Food and Baby Banks

[El Cid]

I don’t recall as a kid having my folks boiling water before we had to drink it.
You can also say what you like about 1970s trade unions but I can’t remember anyone in a full-time job needing to use a food bank. 

 

Why do we have food and baby banks?

In my area we also have little free libraries.

We are richer, right, so why free food?

Getting stuff for free is great, who would turn that down?

Large organisations have to pay to dispose of waste and its trendy to recycle, so love to give food away.

I have never used a food bank, not even when I was poor, have you?

 

In my opinion, food banks spread when people on benefits were being sanctioned. The benefits system don't seem to help people in the same way that they used to.

Edited May 16 by El Cid

[Mister Gee]

3 minutes ago, El Cid said:

I don’t recall as a kid having my folks boiling water before we had to drink it.
You can also say what you like about 1970s trade unions but I can’t remember anyone in a full-time job needing to use a food bank. 

 

Why do we have food and baby banks?

In my area we also have little free libraries.

We are richer, right, so why free food?

Getting stuff for free is great, who would turn that down?

Large organisations have to pay to dispose of waste and its trendy to recycle, so love to give food away.

I have never used a food bank, not even when I was poor, have you?

 

In my opinion, food banks spread when people on benefits were being sanctioned. The benefits system don't seem to help people in the same way that they used to.

Are you alright, you seem to have taken a funny turn?

[El Cid]

8 minutes ago, Mister Gee said:

Are you alright, you seem to have taken a funny turn?

 

Just livening up the forum.

[Axe]

They are just glorified soup kitchens.  Soup kitchens have been going since the Quakers era. 

[ECCOnoob]

8 minutes ago, Axe said:

They are just glorified soup kitchens.  Soup kitchens have been going since the Quakers era. 

Hmmm. I think there is a major difference between them and soup kitchens though. 

 

Soup kitchens where places where people who are absolutely destitute and street homeless used to go to be fed and watered and looked after. Food Banks, in my opinion, seem to be a cop-out used by those looking for the easy way out expecting the state to keep propping them up.  

 

Whilst I don't discount that there must be some level of genuine destitute people using food bank assistance, these must be in the absolute minority. So therefore I do wonder just how many of those regular users would miraculously find they can scrape together enough money to buy food at a normal supermarket if one of those food banks shut down tomorrow. 

 

I certainly did not grow up in a rich family. I am one of four children and when we were young my mum and dad didn't have a lots of money. We had a very modest home with a ridiculously high mortgage rate, they shared a second hand old banger car between them and when it came to putting food on the table, my mother used to have to use her part-time wages to scrape around to buying enough to last first half of the week desperately clinging on until my dad got paid on the Friday and they could buy more food for the second half.   There were no food banks, no discount supermarkets, no found shops, no voucher schemes or universal school breakfast clubs. They managed.   

 

Our food might have been simple stuff. It might have been  recycled with the same dish two or three times in different guises but there was always enough.  

 

Said before and will say again.  I'd really like to see just how poor all these abundance of food bank users are. Just what exactly are they spending their money that puts them in such a position to literally be starving as they claim.  

 

Something really doesn't add up and I don't fall for this over simplistic guff that it's somehow all a "Tories problem" or "cost of living crisis".  Plenty of people are having to tighten their belts but they are managing.

[SheffieldForum]

1 minute ago, ECCOnoob said:

Food Banks, in my opinion, seem to be a cop-out used by those looking for the easy way out expecting the state to keep propping them up.  

 

Eh?!

 

Food banks are used by many, and not just those on benefits.

 

There are nurses and carers and people of other employment that are having to use food banks for various reasons.

 

And food banks generally aren't state run.

 

I suggest you do some research into food banks and the people that use them (and the multiple reasons thereof), or even spend some time with volunteers who run these schemes. It would really open your eyes and heart.

[Axe]

14 minutes ago, SheffieldForum said:

 

Eh?!

 

Food banks are used by many, and not just those on benefits.

 

There are nurses and carers and people of other employment that are having to use food banks for various reasons.

 

And food banks generally aren't state run.

 

I suggest you do some research into food banks and the people that use them (and the multiple reasons thereof), or even spend some time with volunteers who run these schemes. It would really open your eyes and heart.

What about those nurses and carers who go on expensive foreign holidays and then claim poverty afterwards for an excuse to use the food banks ?

[SheffieldForum]

Just now, Axe said:

What about those nurses and carers who go on expensive foreign holidays and then claim poverty afterwards for an excuse to use the food banks ?

You're trolling now.

 

[hackey lad]

35 minutes ago, ECCOnoob said:

Hmmm. I think there is a major difference between them and soup kitchens though. 

 

Soup kitchens where places where people who are absolutely destitute and street homeless used to go to be fed and watered and looked after. Food Banks, in my opinion, seem to be a cop-out used by those looking for the easy way out expecting the state to keep propping them up.  

 

Whilst I don't discount that there must be some level of genuine destitute people using food bank assistance, these must be in the absolute minority. So therefore I do wonder just how many of those regular users would miraculously find they can scrape together enough money to buy food at a normal supermarket if one of those food banks shut down tomorrow. 

 

I certainly did not grow up in a rich family. I am one of four children and when we were young my mum and dad didn't have a lots of money. We had a very modest home with a ridiculously high mortgage rate, they shared a second hand old banger car between them and when it came to putting food on the table, my mother used to have to use her part-time wages to scrape around to buying enough to last first half of the week desperately clinging on until my dad got paid on the Friday and they could buy more food for the second half.   There were no food banks, no discount supermarkets, no found shops, no voucher schemes or universal school breakfast clubs. They managed.   

 

Our food might have been simple stuff. It might have been  recycled with the same dish two or three times in different guises but there was always enough.  

 

Said before and will say again.  I'd really like to see just how poor all these abundance of food bank users are. Just what exactly are they spending their money that puts them in such a position to literally be starving as they claim.  

 

Something really doesn't add up and I don't fall for this over simplistic guff that it's somehow all a "Tories problem" or "cost of living crisis".  Plenty of people are having to tighten their belts but they are managing.

[ECCOnoob]

26 minutes ago, SheffieldForum said:

 

Eh?!

 

Food banks are used by many, and not just those on benefits.

 

There are nurses and carers and people of other employment that are having to use food banks for various reasons.

 

And food banks generally aren't state run.

 

I suggest you do some research into food banks and the people that use them (and the multiple reasons thereof), or even spend some time with volunteers who run these schemes. It would really open your eyes and heart.

But that is exactly my point. Why is it being used by nurses and carers? Some of whom are earning far more than minimum wage.   Qualified Nurses certainly aren't on poverty wages so I have to ask what exactly are they spending their money on. 

 

  Cost of living crisis is not a new concept. Plenty of our past generations had to live through similar circumstances if not even worse. So what exactly did they do that this modern generation can't manage. 

 

Starting pay for a qualified nurse is between £25,600 to £31,500 a year.   Even lowly National minimum wage for most adults equates to around £22,300 annual salary for a full-time worker. 

 

They seriously cannot afford a basic weekly grocery shop on that sort of salary.  Like I said, something doesn't add up.