Friday 14 December 2018

The Weirdest Conversation Ever!

I've just had the weirdest telephone conversation with the manager of our local food bank.  I rang to ask if they are short of anything in particular as I will be shopping tomorrow and she said a resounding NO!  She says they are overflowing with food and Christmassy stuff with nowhere to put any more!  She asked me to hang on until the new year before I donate anything.  To be honest I was gobsmacked.  It's great that they have plenty of food but surely at this time of year the need is pretty full on.  I know they only open 3 days a week for people in need but I'm amazed, to say the least, that they turned down my offer.  For the remainder of my Reverse Advent period I will therefore concentrate on doing good deeds and donating toys instead.

Has anyone else had this response from a food bank?

Have a great weekend everyone. Stay safe wherever you are x

14 comments:

  1. Our local food bank have asked for toiletries this week. They are hoping to include something for every one as a little gift in their packages.

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  2. That is surprising Angie, never mind, you tried.xx

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  3. Ours has welcomed all donations made through my fat club group; it’s run by the local branch of the Salvation Army who also run other initiatives to help those who are struggling. I spent £20 on a mixture of food and toiletries and donated that this week. When the last lot was dropped off we heard about a chap who had cried when he received some shower gel in his parcel as he’d been trying to keep clean using washing up liquid.

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  4. How odd, I'd have thought that at this time of year, supplies would be going out as quickly as they come in.

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  5. Wonder if they supply sanitary products as well as food......

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  6. That does sound unusual. They still want regular supplies at our local food bank. X

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  7. How odd but I suppose if they haven't got the storage space available it could be a problem for them. It's nice to know they have enough though.
    Hugs-x-

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  8. Strange. Our local food bank is still asking !

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  9. A local man here has been nominating friends to fill a trolley for the food bank. They in turn have to nominate a friend to do the same. He hopes to get our local football club and some big businesses to do the same. The food banks are delighted and I can see that they are probably going to run out of storage space if they haven't already.

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  10. I understand why she had to say no. Food banks _here_ operate on volunteers only, and they have very limited storage space and only few people to sort things and organize the whole thing. Many people do give stuff before religious holidays but when holidays are over, there is no more donations. So first they can't take all donations, and then there is none.
    It is good to have food on Christmas, but you need feed yourself on ordinary Tuesday as well, and you need warm clothes and toiletries after holidays, too.
    She should have phrased her message on another way, not so bluntly, but if they have to leave donations on open space outside (or bin them) because they have no other place, it is better to wait a bit longer.
    Salvation Army just started their campaign for this Christmas, I'm collecting thermal underwear and wool socks to give them. Many charities around here asks only money, they are delivering only gift cards and childrens presents, no actual food or clothing.

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    1. Thank you so much for your response to my post Ulvmor. I do understand your explanation and I am more than happy to donate in the new year. Perhaps I should contact the Salvation Army to see if I can help them too. I do prefer to give items rather than money to these charities as I know what it's being spent on ie not on admin.
      May you and your family have a wonderful Christmas Ulvmor.

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  11. Agree with the commenter above.

    My foodbank is absolutely stuffed to rafters! We hardly have room to move and still the donations keep coming. It's partly to do with the big national food bank + Tesco campaign a few weeks back and people's generosity at Christmas. We are not complaining as a few months back in the early summer our stocks were so low we had to get beans from somewhere as we had actually run out!

    Seasons greetings to you!

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    1. Thank you Veronica, it's good to know that there is plenty of food to go around this Christmas and that people are so kind. Well done for volunteering too.
      Have a lovely Christmas yourself :)

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It's OK.....

  Angie 💓 xx