Foodbanks

[purenarcotic]

You can't afford the welfare system you dream about. Food banks, or neighbour helping neighbour, is here to stay.


It's YOU how attaching the stigma to people who use them. Not all people using them are on benefit, ya know.

Right now, you sound like an American. Sesame Street attempted to dispel the image of food banks and all the nice, middle class Americans erupted. "How dare you show poor people" or some such nonsense. Go google if you want more info, I've given you enough info.

Grow up and accept that the government is not responsible for your life - you are. And, if the shit hits the fan, I hope you live in a community that will support you.

Do you know what, fuck off. Seriously. Don't spin me that shite about personal responsibility. I work with women who have taken the immensely brave step to flee things that would make your fucking toes curl. They move to a new city, where they know nobody, and their courage and refusal to give in and go back to the hell they were living is unbelievably inspiring. They arrive with nothing but the clothes they're stood up in sometimes, with no money because they were financially abused.

They sit and wait for weeks for the benefit system to fuck about and process their claim, because there's no way you can speed up claims for those who are basically destitute. They go without food for days, we are the only people giving their kids nappies, they face a lack of proper accommodation meaning they often have to move around, or they live in appalling temporary accommodation that we can't do anything about because there really is nowhere else for them to go and those who run the TA couldn't give a shit about those who end up having to live there.

And some of them actually tell me that all that shit, all of it, is paradise compared to what they were living through before, because they are brave and courageous and strong and fucking amazing.

Hundreds of thousands of people end up in this position through absolutely no fault of their own. They didn't ask to be abused, just as others don't ask to lose their job, or to have their benefits cut, or to live in an area where there is scant work, or to be in jobs where the pay is not enough.

So fuck you, you ignorant prick.

 

[killer b]

You can't afford the welfare system you dream about. Food banks, or neighbour helping neighbour, is here to stay.


It's YOU how attaching the stigma to people who use them. Not all people using them are on benefit, ya know.

Right now, you sound like an American. Sesame Street attempted to dispel the image of food banks and all the nice, middle class Americans erupted. "How dare you show poor people" or some such nonsense. Go google if you want more info, I've given you enough info.

Grow up and accept that the government is not responsible for your life - you are. And, if the shit hits the fan, I hope you live in a community that will support you.

this is why everyone thinks you're a cunt, y'know.

 

[frogwoman]

aesthetic reasons

 

[J Ed]

Fucking hell, have you got a link?

http://www.thestar.co.uk/news/sheffield-food-banks-treble-1-5241145

My mistake, 3 to 10 in 2012

As of last month there were 15 http://www.thestar.co.uk/community/...eld-food-banks-as-benefit-cuts-bite-1-5585369

 

[flypanam]

This article is about the canadian experience with food banks. I thought it quite good, as it shows they are no long term solution

http://thewalrus.ca/the-hunger-game/

 

[ViolentPanda]

Seriously, what is your problem?

Possibly the fact that your posts smack of judgementalism.

 

[ViolentPanda]

Why do you hate the poor?

Why does anyone hate anyone who's worse off than they are?
Because it makes them feel better about themselves.

 

[ViolentPanda]

dunno really.

I feel pretty uncomfortable at the idea of charity providing essentials - especially the element of it where the self appointed officers of those charities can set their own criteria for who they consider to be 'deserving' of their help.

But if the state isn't going to provide those essentials, and whatever we do about it, the state isn't going to change overnight, then the people who have already been abandoned by the state are going to suffer the consequences of opposing food banks.

Thing is, if you think about this in purely tactical terms, then this is a fairly good move by the coalition's chess-players. They've shucked off responsibility (and expenditure), while avoiding a latter-day version of the "bread riots" of Ancient Rome and revolutionary France.

 

[The39thStep]

The thing about foodbanks is that they could be a community response to the impact of the governments actions with potential for wider community organising. They were very much key to building working class solidarity in the miners strike.

 

[J Ed]

Why does anyone hate anyone who's worse off than they are?
Because it makes them feel better about themselves.

It seems to be an attitude ingrained in so many people, how do we stamp it out?

