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Anyone else thinking, like me, that we should personally do more to support them?
I intend to call my local ones on Monday to understand what their greatest needs are and then do my bit to help.
Simple thought - local farm shops sell 25kg bags of spuds; probably jumbo bags of carrots.
A few of each would be a start.
That's my starter for 10.
What's yours?
Mate, effing great bags of spuds and carrots aren't normally on the request boards.
List below of bog standard requirements but normally there will be requests from different food banks.
A typical food parcel includes:
Cereal
Soup
Pasta
Rice
Tinned tomatoes/ pasta sauce
Lentils, beans and pulses
Tinned meat
Tinned vegetables
Tea/coffee
Tinned fruit
Biscuits
UHT milk
Fruit juice
mate, I will talk with local food banks in the morning but thanks for your unhelpful comments.
His advice is good, consistent with what we take at our local food bank (i.e. long shelf life food)
The thing to bare in mind is food is not the only thing people are short of - an equipped kitchen and money for the meter will be short too. So although spuds seems like a good idea they take a long time to cook and use a lot of gas electric in the processes, so  tinned spuds or instant mash might be a better for instance. Food banks will generally steer you towards stuff that doesn't need to be refrigerated and stuff that needs little or no cooking.
But there are other goods that could be bought in bulk and split. Before the plague I used to buy the big packs of Costco bog roll - one for myself one to split and give to a food bank.
Actually - in the general state of lock down the problem may not so much be the food as the getting the food to people. It could be the help to offer is logistical rather than nutritional.
Frankconway, my Ex helps run a food bank and they have list of food they want like exsee's list, they don't want fresh, they've generally nowhere to store it, and lots of folk have no way of prepping or cooking it themselves.
It's a a great idea to help out though, but don't just rock up with giant bags of veg!
Too late. His feelings have been hurt.
As above, all food at banks (Tressel Trust ones anyway) is weighed in, BB dated and stored for a while. They couldn't use fresh. Volunteer and go and see how it all works. The one I volunteer at is short staffed just now as many volunteers are retired and isolating. The bank's do kids packs too when schools are off, so additional work just now.
When Scouts and Guides pulled activities, my wife went through her units store and pulled out stuff that they were saving for the next camp that was cancelled - dropped it off at the collection point in Tesco, which I'm pleased to say was overflowing.
I was undoubtedly the only person taking pasta in to Tesco that morning!
OP - it's great to hear that you want to help and contacting your local foodbank is the best place to start. Many foodbanks have a Facebook page and/or website and regularly post lists of items in short supply. As others have said tins and packets with a long shelf life are generally the most useful things. At the foodbank where I've been volunteering for the last three years, the current list also includes cold meat (spam, corned beef etc), tuna, shampoo, soap, deodorant, tinned potatoes, rice pudding and custard. I hope this helps.
Who lives on just carrots & potatoes 😂
In my local area the big supermarkets give their close to sell by date food to the food banks; of course there is unlikely to be the things available in shops so they may well be more flexible in what they will take .. just not too sure how helpful big bags of carrots and potatoes will be to a rough sleeper though??