Giving Something Back - Part 1

Since starting to read Jack Monroe's blog a year or so ago and hearing how she struggled to feed herself and her young son on benefits and was grateful for the help she received from the food bank, I decided to start making regular donations to my local food bank.  Now I know that to many people this might be a controversial thing to do.  I hear people say that they don't believe in giving to food banks and that is their choice, but I do.  Being hungry must be one of the hardest things to endure.  As a consequence, I try to donate at least £10 per month in food and try to shop wisely for it.  Initially, I began by buying lots of low cost unbranded items, so that I could squeeze as much out of the £10 as I possibly could, with a view to helping as many people as possible.

More recently, however, I've changed tack slightly and now try to get as much value as I can, buying slightly less basic items.  My rationale for this is that if you have very little money, you are probably already shopping in the discount supermarkets, buying basic brands, to eek out the little money you have and there is nothing at all wrong with this.  I shop in Lidl every week and also sometimes buy basic brands from other supermarkets, but for me this is a choice, not an absolute necessity.  As a consequence, I thought it must be nice for people who have no choice in their everyday lives, but to do this week in week out, to be able to choose or receive slightly more interesting or expensive items from the food bank.  I'm not talking caviar and champagne, but some of the slightly more expensive brands than supermarket basics.

I  try to donate food that is both nutritious and a little bit of a treat where I can.  I still put some basics in the box such as pasta or rice or tins of tomatoes or chick peas, but also try to include meat or fish products where I can, as I imagine these are the things that families on a low income struggle most to afford.

Last month, I didn't get around to shopping for the food bank as my mind was taken up with doing a financial challenge myself and I forgot to put any extra bits in my shopping trolley as I normally do, so this month I promised myself I would donate double my normal amount and look to try to include more interesting items in the box.

I've had a bit more success this month at finding good value items to donate.  In recent weeks I have been shopping at Lidl on a Sunday, after I finish a class at the gym, and as a consequence I've been able to take advantage of some of their half price weekend offers.  The other weekend there was a half price offer on their jars of sweet and sour sauce, which were priced at 37p, so I popped a couple of extra ones into the trolley with the food bank in mind.  I use this sauce myself on a regular basis and find it to be just as good as a particularly famous brand that makes the same product.

The next day, whilst doing my top up shop at ASDA, I saw some Ragu pasta sauces priced to clear at 50p per jar.  They were Bolognese sauce with Meatballs and Italian Sausage and Spinach sauce.  At that price I thought they were great value and bought a couple of each for the foodbank.  The fact that they had some meat content in them was a bonus too.

Later the same week,  I was picking up a few bits and pieces in Tescos and they were having a promotion in conjunction with a forthcoming religious festival.  Tinned chickpeas were 4 for £1, so I bought 4 of these, two for us and two for the food bank, plus a couple of tins of sardines.  The box was beginning to fill up at last.

Monday this week, and my Approved Food order arrived.  I'd added a few extras onto the order with the food bank in mind.  There were jars of olives, sponge mixes, pasta, custard mixes, tinned peach halves and tinned chilli con carne.  I made sure that all these items were well in date, which does limit your choices when shopping on this site, as many products are past their best before date.  I also popped a couple of bottles of coconut shampoo on there too, as toiletries are also welcomed.  Here's a picture of the donation thus far.

I've now filled one box with food and so far my total comes to just £10.04, so I still need to spend another £10.  Rice is definitely on the list of things I still need to buy and I may add some breakfast cereals and some more toiletries or even household products.   Hopefully I will soon have another full box and can take my donation to the local office.  I'm finding that with a bit of thought and watching out for offers in the supermarkets, it is possible to make the donation a bit more interesting and varied for the recipients.