 

[Puddy_Tat]

Thing is, if you think about this in purely tactical terms, then this is a fairly good move by the coalition's chess-players. They've shucked off responsibility (and expenditure), while avoiding a latter-day version of the "bread riots" of Ancient Rome and revolutionary France.

well, yes. in purely tactical terms, having people starving to death in the gutters on a regular basis might lead to a mass uprising against the government.

or a few sharp letters to the grauniad, while the tory press / politicians say people are starving to death as a "lifestyle choice" and demand they are moved "somewhere else" so that you don't have to step over them on the way out of the opera...

 

[ViolentPanda]

You can't afford the welfare system you dream about. Food banks, or neighbour helping neighbour, is here to stay.

Actually, most developed nations can afford decent comprehensive welfare systems financially. They merely can't afford them politically, given that right-wing voters invariably aren't in favour of welfare beyond a few individual strands

Grow up and accept that the government is not responsible for your life - you are. And, if the shit hits the fan, I hope you live in a community that will support you.

In most constitutional western societies there's something variously known as either the social contract or the social compact.
What this is, is an agreement, either implicit or explicit, that in exchange for ceding some of our power (and money) as individuals and communities to government, government undertakes to do certain things for us. In the UK part of that social compact is that "we' the people" pay National Insurance contributions in order to fund a comprehensive welfare state. Our government, in effect, is attempting to unilaterally renegotiate that compact while still requiring us to pay the same percentage of our salaries into their coffers.

Hope I stated that simply enough for you to grasp.

 

[ViolentPanda]

The thing about foodbanks is that they could be a community response to the impact of the governments actions with potential for wider community organising. They were very much key to building working class solidarity in the miners strike.

Which is partially why Iain Dunked-in Shit got in there with funding for Tressel and the like - imposing an external structure onto communities helps shrink the scale of the possibility of such solidarity-building.
And tbf, some foodbanks are entirely a community response, although anecdotally, I've heard a few stories about Tressel "muscling in" where such community foodbanks are already established.

 

[ViolentPanda]

It seems to be an attitude ingrained in so many people, how do we stamp it out?

You can't. The best you can do is to try and reflect back onto such people the effects of their diminution of other peoples' worth, and hope they "get" why undermining others to boost yourself is wrongheaded.

 

[ViolentPanda]

well, yes. in purely tactical terms, having people starving to death in the gutters on a regular basis might lead to a mass uprising against the government.

or a few sharp letters to the grauniad, while the tory press / politicians say people are starving to death as a "lifestyle choice" and demand they are moved "somewhere else" so that you don't have to step over them on the way out of the opera...

Yeah, unfortunately.
What I was more reflecting about is that it's a tactically-sharp move to avoid widespread civil unrest which, frankly, is already on the agenda this summer because of other cuts and the results of those cuts.
Me, I'm hoping that "Disco Inferno" will be the theme tune for the summer, at least for the robber barons.

 

[Blagsta]

You can't afford the welfare system you dream about. Food banks, or neighbour helping neighbour, is here to stay.


It's YOU how attaching the stigma to people who use them. Not all people using them are on benefit, ya know.

Right now, you sound like an American. Sesame Street attempted to dispel the image of food banks and all the nice, middle class Americans erupted. "How dare you show poor people" or some such nonsense. Go google if you want more info, I've given you enough info.

Grow up and accept that the government is not responsible for your life - you are. And, if the shit hits the fan, I hope you live in a community that will support you.

Urgh, nasty.

 

[Remus Harbank]

Grow up and accept that the government is not responsible for your life - you are. And, if the shit hits the fan, I hope you live in a community that will support you.

If that's true, what's the point of having a government.

 

[treelover]

http://www.thestar.co.uk/news/sheffield-food-banks-treble-1-5241145

My mistake, 3 to 10 in 2012

As of last month there were 15 http://www.thestar.co.uk/community/...eld-food-banks-as-benefit-cuts-bite-1-5585369

That's incredible, a crisis in the city and apparently a big chunk of punters at the L/U meeting wanted to talk about Marxism!

 

[J Ed]

That's incredible, a crisis in the city and apparently a big chunk of punters at the L/U meeting wanted to talk about Marxism!

Knowing the kind of uni students who went (SWP dissident middle-class identity politics types in the main) this doesn't surprise me at all.

