Food Banks Whats Going On?

bluebell

Member
Im old enough to remember the 3 day week in the early 1970s ( i was at school then), when the country had days without any electricity? miners were on strike, brought the heath govt. down? and other hard recessions up to now? It just seems to me the population has got so soft over the years, and far less self reliant? people years ago, many were dare i say poor, but many were proud and either didnt seek i want govt. handouts? Many people worked multiple jobs, children also helped by doing work such as paper rounds etc etc etc to help their families, farms back then could easily find casual labour, people could earn some partime money and also go home with some milk, or potatoes etc, whats happened?
 

Oldmacdonald

Member
Mixed Farmer
Location
Scotland
Im old enough to remember the 3 day week in the early 1970s ( i was at school then), when the country had days without any electricity? miners were on strike, brought the heath govt. down? and other hard recessions up to now? It just seems to me the population has got so soft over the years, and far less self reliant? people years ago, many were dare i say poor, but many were proud and either didnt seek i want govt. handouts? Many people worked multiple jobs, children also helped by doing work such as paper rounds etc etc etc to help their families, farms back then could easily find casual labour, people could earn some partime money and also go home with some milk, or potatoes etc, whats happened?

Housing and energy.

Tell me by how much the cost of those have gone up since your blessed 3 day week.
 

Werzle

Member
Location
Midlands
Im old enough to remember the 3 day week in the early 1970s ( i was at school then), when the country had days without any electricity? miners were on strike, brought the heath govt. down? and other hard recessions up to now? It just seems to me the population has got so soft over the years, and far less self reliant? people years ago, many were dare i say poor, but many were proud and either didnt seek i want govt. handouts? Many people worked multiple jobs, children also helped by doing work such as paper rounds etc etc etc to help their families, farms back then could easily find casual labour, people could earn some partime money and also go home with some milk, or potatoes etc, whats happened?
Folks have no pride or shame these days and are quite happy to use food banks so they can afford to drink, smoke and watch sky sports.
 

milkloss

Member
Livestock Farmer
Location
East Sussex
Has anyone been in a food bank and seen what's available etc etc? The reason I ask is I drive past one everyday on the school run pretty much next to traffic lights. It's an open shop front/porch with a fridge and shelves...... quite a bit of stuff from the nearby Waitrose in there and home grown veg, I've never got out the car and studied though. The seniors members of the community certainly take their trolleys in there and load up, unfairly so in my opinion, I only hope they're getting some stuff for their neighbours or whatever whilst they're there.
 

cb387

Member
Arable Farmer
Location
Cotswolds
In the press the other day (so it must be true) UK consumer spends the least amount on food as any other european country. Not sure what’s going on. Have we a higher percentage in poverty or just greater expectation such as phones, cigarettes etc.? Wife works in a small village school in a nice area of the Cotswolds and the amount of neglected children is incredible
 

kiwi pom

Member
Location
canterbury NZ
Folks have no pride or shame these days and are quite happy to use food banks so they can afford to drink, smoke and watch sky sports.
There's people like that but there's also a lot of people doing it hard. Cost of housing, fuel, power add in zero hour contracts and the cost of childcare etc and a lot of people struggle to get ahead. You're not buying much of a house on a tenner an hour.

Saying everyone's on benefits, watching Netflix down the pub, on their brand new I phones and having foreign holidays all the time, Is a bit like saying, all farmers are subsidy/grant grabbers, drive brand new Range Rovers and just inherit their land and houses from mummy and daddy.
Some do, some don't.
The gap between the haves and have nots seems to be getting wider, all a bit sad really.
 

