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Thread: Thurso Food Bank

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  1. #1

    Default Thurso Food Bank

    For the past several years, I have donated approx £20 in food to the Thurso Food Bank.

    However, I wont be doing it again as I am somewhat alarmed by the way some individuals abuse its generosity.

    For example, a neighbour of mine spend the afternoon drinking in a local bar then proceeded up the street to the Thurso Food Bank where he left with several bags of groceries. His wife/partner is in employment. If you can spend money drinking in a pub, then you are abusing the Thurso Food Bank.

    I'd like to hear other peoples views on this.

  2. #2
    Join Date
    Oct 2012
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    Occumster
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    42

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    Food banks are for the needy not a supplement for people who have money but choose to spend it on non essentials, I had food vouchers many years ago as I was left without money and 3 children to feed But I counted myself so grateful for the help !!Perhaps a better assessment of the clients / users would ensure the food went to the proper people

  3. #3

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    i know some people that go to food bank and put stuff they do not like straight in the bin i would hope f i donated food it was used properly if you do not like it return it for someone who is really needy and would use everything because they were grateful for what they got

  4. #4
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    Feb 2008
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    Wick
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    Whatever goodwill system you create their will always be people that will abuse it, unfortunately it's the people that need that little leg up that takes the tumble again.
    A man who fears suffering is already suffering from what he fears.

  5. #5

    Default

    This is exactly why I never donate to the Food Bank. I have witnessed someone spending their money on cider and saying openly that they're off down to the food bank now to get some groceries. I have no doubt that there are people in need of help but it seems that alcohol/drugs/tobacco addicts need to get their priorities right. Maybe instead of money(benefits) they should be given vouchers that can only be used by them(to prevent them selling them) to purchase essential groceries but, unfortunately, we're too frightened to offend/embarrass people that that will never happen. Instead us workers will have to continue working and watch as these abusers make mugs of us all.

  6. #6
    Join Date
    Oct 2013
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    Thurso
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    63

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    there's a lot of geniuine people, including families with children, who occassionally might need to use the food bank (remember benefit sanctions?) and comments like this just add to the stigma and embarressment of having to go cap in hand for a bag of food to feed your family.

    we should be getting angry about why there has to be such a thing as food banks in the first place

  7. #7

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    Where I am there are food banks, and then there are the Social Assiatance(Welfare payments).
    These Welfare vouchers are for Food and the necessities to exist on.
    One evening I was in a Grocery Store and the people ahead of me bought piles of Dog Food, cigarettes and booze, likely $200 worth....100 Pounds worth.
    I then saw that it was a Welfare Voucher..
    The next day I found out who they were and called the local Council Office to report this, and I was told that they were unable to discuss or do anything about it due to 'The Freedom Of Information Act'.
    I then asked them to talk with the Store as these Vouchers were for food only.....again they said there was no way they could be enforce it.
    So I suppose we all have to think positive and ignore the abusers........

  8. #8
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    Oct 2004
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    small fishing village outside wick called pulteney
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    we have food banks not because there is a super high demand for them but because they are there and folk will use them, if you open one food bank in an area and it get used then the ideology is there must be a need for more, and ergo more open, more that open the more the powers that be reckon we need, what your actually getting is a system that is open to abuse, once the abuse starts, we then think we are in a greater need for the food banks and this in turn creates a snowball effect,

    More food banks, more use, more use, more food banks required,

    Do you know there is an app to tell you from your location your nearest food bank,

    Put this another way,

    if I open a pub and give away free beer to the needy and the thirsty my pub would be busy every day and night, that would mean I would have to open another free pub because the demand is so high and therefore must been needed, before we know it there would be a free beer pub (food bank) in every town,

    I’m all for helping the needy, I but I know of a person that goes down to the pub on Friday and Saturday night then pops along to the food bank for her shopping, o and just a few months ago she bought herself a new telly,(nowt wrong with that as long as it’s not eating into your everyday living expenses) when questioned about her money and where it had gone, her answer was simple, I spent it on nights out, """" why shouldn't I get a night out, ????? """" beggars belief, but to the food bank her answer was slightly different, it was """ how can you ask me that, do you know how hard it is for me to come in here without being belittled even more, then carried her 3 day supply in her bags, and jumps in a taxi ?????,

    No food banks are not a free service nor is it for the replacement of misappropriation of funds (spent on nights out) it’s for folk that are in genuine trouble and genuine need, but like I said it’s open to abuse and sob stories,

    Shame really because if we all cared for each other this wouldn’t be happening, but we as a race are greedy and have no shame,
    if it wasnt for pubs it would be tescos for us all

  9. #9
    Join Date
    Oct 2006
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    435

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    Article on John o'Groat Journal website linking increased demand for local food banks with delays in payments of Universal Credit:

    "Caithness Food Bank demand doubles in December

    DEMAND for emergency food parcels in Caithness have jumped by 50 per cent during December.

