>> How do you decide who is a worthy recipient and who isn't?
RP can reply for his area but round here it's quite tightly controlled; you cannot just rock up and walk out with a week's worth of (mostly tinned or dried) food.
Various outfits including GP surgeries, advice agencies, churches etc can nominate people and issue the requisite voucher. Drop in centres run by charities may have on site foodbanks but will triage before issuing food.
When I was doing generalist face to face advice there tended to be two categories. Those who presented wanting, or knowing they needed, help from the food bank and others who probably needed it but didn't ask.
An advisor would always do an exploration of circumstances. We used a mnemonic FAMED (Family, Accommodation, Money, Employment and Discrimination) to inform that exploration. Common reasons why help was needed included benefit and other money hiatuses, sudden unemployment, relationship breakdown, domestic crises of one sort or another etc.
Quite often the exploration showed they must be short of food even if they weren't telling you and offer of a food voucher could be made.
There's a limit to the number/frequency of vouchers an individual can have.
I dare say that if one was determined, energetic and mobile it might be possible 'milk the system' using different foodbanks, referral routes etc. Life's too short and real need too high to imagine such folks are getting stuff for free.
Last edited by: Bromptonaut on Wed 10 Mar 21 at 12:25
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