on some weed and call in at the food bank for tea, or spend frugally?

Hmm


*Not everyone, but a significant number I white guess.
 
Associate
Joined
15 Oct 2018
Posts
1,287
Last I heard you needed a referral to a foodbank (from somewhere like the DWP) and the limit is two visits. I'm guessing it varies from area to area.

So yeah, hardly a case of deciding to swing by in your car instead of going to the supermarket and asking them to load up the boot with free food. It also sounds like most self-respecting people find it a pretty soul destroying thing to have to do.
 
Soldato
Joined
10 Jul 2010
Posts
6,277
Universal credit: DWP ‘bans jobcentres from referring people to food banks’ - The Independent
Jobcentre staff have been ordered not to refer universal credit claimants to food banks, in a move campaigners have said is preventing vulnerable people from getting vital help and “hiding” those who are in need.

Food bank volunteers in Lewes in East Sussex have told The Independent people in need of support were “slipping through the net” after the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) issued the local jobcentre with a national directive stating they were no longer able to refer people.

DWP BANS LOCAL FOODBANK REFERRALS - Lewes Eye
The DWP (1) has banned local job centre staff from referring people to foodbanks for emergency food supplies.

Benefit claimants can often be left destitute because their money is not due to be paid for another month, or because their claim has not yet been decided or for other reasons, so a referral can often be vital if people are to keep body and soul together.

Now they will not be referred. Instead they will be told to go to the Citizens Advice Bureau or similar agencies that may be able to refer them. This means further delay and some difficult journeys for people in outlying parts of the district.
 
Soldato
Joined
27 Jan 2009
Posts
6,554
The kind of question asked by someone who wants to believe poverty doesnt exist in the UK.

The kind of reply from someone who doesn't know what actual *poverty* really is?

* I. E relative poverty compared to thoose in the worst positions globally.

I'm far from convinced that an increase in recorded food bank usage is evidence of a longer term trend of increased poverty over previous years, even within living memory for some.

Yes I know that you need a referral to go to one and yes I know that there are limitations based on their use.


But I also have first hand experience of people who live *chaotic* lives being given multiple perhaps undeserved chances by professionals and support workers to access special services as its often easier to paper over the cracks then address the underlying causes.

I think a wide selection of anonymized yet individual case studies of the surrounding circumstances of people accessing these services may well provide some interesting context.

There are some people left in unexpected (and usually temporary) dire staits due to things like universal benefits being messed up or delayed but there's also a load of people who are seemingly unable or unwilling to manage the simplest of domestic issues like making sure they don't spend all their money before the next lot is due when they still need to put some food on the table.
 
Last edited:
Soldato
Joined
4 Feb 2018
Posts
13,162
Permabanned
Joined
13 Aug 2011
Posts
1,398
Location
Leeds
Have a family member who uses a 'food bank' service who has kids and struggles to do a full shop every week.

From what I gather she pays £10 and gets a full green basket full of fruit and veg, fresh milk and meat, some random ready meals and frozen food. I believe most of if is from supermarkets and close to the sell by date, you can walk around and pick more stuff up to full shopping bags up.

Seems like it helps her out.
 
Back
Top Bottom