    Caithness Food Bank has been working flat out to service referrals from people who are struggling and need assistance to help feed themselves and their families.

    Chairman Grant Ramsay said the main reason people are needing help is delays in the universal credit scheme. ... ":

    http://www.johnogroat-journal.co.uk/...s-02012018.htm

  10. #10

    Default

    Actualy we live in bower and we weren't feckless. We were renovating a croft when the jobs dissapered. no job = no money, no money = no rent (and no more builders, plumbers to finish the house). Job centre in wick said that our uninhabitable shell of a house was classed as an asset so technically we had savings. They weren't going to help us until we had sold up and frittered away every penny. Friends helped out where they could but would you want a family camping out in your living room for 3 months?

    Any one can lose their job, just ask those being laid off on the oil rigs.

    I hope scorrie you never have to face the prospect of no job, no home, knowing that everyone looks down on you as if you chose to be worth less than dirt. We could have followed the jobcentres advice and ended up perminently reliant on housing benefit instead we tightened our belts and made do until we got work.

  11. #11
    Join Date
    Jul 2013
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    Sutherland
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    Quote Originally Posted by B0wer View Post
    Actualy we live in bower and we weren't feckless. We were renovating a croft when the jobs dissapered. no job = no money, no money = no rent (and no more builders, plumbers to finish the house). Job centre in wick said that our uninhabitable shell of a house was classed as an asset so technically we had savings. They weren't going to help us until we had sold up and frittered away every penny. Friends helped out where they could but would you want a family camping out in your living room for 3 months?

    Any one can lose their job, just ask those being laid off on the oil rigs.

    I hope scorrie you never have to face the prospect of no job, no home, knowing that everyone looks down on you as if you chose to be worth less than dirt. We could have followed the jobcentres advice and ended up perminently reliant on housing benefit instead we tightened our belts and made do until we got work.
    Not a lot of point in arguing the toss with those who have not the foresight to see your point,
    the bloody-minded attitude of the "natives" who wrongly believe everyone and everything is below them,

  12. #12

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    Quote Originally Posted by Westward View Post
    Not a lot of point in arguing the toss with those who have not the foresight to see your point,
    the bloody-minded attitude of the "natives" who wrongly believe everyone and everything is below them,
    Obviously posted by a "non-native" who wrongly believes he is superior to the yokels.

  13. #13
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    Jul 2013
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    Sutherland
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    Quote Originally Posted by Bystander1 View Post
    Obviously posted by a "non-native" who wrongly believes he is superior to the yokels.
    Bull.
    Like I said no point in arguing with folks like that.

  14. #14

    Default

    Quote Originally Posted by scorrie2017 View Post
    So says 'E Great White Settler.


    They shift from 'e slums of England in search o' Utopia only til find 'e erse falls oot thir world.

    Slums o england my arse. Arbroth born and breed mate. Couldn't afford a house near family so we came up north. You try shifting a house that has not leccy, no water, no heating & no sewrage before the cubourds run bare & we'll see if you can feed your kids on estate agents leaflets!


    Not looking for utopia just a home. My grandmother always said Wick was the best harbour after Arbroath. Doubt she ever came across your kin though scorrie or she wouldn't have thought it so friendly.


    Tell you what scorrie you stay in your little world where wickers are saints and only scum fall on hard times and I will be busy in mine helping those in need. I'm not wasting any more time with you.


    My first post remains we do take action where abuse of food banks is proven. Most people only come the once and are in genuine need, please don't be put off giving because of a few bad apples. If you see food bank abuse report it (to us, or National Benefit Fraud Hotline (NBFH) Telephone: 0800 854 440 ).

