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@malacandran wrote:

I suppose hardly anyone here, has actually been to one of these "food banks".  That's because we're intelligent enough to arrange our lives without having to beg for food.  Most people can manage that, by our own efforts.  We don't need to suck from others.

 

I mean, honestly!  The United Kingdom is a fabulously rich country to live in.  We have everything we need.  No competent person actually has to beg for food in the UK.   If anyone does so, it can only be for one of these reasons:

 

1.  Stupidity

2.  Drink

3.  Drugs

4.  Being an illegal immigrant

 

These reasons are all shameful.  They shouldn't be allowed. They don't in the least justify UK "food banks".

 

Shouldn't proper citizens of the UK, real people who work,  get rid of food banks, and only give food to people who work for their living?

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Why should it be necessary to 'justify UK "food banks"? - we should be encouraging their expansion!

It is the 'real people who work' that are responsible for the profligate waste of food in this country,

Some of the waste is just plain crazy - have you ever bought a sandwich in a supermarket or garage and wondered what happens to the crusts? - most sandwich makers actually bin the crusts as well as the first slice of the loaf from each end. Big retailers throw away millions of pounds worth of food that has passed its best before date but which is still perfectly edible - tons of food caught in the supply chain go to landfill because it would cost more to unpackage and feed to animals - farmers plough back crops which don't match the specification required by the big retailers regarding shape and external blemishes. Then once the food does get to the consumer we throw much of it away,

The latest estimate is that we throw away about 15 million tons of food each year, half from the supply chain and half from our homes, about a quarter of a ton of food for every man woman and child.

We need more social supermarkets and food banks to use up some of this waste - not fewer.