Food Banks

[B&G]

Does anyone know of any food banks that operate locally? I'd be grateful for any information anyone has.

Thank you

[EDAus]

One in Peckham:

Telephone: 020 7732 0007 Fax: 020 7358 9005

Postal Address: 121a Peckham High Street, SE15 5SE

Email: [email protected]

http://www.pecan.org.uk/our-projects/foodbank

[dbboy]

One in Honor Oak Park in what was the White Wood Shop, diagonally across from Honor Oak Park station.

[B&G]

Thanks very much both

[DonGee]

Hi I wondered if anyone could give me a quick break down on how foodbanks work and how it's determined that those recieving are in genuine need. I watched a programme last week sometime called The Great British Budget Menu which was a real eye opener for me.

Thank you.

[B&G]

Hi DonGee. I found this website quite useful. You need to be identified by a social worker (or similar) as needing some additional help between a benefits assessment and the money coming through. They then issue a token that you can use to collect a few items from the foodbank to supplement other bits you may have at home already (or have been given). If someone is really struggling, they seem to be open to requests without the food token.

http://lewisham.foodbank.org.uk/how-it-works

[Sue]

How far have we sunk in this country that we now need foodbanks?

And meanwhile there are the fat pigs raking in millions for heading up failing organisations, and a frenzy over a newborn privileged royal.

Next it will be the return of the Poor House. I'm ashamed to be English.

[zeban]

Sue, I completely and utterly agree

[ratty]

I didn't vote for them!

[mfcjoe]

Sue Wrote:

-------------------------------------------------------

> How far have we sunk in this country that we now

> need foodbanks?

>

> And meanwhile there are the fat pigs raking in

> millions for heading up failing organisations, and

> a frenzy over a newborn privileged royal.

>

> Next it will be the return of the Poor House. I'm

> ashamed to be English.

This is so true, this governbent should be ashamed, alas they don't give a toss, the tories won't be happy until the

NHS is gone and everything is sold to their rich pal's, this Country is F****D.

[Sue]

mfcjoe Wrote:

-------------------------------------------------------

> Sue Wrote:

> --------------------------------------------------

> -----

> > How far have we sunk in this country that we

> now

> > need foodbanks?

> >

> > And meanwhile there are the fat pigs raking in

> > millions for heading up failing organisations,

> and

> > a frenzy over a newborn privileged royal.

> >

> > Next it will be the return of the Poor House.

> I'm

> > ashamed to be English.

xxxx

>

> This is so true, this governbent should be

> ashamed, alas they don't give a toss, the tories

> won't be happy until the

> NHS is gone and everything is sold to their rich

> pal's, this Country is F****D.

xxxxxx

I genuinely think that if things carry on like this, there will be some kind of revolution.

The poor are being trodden on harder and harder to shore up financially the mistakes of the rich, who don't give a s***.

The Olympics brought back a bit of hope, but it feels like that's long gone, and the government isn't even building on the good feeling generated by the Olympics by supporting sport (not that I'm particularly into sport, but it feels symbolic somehow).

Sorry I know this isn't directly about food banks, but this makes me so angry.

There are also tubs in some shops now where - after you have done your shopping - you can put in cans of food to be distributed to people in need.

This is supposed to be a welfare state. Where are my taxes going? To help out some bloody bank whose CEO has f****d it up and gone off with a platinum handshake, that's where.

GRRRRRRRR.

[LadyDeliah]

Sue Wrote:

>

> I genuinely think that if things carry on like

> this, there will be some kind of revolution.

>

I'm ready if you are :-D

[Penguin68]

Just out of interest Food Banks are:-

(a) staffed by volunteers

(b) resourced (i.e materials handed out) through donations

Which are both quite positive things to say about our society and

© substantially exist to help out those who have been caught-out by unforseen circumstances - either through a sudden large non-discretionary expenditure or because they are in a transition status waiting for benefits to be paid. That is to say that they exist as a safetly net to catch those who are not being helped 'in the normal manner'. However good the welfare and benefits system is, there will always be anomalies and sudden emergencies.

Efficient food banks are a valuable addition to the welfare and benefits system - and those who staff them (and who fund them through donations in cash and in kind) deserve thanks and praise. They are, in many ways, a symptom of a healthy, not a sick society.

By all means rant on from the comfort of your internet mediated lives, but for those of us who have lived through 4 major down-turns - one of which, in the 1970s - was substantially worse than anything we have now, your fears of revolution are misplaced.

