Re: 'out of touch', ignorant MP
Originally Posted by
Uncle Joe
->
So this is the the thinking of the scumbag 'nasty party'. That people who use food banks, do so due to a short-term cash flow crisis. Just how 'out of touch' and ignorant can these scumbag 'nasty party' members get???
Oh dear another typical knee
jerk reaction from a supporter of the Lying Loony Labour party, and one based on total ignorance !
I know food banks matey boy. In fact I've visited 3 to 4 of them in recent weeks to speak with their management and that's because I'm in the process of setting a foodbank up myself, a revolutionary new style of foodbank.
The comments in the article about the reasons for people using foodbanks is correct. Your anti tory angst is as usual simply biased drivel and frustrated billigerence. I sympathise with your frustrations in having the useless Corbyn leading your beloved party and knowing that the demise of Labour is imminent. Such is life. If Labourites focussed a tenth of their efforts towards doing something positive instead of just slagging off the Tories then maybe this wouldn't have happened. Sadly, the Labourite dimwits have learned nothing in 20 years !
Meanwhile, let's deal with your ridiculous rant.
What readers should first note is what a foodbank is and how it operates.
A foodbank IS NOT simply an outlet that dishes out free food to the poor, homeless and needy. Absolutely not.
Foodbanks operate on A REFERRAL SYSTEM. That means that you don't get to use a foodbank UNLESS you have been specifically given a referral letter/form from a formal centre such as from the Council, the NHS, or from registered support centres who deal with alcoholics, substance abusers, mental health and so on.
To get a referral from such a place you HAVE TO demonstrate an EMERGENCY need for a food parcel.
Those EMERGENCY situations can arrive for all manner of reasons. Often people get caught in the ever increasing delay periods where they are waiting for benefits to come through. So there's a period of 2 to 3 weeks maybe they have to survive where they ought to have had benefits but the system is behind.
Other times a person might have had to suddenly leave home, perhaps from domestic violence or break up and needs help for a short period until they are rehoused.
There are numerous reasons why someone might need and get a REFERRAL for a foodbank just as the person states in that Independent article. However all referrals have these things in common:
~ There must be a special EMERGENCY situation
~ The referral only covers a SHORT DEFINED PERIOD
The foodbanks, on receiving that referral will give the person a LIMITED number of food parcels. This varies for each foodbank but examples I have seen are:
~ Person gets a total of 3 food parcels as and when needed and then that's it
~ Person gets food for 3 meals per day for 7 days (21 meals) and then that's it
and so on
The foodbank is a TOTALLY LIMITED service to cover EMERGENCY situations only. If it transpires that a person needs more food parcels than that which the foodbank typically offers then the person is sent back to the referring centre because that indicates there is a deeper problem involved. i.e. it's not simply a temporary emergency situation, there are longer term problems there that must be dealt with, and thus the person is signposted to an appropriate place, might be a mental health centre, rehab organisation and so on.
Make no mistake, many of the people using foodbanks are ordinary people who are just caught between benefits payout periods because the computer systems can't cope. Others are vulnerable people (alcoholics, abusers etc) who have managed to get themselves into an emergency situation temporarily. They won't get away with doing that many times as the REFERRAL PROCESS prevents them from abusing the system.
Again I know this because I work in a support centre for such people on a weekly basis. Foodbanks cover specific postcode areas so the referral system also stops abusers from trying to hop from one foodbank to another.
Trussel Trust is an organisation that provides a framework for people to set up a foodbank and effectively run it. They provide the forms, food itineraries, running processes etc that are needed. I wouldn't personally choose to use their framework, and indeed don't intend to. It is imo outdated paper and pencil process. There are far better ways to operate a "foodbank" service and I am in the process of revolutionising those processes.