The Foodbank Donation Thread

uk1

I’m not certain if I’m allowed to mention, but the Felix Trust / Project is a great way of levering charity contributions for food.  Instead of buying food they get it all for free and pass it  on either directly to charities to distribute and even through weekly contributions via schools to families who need regular “no questions asked” food.  So no one is referred or begs.   There is enough for everyone.  It is almost entirely staffed by volunteers and they even have volunteers descend on fields and harvest fresh food that the farmer  has decided not to harvest and to donate.  The amount of strawberries people find in their food parcels!

So your cash isn’t been used to buy food - which they get for free from their supermarket and other food partners and suppliers - even the top brands and restaurants give - but simply to collect it and to distribute it.

 That in practice means that £21.00 monthly via tax enhancement is £25.00 which is enough to provide around 5 meals daily - every day.  This is enormously satisfying because it means that for a regular monthly donation you are feeding others.  £25 on buying and giving food to food banks levers nowhere near as much.

I really love this charity and it is where the bulk of our giving goes.

Jeff

Brie

Thanks for the rec @uk1

Looks like it's London based but there may be other similar projects elsewhere.

The Felix Project - London Charity Fighting Hunger and Food Waste

uk1

Thanks,  yes it did start in London and I believe it to be expanding largely by sharing their knowledge and widening their model and concept.  

I am a Londoner by birth but haven’t lived in London for 40 years.  I chose them because my priority was to make my funding go as far as possible and there is a lot of poverty in London as well as anywhere else.  So put another way I think that by helping Felix I m probably helping 10 times as many hungry people than if I bought food for a local food bank instead.

Some piccies  …..  these aren’t brilliant - I’v seen some great one’s over the years but remember all the food was free and it’s all volunteer  led - so the cash you give is highly levered to the delivery to people in need … who as you rightly say is largely currntly in London.

https://www.google.co.uk/search?q=food+felix+trust+project&tbm=isch&ved=2ahUKEwic0sy_3tr4AhUPNBoKHf3_C3gQ2-cCegQIABAA&oq=food+felix+trust+project&gs_lcp=CgNpbWcQAzoECCMQJ1DRDFjKUWCUWWgBcAB4AIABfogB3QaSAQQxMC4ymAEAoAEBqgELZ3dzLXdpei1pbWfAAQE&sclient=img&ei=foHAYpybOY_oaP3_r8AH&bih=983&biw=1121

uk1

Brie said:

Thanks for the rec @uk1

Looks like it's London based but there may be other similar projects elsewhere.

The Felix Project - London Charity Fighting Hunger and Food Waste

A senior moment.

I should have mentioned Fareshare ……

My “thing” is that food poverty is more than just “”one bag” it is often a grinding week in week out continuous poverty.  And because responsible parents feed their kids in preference to paying their rent it also helps minimise poverty led homelessness.  So I prefer food-banking that isn’t referal led but allows people to take what they need even if they pay a very small amount for it. So instead of hunger being followed by homelessness, hard-up families receive food support when they know they need it. And they do it in a dignified way rather than treated like something out of Edwardian times. They have it for as long as they need it and needn't feel that they are hopeless and failing whilst they use it.  They might pay £4 for £40 worth of food and also take as much fresh veg and fruit and bread as they "want".  And that is how it should be.

So Fareshare and Felix seem right to me.  There will be the odd “chancer” but better this than kids and parents going hungry and being made homeless. I hate the undignified begging and referral “one-off emergency” nature of traditional foodbanks such as Trussell Trust.  There is enough food if “harvested” and “gleaned” wisely and distributed compassionately and pragmatically.

Every little helps  A reasonably "meaty" (  ) monthly contribution can literally help feed a couple of hundred people each month.

https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/food-bank-britain-inside-the-nations-newest-emergency-service-v5mdqncgt?shareToken=28e61300a47a05a053a31dadb2a9b2c1

https://fareshare.org.uk/what-we-do/

Jeff

Misslayed

I'm putting Lidl's own brand factor 50 children's sunscreen in the collection basket this week, as I live by the sea (and I'm a malignant melanoma survivor). 

Hippycamper

arnoldy said:

Believe it or not food is actually very cheap....astonishingly cheap...mince £2/500g, Pork £4kg, Chickens £3-4 each, Carrots, potatoes, veg 20-50p per Kg or unit.

It feels like the best thing foodbanks could do is teach people how to meal plan, cook, budget, use leftovers. Maybe they should buy slow cookers for people which are not expensive. It may be well meaning, and necessary in the short term, but food handouts are not the answer long term.

I love my slow cooker, admittedly it a very old one, a tower 1.5litre, which is 35watts an hour to run, (1000watts on my meter is 31p day rate, 22p night rate)

porridge takes about 3hrs in it, so 3p to cook at day rate.

chick pea curry is a favourite to, as is kidney bean curry, egg curry, tough bits of meat cooked extremely slowly become a tender.

Recently a very dear friend asked me to take them to a place near the food bank, I knew financially they were struggling but at 58years old, they were embarrassed. 

I did a cupboard clear out,

soupmix is 39p In Asda/Morrison’s, just add a sixth of a packet, a litre of chicken stock, and an onion, so less than 20p you gives four good bowlfuls.

I think arnoldy may have a point, perhaps a slow cooker, that bought wholesale are a couple of pounds, the ingredients and a “how to cook” the different  meals that are in the box.

Writing this, I realised the pukka pie that I want for my tea will take 20minutes to heat up the oven and around 45/50 minutes to cook will cost me approximately 35p in the 1.09Kwh (1090watts per hour) electric oven.

It’s frightening that the cost of utilities etc can determine what you can or can’t eat, but slow cookers do offer a very inexpensive, healthy option

Brie

@Misslayed
Excellent idea!!  I'm near the beach too and given the hot weather I'm sure there's lots of kids out in the surf to keep cool.  Going to the beach is one of the few free ways to keep kids busy - assuming one doesn't have to pay for the stupidly high parking charges the council insists on.  

kimwp

PennyForThem_2 said:

Why hasn't this thread got any comments?

I am going to be very, very contraversial here - why has anybody got the 'right' other than children, to eat 3 meals a day?

Aside from the fact that there is enough food to feed everyone, therefore everyone should get fed, desperate, hungry people make poor decisions and society is therefore negatively affected.

Where we are in life is almost entirely down to luck. People might elevate their situation by working hard, but the fact is there will be thousands of people who start at the same place, work just as hard and get nowhere. It's a good fact to remember when considering others.

2childmum2

An elderly friend was reminiscing today about her mum, who when my friend was a child would not eat so that the children could eat.  My friend commented that she now understands why her mum did so little - she didn't have the energy as she just didn't eat enough.  To the detriment of herself, her children and others around her.

powerspowers

When we received the £150 council tax rebate I asked our local food bank what they needed and they suggested supermarket gift vouchers for the times when someone is in need of something they don’t regularly stock- a particular sized nappy or gluten free items. 

I also remember going on a food bank delivery run to a family at halloween and taking a pumpkin - the kids were delighted cause they’d never had one