  15. #15
    Join Date
    Mar 2010
    Location
    Thurso
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    29

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    I have read this post with great interest, and wondered about contributing. I have been lucky enough to be in a position not to use a foodbank and I am blessed that this is the case, but Just before christmas I decided the foodbank would recieve the donation of items id buy with the money I would normally spend on christmas cards and the postage of them.

    Not a great deal of money but I thought maybe a treat for the kids of the families that recieve the food packages, in there situation I thought a treat goes a long way at christams.

    So I gathered up the items and dropped in to the food bank and I got the shock reality that maybe I had done a silly thing, I had people advising me it was not a cause that was used for good but abused, when I went through the door there was a lady sitting there waiting for her package to be made up! This is where it hit home that ok maybe it is abused..... this lady goes to bingo everyweek not just one bingo hall either, she buys multiple books, raffles at the begining and break, she attends the bookmakers regulary, she lives near by and I see her buying lines of scratcards, she smokes and here she is waiting for a food package.

    So in the seconds standing there I thought do I leave the items or do I take them back and put them to another cause, I decided no Im leaving them there, although this one was clearly not as in need as she had made out. I decided there is people who are, but also kids out there of families that may not recieve a great deal over christmas so why should they suffer for this ladys selfish behavior.

    it of course has made me think about how this system works but in this day and age its terrible that people need to rely on foodbanks but for people to be so aware how important they are for some but still abuse the resource.
    Live life while you have it, after is too late!!!

  16. #16
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    Nov 2005
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    1,083

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    Why is that we hear such venom when it comes to the at the bottom of the pile ,but have all to many turning a blind eye to the Rich Fat Cats stealing from us all . It's not just a few tins or pounds here and there,but BILLIONS , to many easy street brandy swilling Tories on the org. History teaches us one thing ' we never learn" and rotten folk are alive and thriving .

  17. #17

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    Quote Originally Posted by scorrie2017 View Post
    DSS flotsam washing up on the beaches of Caithness.
    Quote Originally Posted by scorrie2017 View Post
    DSS flotsam washing up on the beaches of Caithness.
    No i'm not DSS. The whole point Scorrie is that a fair number of foodbank users are NOT DSS. They are regular folk that have fallen on hard times. Yes there has been a spike in people coming due to universal benefit delays but mostly over the years they have been hard working people who have been laid off/been forced to take unpaid sick leave... they turn up the once all nervous at what people might think of them. We give them a smile, enough food for 3 days and then we never see them again because they aren't some bludge out for a free meal they are just people who go on to turn their lives around.

    It's been fun jousting with you gentlemen but I fear my argument is falling on deaf ears. Yes her00026 "locals" probably would be able to spot the dodgy ones but there arn't enough locals willing to volluntere so us "incomers" are filling in the gaps.

    I bid you all farewell - perhaps our duelling pistols will clash on another thread.

  18. #18
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    Jul 2013
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    Sutherland
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    Quote Originally Posted by B0wer View Post
    No i'm not DSS. The whole point Scorrie is that a fair number of foodbank users are NOT DSS. They are regular folk that have fallen on hard times. Yes there has been a spike in people coming due to universal benefit delays but mostly over the years they have been hard working people who have been laid off/been forced to take unpaid sick leave... they turn up the once all nervous at what people might think of them. We give them a smile, enough food for 3 days and then we never see them again because they aren't some bludge out for a free meal they are just people who go on to turn their lives around.

    It's been fun jousting with you gentlemen but I fear my argument is falling on deaf ears. Yes her00026 "locals" probably would be able to spot the dodgy ones but there arn't enough locals willing to volluntere so us "incomers" are filling in the gaps.

    I bid you all farewell - perhaps our duelling pistols will clash on another thread.
    Well said and long overdue!

  19. #19
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    Nov 2016
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    Thurso
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    What Scorrie has said is more than likely true as Caithness is not slow to support local causes ...

  20. #20
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    Jul 2010
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    Be interesting to see what happens to foodbank usage after today, the day that wee Krankie introduced the minimum pricing for alcohol. My guess is that foodbank use will go up, as benefits are spent on more expensive cider. Spend on food will suffer as a result, so it'll be a case of jump in the car and nip round the foodbank for something to scoff in front of tonights Sky movie.

    Of course, the increase in usage will get blamed on Westminster......

    Fortunately, home brew is as cheap as ever!

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