Donating to Your Local Food Bank

There's been a lot in the press lately about food banks and how more and more people are finding themselves reliant on them for food at times, and with comments made by politicians it has become a bit of contentious issue which I feel is a pity.  Whilst taking part in the 'Feed Yourself for Five Pounds for Five Days' Challenge earlier in the year, I got really inspired to start donating food to our local food bank, that and after reading A Girl Called Jack's blog about how she was referred to her local food bank by staff at her local Children's Centre and found it really helpful when she was really struggling to feed herself and her son.  One day shortly afterwards, whilst shopping in our local mall I stumbled across some Food Bank volunteers handing out information about a food bank near to where we live and that was the final push I need to start to donate.

I'm not suggesting here that anyone reading should donate as this is up to the individual and frankly not my place. Neither am I creating this post to boast about my own generosity, if by posting about this it encourages one person to do something to help, then it has been worthwhile.  If not then at least I have tried to encourage support.  In my mind I have created this blog post for anyone who does or might be thinking of donating, in order to share ideas about the sort of donations that could be made.  If anyone out there has any ideas of any other foods that could be donated, that are good value, I would be really interested to hear from them as I am always looking for fresh inspiration as I buy slightly different things each month depending on what offers are available.  I take the view that the more sensibly I shop for these things, the more I can donate and the more people I can potentially help with the money I have available.

The food bank I donate to provides a list of non-perishable items that they need to be donated which include tinned or jar food (i.e. sauces, tomatoes, soup, fruit, fish, vegetables, meat, rice pudding, etc.), packet or dried food (i.e. soup, powdered milk, sugar, flour, cereal, pasta, tea, hot chocolate, noodles, rice, cous cous, biscuits, etc.), cartons such as UHT milk, juices, etc., toiletries, household goods, baby products.  These items should all be in date and have a long shelf life.

My local food bank uses these foods to provide 3 day's basic emergency food supplies for a families and individuals in need or in crisis and are distributed by working in conjunction with front line agencies.

When making a donation I decide approximately how much I can afford to spend each month and then try to keep within this amount and buy products to the value of this amount.  I personally try to keep my donation to about £5 - £10 which doesn't sound a lot, but if you shop wisely this can buy quite a lot of food.  I also try to avoid highly processed foods which are often not good value for money and stick to store cupboard essentials.

I realise that many people don't have too much spare time or money to spend buying food for people other than their own families, but for anyone who might be in a position to donate, it is surprisingly easy to just add a few extras into your weekly shop each week and put them aside or alternatively if you see food bank volunteers at your local supermarket, buy a few extra things and donate them.

This month, for example, I am donating the following:

2 x Tinned Potatoes 28p
2 x Tinned Garden Peas 60p
2 x Tinned Tomatoes  48p
2 x Jars of Meat Paste 96p
2 x 500g of Dried Pasta £1.09
2 x 500g of Cous Cous £1.36
2 x Tinned Pineapple Rings 90p
2 x Tinned Sardines in Tomato Sauce 90p
2 x 1.5kg Self Raising Flour 90p
2 x Packets of Biscuits 78p
2 x Tinned Soup 84p

This came to a total of £9.09 and illustrates that you can get quite a lot of food for this amount.  I have tried to include a couple of sources of protein such as the meat paste and tinned sardines.  These types of products (although not these particular ones) can be very expensive, but I realise that donations of such foods  may be the only way that some families get to eat them.  Once bought, I then pack them all into a box and deliver them myself to the food bank which is located in a local community centre.  Hopefully it will be of good use to people who are in need of a helping hand.

If you would like to donate or find out more about food banks you could do an online search for your local food bank or take a look at the The Trussell Trust website.  Here's the link.