 

[Idris2002]

spring-peeper

My partner, Alexandra Beasse and I were part of Ontario's Interfaith Social Assistance Reform Coalition's social audit back in 2010. The resulting book is available from ISARC. We heard stories of people who struggled to find dignity in the midst of poverty. Foodbanks are a growing business. Many of them limit the food they hand out and the number of times people can get assistance. Often their shelves are filled with the castoffs from the major grocery chains. One food bank I visited showed me a tiny shelf in the midst of the clutter of cans and boxes. It was the tiny amount of food that was for special diets - diabetic, gluten free etc.
Poverty is cost our country billions in higher health costs, justice costs and education losses, not to mention the lost productivity. Eliminating poverty is not only the right thing to do, it is essential for our economy. Foodbanks are not the answer.

What do you think, old girl? A price worth paying?

 

[beesonthewhatnow]

I'm leaving this thread.

Any chance you could leave the boards while you're at it?

 

[treelover]

Btw, not much interest in F/B's with Urban's wider(comfortably off?) readership, 110 posts and only 950 views..

 

[killer b]

oh fuck off.

 

[ViolentPanda]

Btw, not much interest in F/B's with Urban's wider(comfortably off?) readership, 110 posts and only 950 views..

You know what's worse than your fuckwitted judgementalism?

The fact that you make your judgements based on such thin evidence as the number of posts and views of a thread.

Have a fucking word with yourself.

 

[Maurice Picarda]

Encourage bring food too. Pot luck community breakfast.

.

Hmm. Perhaps casino foodbanking like this needs be ringfenced from high street foodbanking operations.

 

[shagnasty]

Do you know what, fuck off. Seriously. Don't spin me that shite about personal responsibility. I work with women who have taken the immensely brave step to flee things that would make your fucking toes curl. They move to a new city, where they know nobody, and their courage and refusal to give in and go back to the hell they were living is unbelievably inspiring. They arrive with nothing but the clothes they're stood up in sometimes, with no money because they were financially abused.

They sit and wait for weeks for the benefit system to fuck about and process their claim, because there's no way you can speed up claims for those who are basically destitute. They go without food for days, we are the only people giving their kids nappies, they face a lack of proper accommodation meaning they often have to move around, or they live in appalling temporary accommodation that we can't do anything about because there really is nowhere else for them to go and those who run the TA couldn't give a shit about those who end up having to live there.

And some of them actually tell me that all that shit, all of it, is paradise compared to what they were living through before, because they are brave and courageous and strong and fucking amazing.

Hundreds of thousands of people end up in this position through absolutely no fault of their own. They didn't ask to be abused, just as others don't ask to lose their job, or to have their benefits cut, or to live in an area where there is scant work, or to be in jobs where the pay is not enough.

So fuck you, you ignorant prick.

Was going to reply to that post but you have done a very adimiral job Bravo

 

[Firky]

Waitrose in Hexham is collecting tokens for the local foodbanks, I don't know if it is just this store or if they're all doing it?

It had the least amount of tokens in when I was in today, most people seemed to be giving their tokens to a refurbishing a playground.

 

[J Ed]

Waitrose in Hexham is collecting tokens for the local foodbanks, I don't know if it is just this store or if they're all doing it?

It had the least amount of tokens in when I was in today, most people seemed to be giving their tokens to a refurbishing a playground.

I got a sandwich from waitrose a few months back and noticed the token thing, there were three charities and I can't remember what the other two were but the one with the most token was for an RAF officer's golf course lol

 

[Firky]

I got a sandwich from waitrose a few months back and noticed the token thing, there were three charities and I can't remember what the other two were but the one with the most token was for an RAF officer's golf course lol

Haha

Few years back tribal_princess and I went in to Waitrose and we were given a token each, we had no idea what you were supposed to do with them - thought it was for trollies or something so I ended up chewing mine and yeah well... we don't shop at Waitrose often

 

[andysays]

Who cares what you think, here in the U.k food banks are an insult and a travesty and have no place in a decent welfare system.

No, the insult and the travesty is that we don't have a decent welfare system.

Food banks are, generally, an attempt to do something about that, to give some support to people who need it.