Exfarmer

Member
Location
Bury St Edmunds
The multiplicity of single parent households. The benefit system which penalises home owners, especially the old.
have an older friend on the earlier pension which is 2/3rds the later one, oiwns their house, needs to run a car to get to a shop. Time they have paid rates utilities and run the car they have next to nothing left.
They need to downsize but cannot find a property they can afford after selling their house as all the small property is snapped up by buy to let. They need to stay close to their children in case of future issues.
while they are home owners there is no assistance, but pride stops them selling and renting
 

Werzle

Member
Location
Midlands
There's people like that but there's also a lot of people doing it hard. Cost of housing, fuel, power add in zero hour contracts and the cost of childcare etc and a lot of people struggle to get ahead. You're not buying much of a house on a tenner an hour.

Saying everyone's on benefits, watching Netflix down the pub, on their brand new I phones and having foreign holidays all the time, Is a bit like saying, all farmers are subsidy/grant grabbers, drive brand new Range Rovers and just inherit their land and houses from mummy and daddy.
Some do, some don't.
The gap between the haves and have nots seems to be getting wider, all a bit sad really.
Quite agree the gap between the top and bottom is a disgrace, do people really need hundreds of millions when others have sfa
 

SteveHants

Member
Livestock Farmer
1977 31% of household income on energy and transport, 2020 15% (must be higher in 2022)

Food over the same period 30% in 1977 down to less than 10% in 2020
This was before right to buy, yes?

he answer is rent - rent is eye watering. Before I bought up here, I wanted to rent a 2 bed so my daughter has a room when she comes to stay - looking at 900pcm.
 

Muddyroads

Member
NFFN Member
Location
Exeter, Devon
The district food bank is based in our yard. From my experience with them it’s not possible to generalise. All clients are referred but some definitely seem to be more deserving than others.
1 lady I saw was in genuine short term dire need due to covid and health related issues whilst another family rocked up in a recently purchased 63 plate BMW.
There are far more frivolous “must have’s“ these days; mobile phones, tv subscription services etc. Loans are far easier to come by leading to debt, interest rates have been low for a generation so many have no idea what 5-10% would do to them.
The manager was telling me yesterday how she had to get tough with 1 young mum about how to budget and cook from basic ingredients. She’d spent most of her life without her mum and had never learned the basics.
We donated some romanesco on one occasion and a middle aged lady asked “what‘s the tree thing in my food”.
 

teslacoils

Member
Arable Farmer
Location
Lincolnshire
So how do you define poverty? no food, or cant afford to buy food? wheres all the thin people gone?

I wouldnt even dream of trying. JRF define it as soomething like 60% of the average household income after housing costs. But that would put me still in poverty which I think isnt the case - you can manage perfectly fine with very little spare money. In the case of older people, they dont seem able to achieve the higher degrees of cost saving which can be achieved by simply sharing a house. Heating, council tax, are hugely reduced by two people sharing a two bed house than a one bed.

Id suggest it was easier to fall into poverty if a) you are a younger person, b) you have multiple children, c) the main household earner is in an insecure job, d) you are not mobile to move elsewhere either due to lack of education or lack of private car / public transport, e) you have a history of mental illness, criminal record, or substance issues. Because income vs expenditure is so finely balanced it only takes one string to break for everything to go wrong.
 

7610 super q

Never Forgotten
Honorary Member
Rent is killing everyone who needs to rent.
Goes deeper than that though. PAT testing and all that ££££££. Building maintenance ( Don't get many materials for less than £k these days) ££££. Tradesmen's costs £££££££......... I bet landlords are struggling to make it pay.
The bottom line, IMO, is everything is just too expensive these days. Except food. And that seems to be available in food banks.......Why wouldn't you ? If food is free, that leaves money to spend on other things, whether it's a leccy bill......or a trip to Benidorm.....
 

SFI - What % were you taking out of production?

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Red Tractor drops launch of green farming scheme amid anger from farmers

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As reported in Independent


quote: “Red Tractor has confirmed it is dropping plans to launch its green farming assurance standard in April“

read the TFF thread here: https://thefarmingforum.co.uk/index.php?threads/gfc-was-to-go-ahead-now-not-going-ahead.405234/
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