What funds the welfare state is effective capitalism, of course there are examples where this has gone off the rails (and the market economy works on a long-run basis, with many short-term hiccups) and of course the 'too big to fail' banks need re-structuring - but remember that where a bank does really fail - there are a lot of little people (both those whose pension funds have invested, those who themselves have deposits and those who work in the banks) who would have been terminally burned by such a failure. It is the mark of a 'welfare state' economy that the hardships of the many can be shared (through taxation) across an even greater number to lessen their impact.

Or would you have been happy to be paying less tax so that those whose pension funds had invested in RBS and BoS and those who had deposits with BoS and RBS should be beggarised and now be looking forward to a life of penury, and those who work in those banks would be unemployed and ditto? Bit of a run on food banks then, I would guess.

[DonGee]

B&G thanks for explaining that.

Sue - I couldn't agree more.

[DJKillaQueen]

As much as it pains me to say it ;) I totally agree with Sue and the others here that rightly question what is happening to our country and it's welfare state. Yes there have been times of greater economic hardship for greater numbers of people, but that doesn't take away from those that are currently experiencing hardship and are being failed by the current system in increasing numbers.

There is a Tory belief that the poor should pay their part in repaying the national debt....only they fail to understand the poor have nothing to pay it with!

There are of course other factors at play, like rising food and fuel costs but nothing the government is doing is helping the poor.

[Sue]

Penguin68 Wrote:

-------------------------------------------------------

> Just out of interest Food Banks are:-

>

> (a) staffed by volunteers

> (b) resourced (i.e materials handed out) through

> donations

>

> Which are both quite positive things to say about

> our society and

>

> © substantially exist to help out those who have

> been caught-out by unforseen circumstances -

> either through a sudden large non-discretionary

> expenditure or because they are in a transition

> status waiting for benefits to be paid. That is to

> say that they exist as a safetly net to catch

> those who are not being helped 'in the normal

> manner'. However good the welfare and benefits

> system is, there will always be anomalies and

> sudden emergencies.

>

> Efficient food banks are a valuable addition to

> the welfare and benefits system - and those who

> staff them (and who fund them through donations in

> cash and in kind) deserve thanks and praise. They

> are, in many ways, a symptom of a healthy, not a

> sick society.

>

> By all means rant on from the comfort of your

> internet mediated lives, but for those of us who

> have lived through 4 major down-turns - one of

> which, in the 1970s - was substantially worse than

> anything we have now, your fears of revolution are

> misplaced.

>

> What funds the welfare state is effective

> capitalism, of course there are examples where

> this has gone off the rails (and the market

> economy works on a long-run basis, with many

> short-term hiccups) and of course the 'too big to

> fail' banks need re-structuring - but remember

> that where a bank does really fail - there are a

> lot of little people (both those whose pension

> funds have invested, those who themselves have

> deposits and those who work in the banks) who

> would have been terminally burned by such a

> failure. It is the mark of a 'welfare state'

> economy that the hardships of the many can be

> shared (through taxation) across an even greater

> number to lessen their impact.

>

> Or would you have been happy to be paying less tax

> so that those whose pension funds had invested in

> RBS and BoS and those who had deposits with BoS

> and RBS should be beggarised and now be looking

> forward to a life of penury, and those who work in

> those banks would be unemployed and ditto? Bit of

> a run on food banks then, I would guess.

xxxxxx

I guess you voted Tory then, Penguin68?

Yes things may have been bad for some people in the 70s. There was high unemployment and in fact when I graduated - how lucky was I to be a student then, btw - I wasn't able to get a job in my field, but if memory serves (and I'm in my sixties so I remember the time well) the welfare state was not being steadily dismantled in the way that appears to be happening now.

In your haste to defend capitalism you appear to have missed my point. Can we take it that you are OK with rich people getting ever richer and those at the bottom of the heap getting ever poorer?

I would be only too happy to be pay more tax as it happens, if I thought it was going to be spent in a decent way.

I didn't vote for the bloody party who got elected on the basis of promising income tax cuts. What did people think was going to pay for schools and the NHS, and look what's happening now. But nobody can put tax up again now because it would be electoral disaster.

I'm going out now, GRRRRRR.

ETA: And if you think it's POSITIVE that food banks are staffed by volunteers and sourced by donations, you must be barking.

People shouldn't be put in such dire straits that food banks have to exist at all, and if they do have to exist then the bloody government should be funding and staffing them.

We'll have Lady Bountifuls going among the poor handing out crusts next.

