The Foodbank Donation Thread

Cherryfudge

Nice work, @MSE_Laura_F. Your blog mentioned that not everyone is in a position to donate which reminded me of the Hunger Site which I think is American. A click there helps feed someone, somewhere, and there's no charge.

For those able to gift aid, it adds about a quarter to the value of a donation to a charity. So £1 becomes £1.25, and £10 becomes £12.50. I believe food banks are often registered as charities so it's worth finding out if it's the case with your local one, and the Trussell Trust has information on their website. Not only does your money go further, but it allows staff to buy items that are needed but not donated.

Murphybear

Not strictly about giving to food banks but may be useful for people who need them.

“Fare share” is a national organisation that distributes food to those who need it but unlike many food banks don’t need a referral.  Most of the food is donated by supermarkets and the amounts they give throughout the country is amazing.  The other main difference is they have fresh food and loads of fruit and veg.  

I help out with our local one, it’s open for one hour on a Saturday.  Today they had crates of oranges and mandarins, bananas, large pineapples and sandwiches which were the day before their sell by date.  Last week they had fresh cakes, tons of tomatoes and fresh strawberries and cat food.  We never know what we’re going to get until the van turns up

 

pumpkin89

Brie said:

And just as an aside - and after waffling about single portion tins with ring pulls..... I was in Lidl today and saw they have 3 packs of single portion tins of tuna, each with a pull tab so not tin opener required.  A 3 pack was £1.29 but the Lidl app allowed you to buy 30 packs which should be £38.70 for just £19.99.  So that's 90 portions for 22p each.  What a bargoon!!!

Are you sure that's the case?  Their own website says you get 10 packs for £19.99 i.e. a total of 30 cans for 66.6p each.
https://www.lidl.co.uk/p/nixe-tuna-in-brine-case-deal/p138481?pageId=10026779&tabCode=Current_Sales_Week

Still good value, but not quite as bargoonous!

Brie

pumpkin89 said:

Brie said:

And just as an aside - and after waffling about single portion tins with ring pulls..... I was in Lidl today and saw they have 3 packs of single portion tins of tuna, each with a pull tab so not tin opener required.  A 3 pack was £1.29 but the Lidl app allowed you to buy 30 packs which should be £38.70 for just £19.99.  So that's 90 portions for 22p each.  What a bargoon!!!

Are you sure that's the case?  Their own website says you get 10 packs for £19.99 i.e. a total of 30 cans for 66.6p each.
https://www.lidl.co.uk/p/nixe-tuna-in-brine-case-deal/p138481?pageId=10026779&tabCode=Current_Sales_Week

Still good value, but not quite as bargoonous!

Well if one 3 pack was £1.29 then 10 x 3 packs would be £12.90.  And at the till this came up for 30 x 3 packs as £38.70 until I presented my mobile with the Lidl app which changed the price to £19.99.  It's the same product as shown and I did get the whole box of 30 x 3. I got a load of other stuff as well and the total paid was about £30 so it worked out bargoonous to me!!

So I think the website is incorrect.

pumpkin89

@Brie thanks!  In that case, a really excellent deal.

Retronaut78

Hi everyone

I'm a foodbank team leader and I've just seen the article on MSE mentioning this thread and giving tips to donate to foodbanks, I haven't read through everything but may I make some requests / suggestions please?


- The article said 'past best before is fine'; this isn't the case I'm afraid. The place I work at is part of Trussell Trust and items like this are usually offered to the volunteers or have to be thrown. Policies will differ so it may be best to check with your local foodbank.
- Loving the thing about giving people things a cut above the bare essentials, like the posh biscuits. If you're up against it in life a little treat lifts your spirits no end.
- We get a lot of 'main meal' items, but often run low on the less obvious: jam, cereals, hot drinks, tinned fruit, custard... bits like that.
- The article mentioned toiletries - yes!! Sanitary items (preferably pads, in our experience) and baby items are often needed too. Check before donating razors - Trussell for one can't take them.
- All kinds of people can find themselves needing foodbanks, including (as some have wisely touched on) ve(getari)ans, diabetics, people with intolerances / allergies... Veggie helps our Muslim guests too! We replace meat with lentils and chickpeas.
- Check before buying anything that contains alcohol, or just 'suggests' alcohol - our own policy is not to take anything like this as we'd hate to knock anyone off the wagon. Christmas puds, which were mentioned in the article, are often donated but they're usually boozy, and when people have been so thoughtful it breaks our hearts to have to dispose of them.
- Someone said carrier bags? Definitely! We get through them at a rate of knots!

Last thing, and apologies for writing such an essay, YES to donations of money - partly as it means we can buy whatever we need, but also foodbanks are often charities, so that means Gift Aid! 

I'd underline though that every (useable) item you donate, big or small, fancy or plain, is really, REALLY appreciated. If you can only give one tin, just imagine if everyone did one tin. We couldn't do what we do without you :-) Thanks everyone.

MSE_Laura_F

Hello @Retronaut78, thanks so much for all the excellent insight. I'll have a look at adding some of your points into the blog when it next has an update.

On your point about best before dates (as opposed to use by dates), I double-checked with my Trussell Trust rep - they said it's acceptable and pointed me towards the FSA advice:
Food safety for community cooking and food banks | Food Standards Agency

So perhaps this is one of those things that varies from food bank to food bank? 

elsien

Just to add to the bbf date debate.
I will use bbf date myself that I have bought if it's not too out of date and depending on what it is because I know it tends to be safe and I dislike food waste.
However not everyone feels like that - I have family members who don't- and although people who use foodbanks are there because they are desperate, my personal view is that it would make me feel even more like a second class citizen if the food bank was giving me out of date food that someone had considered was not good enough for them.
I know that's not the intention and people who use food banks aren't second class citizens. But it's along the same lines as giving people one or two steps up from the basic food lines - trying to  help them to feel a little better about the situation that they are in. 

MSE_Laura_F

It's a good point, @elsien, and the reason the final point in the 'What to avoid' section is 'Anything you wouldn't eat yourself. The Trussell Trust offers a good measure for deciding whether something is suitable: do not donate anything that you or a loved one wouldn’t want to eat yourselves.'

I thought it was important to mention these dates in the blog so that donors know what will and won't be accepted, and because MSE always makes the distinction between use-by and best-before in a bid to cut down food waste and save people money.

We mention it in a few of our guides, eg, Free food saving memo and Supermarket shopping tips.

And when supermarkets scrap best-before dates altogether, we cover in news stories, eg, Aldi becomes latest supermarket to scrap 'best before' dates on fruit and veg - here's what other stores are doing too and
Tesco removes best-before dates to cut food waste.

And our deals team often puts out deals with Approved Food, which sells past best-before food at very cheap prices.

Limesoda

Foodbank donation thread. Please do not donate food items containing alcohol. One Christmas our local one had so much they could not give out to clients. Look at contents list