Money Moral Dilemma: Is it OK to use a surplus food app even though I'm not struggling?

HannahNP

What a lovely, kind & honest person you are !
I think it is meant to be to reduce food waste, not to help with low income families.  However it helps both.

If it was a food bank I would definitely say no. 

However if you can afford the full price, do you really need to wait for cheaper version?

If everyone just waits for sale prices, businesses will go bust

anniedebrake

When I was struggling, I couldn’t take the risk of a £5 bag of random perishable items.  I also couldn’t have got there to collect them anyway.  Waste food apps are just that, food that would otherwise have gone to waste.

To tackle food poverty we need serious political change.  No disrespect to the invaluable work done by food banks, but they should not be needed, except in exceptional circumstances.

We need to increase benefits, increase wages (not just minimum wage, but at least the bottom third of wages) and increase taxation on the top third of earners.  Tax ‘loopholes’ are the very deliberate gaps which lawmakers put into legislation to protect their own income and should be closed.  There aren’t ‘loopholes’ for basic rate earners.

As a minimum, a household with one adult working 40 hours (or two adults working 40 hours between them), should be able to get by without the need for benefits.  Instead, there are couples who are both in decent full-time jobs, who’s income needs topping up with benefits.  That is the state supplementing their employers profits.

All the gains from increased productivity and automation over the last 40 years,  have gone to the top 5% of earners, who often avoid paying taxation.  

That is the reason there is food poverty, and it is nothing to do with people trying to reduce food waste on through an app!

NRP44

sclare said:

Too good to go is about avoiding waste, and it's also a bit of a lottery. Some bags are great, one I put straight in the bin. It's not about the cost of living. It's been going for ages and it's for everyone. 

Olio is also about avoiding waste, but as the stuff is free I tend to leave it for others. 

Food banks and our local community fridge? I wouldn't dream of taking what is for those in need. 

Community fridges are also about reducing food waste. At least, all the ones I’ve seen / been to in and around Surrey are. 

hannerrbabes

These companies were created to reduce food waste, not help the poor. 

If you were using food banks and weren't in need, it would be a different matter. Because those are run to help those struggling financially. 

JayD

Oh dear, so many ways to consider this - and so many self-righteous opinions too!

How about using the app to buy food that you can them make into cheap meals that a local charity delivers to the needy and those unable to cook meals for themselves. I am sure there is some way you could use the cost savings you have found to help those in need, without depriving needy people. Maybe there is a charity who could advise you of elderly people, local to you, who could benefit from your find but are not techno savvy enough to use the app themselves. There must surely be endless ways you can use your find to advantage others as well as yourself. A bit of local research is what may be needed.

discobelle

Anyone really struggling will probably not have a mobile phone or have one that can do those apps. Offer to go shopping with an elderly neighbour who is struggling and use your app for them

keiran

Just wondering - in similar vein , is it right to pick up yellow-stickered items at the supermarket, or should we leave those for the genuinely poor? 
(Having said that I think a lot of them may turn their nose up at reduced-price food , whilst MSErs wouldn't mind!)

elsien

You might have to clarify what you mean by genuinely poor. And how do you tell? 

People on certain benefits? People who are homeless? People who use food banks because they have no other option? People who use food banks because they’ve spent their money on the nice to have things?  (A tiny minority of food bank users but they do exist).

Nelliegrace

We have used Too Good to Go as a means of reducing our expenditure on food. I felt guilty about the one from Morrisons. Could someone in need have made use of it? It cost £3.09.
There was a lot of unsliced, white bread from the bakery, chopped vegetables and fruit, most of which needed using the same day as they were already past their best. I made soup and jam, because I have a kitchen, equipment and the necessary skills. We managed not to waste anything except some herbs which were already going black. There was no meat or fish or eggs for protein, it was not much of a food parcel for someone in need. 

We have had several M&S TGTG from the motorway service station which we can access by car via several country lanes. Those have been better, though £5 is a lot to risk out of a budget, if you get a pot of olives, asparagus, a bag of salad, one portion of mushroom tagliatelle and a bottle of flavoured tonic water to feed a family. 

We have stopped using TGTG because a lot of the stuff is highly processed with ingredients not found in my kitchen. (And some of it was pretty horrible.) I can make better food on a budget at home.)
 
I notice the yellow stickered foods which get grabbed quickly, the pizza, ready meals, stuff in sauces, and over packaged stuff, plastic pots of deserts.

I find the plain fish, liver, sausage meat, and rolled breast of lamb, and mince, and some fancy cheeses, and full fat milk, which other shoppers leave. I take some and leave the rest for other elderly shoppers with basic cooking skills. 

The two of us eat well on £5 a day, plus the eggs from our three hens, and fresh and preserved fruit from the garden. We do eat meat, my budget is £2.50 a week each for meat.

AUDITOR

If you're feeling guilty about it. donate it to the local food bank - assuming they take the kind of foodstuffs on offer. Or a local homeless shelter, Or just go into your local town centre and hand it out to the homeless people you'll inevitably find there.