[LondonMix]

Putting aside the broader points for a moment, but when did this government cut taxes? The government temporarily raised them and then partially reduced them but taxes are still above the level they were when the current government took office.

[Peckhamnearbe]

Just to add (in response to dbhoy post) that Lewisham People Before Profit run this one in Honor Oak Park and the White Wood Shop (in fact the estate agent's next to it) collects food donations which are actually offered to the needy from the charity shop they run in New Cross. Was there myself on Monday dropping off groceries bought through the generous donation of someone in the Muslim community. Donations of clothes and furniture are also accepted. www.lewishamfoodbank.com

[buddug]

Sue wrote:

'How far have we sunk in this country that we now need foodbanks? And meanwhile there are the fat pigs raking in millions for heading up failing organisations, and a frenzy over a newborn privileged royal. Next it will be the return of the Poor House. I'm ashamed to be English.'

I don't always agree with you Sue, but my God, I do on this! And I'm proud of your post. I feel exactly the same. You've absolutely hit the nail on the head and have summed up this screwed up economy in a nutshell! And don't let us forget the bankers, who, with the aid of both the 'New Labour' and LibCon (con being the operative word!) governments who deregulated the banking industry even more than Thatcher did, caused this whole financial crash that has resulted in this spurious ideology pushing for austerity measures (though not for the rich, of course).

We should have done what Iceland did - let the toxic bankrupt banks fail, while bailing out the depositors, and then jail the perpetrators. It would have been literally a trillion pounds (of taxpayers money) cheaper than propping up the bust banks! Have any bankers or politicians been jailed here? No.

I remember being shocked during the Thatcher era at the visible increase on London's streets of homeless people. At that time and after, I only read about food banks in the US, thinking how could such a great civilisation be in such dire straits to need such a thing, but never ever thought it would come to this here in Britain. We should all be ashamed. We can no longer call ourselves 'Great' Britain.

And as for our young people - leaving university with ?35,000 plus in debt and no hope of getting a home of their own until their fifties if they're lucky. Was it Cicero who said a population in debt is a population controlled?

I as a baby boomer, like most of our politicians actually, had free university and was able to buy a one-bedroom garden flat with a small deposit and manageable monthly payments in my mid-thirties (I'm now 54). They and us should be rioting in the streets - not salivating over a royal baby, passively watching the X factor and looking on helplessly while our employment rights and social security safety net in the event of the ever-increasing threat of losing our jobs are eroded by these Eton boys.

And don't get me started on that criminal organisation Atos and the disabled!

[DJKillaQueen]

The bottom line is that we have charity and volunteers propping up the welfare state which is not acceptable. People shouldn't be having to wait weeks with no money for benefit claims to be sorted out or processed.

And yes, ATOS are a disgrace.

[buddug]

Wouldn't it be rather nice if East Dulwich were to be at the forefront of the revolution? We are exactly the demography who should be voting for the Lib/con crooks in their eyes, but what a surprise to them if we didn't. Vive La R?volution!

[LadyDeliah]

I'm pleasantly surprised by the posts above and totally agree (as if you wouldn't have guessed) that the elite are Royally shafting the lot of us.

Without any kind of mandate from the electorate, they are selling our assets to their mates whose profits we have no choice but to pay for through our taxes, introducing (or failing to inroduce) laws that benefit their corporate paymasters and using hideous divide and conquer tactics to set the working against those on benefits, the poor against muslims / immigrants / disabled (take your pick) to deflect attention from their illegal, immoral and destructive governance.

[DJKillaQueen]

Eloquently put LD and I totally agree. They are even pitting the poor against the poor too. It's disgraceful.

[Sue]

LondonMix Wrote:

-------------------------------------------------------

> Putting aside the broader points for a moment, but

> when did this government cut taxes?

xxxxxxx

I wasn't talking about this government.

I was talking about a previous Tory government who cut income tax. Can't remember exactly when but it must have been either late eighties or early nineties?

[Sue]

buddug Wrote:

-------------------------------------------------------

They and us should be rioting in the

> streets

xxxxxx

The relatively recent riots showed how quickly things can spread once the touchpaper has been lit.

I wasn't joking when I talked about a revolution. There's a limit to how much people can take, and a limit to how long people can ignore what's going on/turn a blind eye.

The cutbacks to basic services for vulnerable people are happening at the same time as others are lining their pockets at our expense.

Actually I think what we're seeing is the collapse of this civilisation, and what's happening in this country is a manifestation of that. Hopefully I shan't be around to see the worst of it :(