The Trussell Trust

[CabalofBolorneaise]

I understand the perspectives re: regular donations to the Trussell Trust, and absolutely believe and respect that which charities you give to is a personal choice.

However, what I haven’t seen mentioned here and don’t think there’s much awareness of us that there is actually a need for the sort of work the main Trussell Trust charity does. Ad hoc food parcels aren’t going to fix a long term problem. Food poverty (like almost every kind of poverty) is systemic - the reasons behind it are deep rooted and complex. In order to address these, you need to lobby government, research to evidence claims, campaigns to get public support which can influence policy change. This is what monthly donations go towards - long term change addressing the root causes of the issue.

I’m just not convinced that the TT does that much, and the research that focuses on their food banks specifically is automatically skewed as they charge to be a member and have no interest in operating in some of the most deprived areas.

The Joseph Rowntree foundation does far more for this side than the TT do.

 

[VeniVidiVicki]

Just saw this thread on Twitter re the Trussell Trust - not necessarily new info to Tattlers, but if it helps to spread the message ..

It’s quite astounding how many people set up monthly direct debits to charities when they don’t actually know what they do

 

[timemoveson]

Yes, I think there are a lot of unofficial local community groups giving out food, so they probably wouldn't come up in searches. I see a lot of posts in local FB groups for example. I know of at least two schools in Inverurie who have a sort of food bank - basically shelves and boxes near the doors that people can put into and take from.
Also community support groups in various villages run by local volunteers offering food, warm spaces etc.
Cfine in Aberdeen do good stuff too.
These are definitely the kind of groups I prefer to give to as well - anyone with connections to grifty Influencers can do one!

my old college has their own one in the student's union, meals cooked by catering students were available as well as fruits, cans and cereals. It was a lifeline for so many when I was there. You wouldn't know about it unless you were a student though

 

[mickeycat]

So I was just on FB and a friend had shared a post from a local foodbank. As you do, I ended up having a scroll through their page and they were asking for donations and saying to use an app to see what's needed at your local foodbank.
Anyway, the app is called "Bankthefood" and you can search with your postcodes for local foodbanks and see what they urgently need, find drop off points etc. It's quite good.

 

[CabalofBolorneaise]

I live in a village and we have a food bank, rural poverty is a thing.

I do find it odd though that they wouldn't have branches in Blackpool? I love Blackpool but it is somewhere that would absolutely need the help.

I don't have a TT one locally as they're all independent or church led locally to me. You're right though they absolutely do help people get in touch with other organisations.

Mods - the postcode is for Blackpool North station, not anybody's address!

It's unbelievable I know, but they really don't have anything here. The nearest is Lytham St Anne's and it's absolutely not a poor rural village (maybe it's a town tbh but we call it a village), it's pretty affluent. I'm sure there is some need there, as there is everywhere, but not compared to Blackpool. And no signposting to any of the (many) independent food banks that do support here, just their own options 5 or 13 miles away. I'm informed this is the case for a lot of deprived areas, the TT serve the "more acceptable" middle class people who fell on hard times and those are the type of people who donate, hence them making lots of money.

 

[StatusWoe]

No, the money that went to the TT never went on food.

Oh sorry I get what you mean now.

 

[bladiesla]

Interesting. Lol

Doesn't that just mean money is spent on overhead and stuff? I am on the board of a small charity (we have 5 employees and work from two locations) and the more we do, the more overhead we have (wages, inurances, IT costs, rent, utilites for our buildings). We are still dependent on volunteers, but to offer consistent help and more help to our clients our costs to run have increased disproportionately. I don't find it weird for TT to spend moeny on things other than food.

 

[mickeycat]

It’s all such a minefield! I prefer to buy items and pass them on to foodbanks via the supermarket, we do collections at work and sometimes my son’s school do drives too. Then I feel comfortable knowing that the stuff will go directly to the people who really need it.

I just had a look on the TT website and there are only 10 foodbanks coming up for me in the whole of Scotland. There are hopefully many other ones but I wonder if the cost and referral process puts organisers off becoming TT. That’s a lot of money to a church/small organisation to pay out.

I clicked on one in my area and it was open between 1 and 3 today and is now closed until Wednesday. What if there aren’t any other foodbanks in the area? Are people given enough to last over a long weekend, or a voucher? One is in Royal Deeside and it doesn’t look like TT are in affiliation with anyone else so are people expected to make their way to Aberdeen over a 4-day weekend to possibly be turned away because there isn’t enough food for people who live in the area?

I don’t think I’ve ever seen an advert for TT and this is maybe just me but I’m a bit weird of charities who ask for set amounts. “£31 will do this” “£19 will give someone this”. Often there’s an (or what you can afford) in small print but I do think a lot of people want to help, there’s just so so many people now who we could help. And people who genuinely want to help might feel bad if they can’t afford a set amount.

And what will always go against TT for me is their involvement with Jack Monroe!

Yes, I think there are a lot of unofficial local community groups giving out food, so they probably wouldn't come up in searches. I see a lot of posts in local FB groups for example. I know of at least two schools in Inverurie who have a sort of food bank - basically shelves and boxes near the doors that people can put into and take from.
Also community support groups in various villages run by local volunteers offering food, warm spaces etc.
Cfine in Aberdeen do good stuff too.
These are definitely the kind of groups I prefer to give to as well - anyone with connections to grifty Influencers can do one!

 

[Nordic]

A large proportion of big charities are campaigning and policy driven.
Shelter for example don’t run shelters.
if the Trussel Trust are a registered charity they will be subject to the Charity Commission regulation. It sounds to me like they enable the creation and development of food banks through advice and support rather than run their own.
it’s an individual choice as to whether you are interested in funding campaign work or direct support.

 

[Sunflower91]

Gonna sound really pessimistic but why would large charities even want to fulfil the cause? TT solves the need for food banks, then what? You’re not telling me that the top dogs don’t enjoy their wages (which if they’re anything like other big charities, the salaries will be high and have good bonuses). To solve the problem doesn’t do any of these charities any good- they’re run as businesses and act like any other business.

 

[Potatopotaato]

Fundraising and Charity Work are completely different things, but somehow always find themselves lumped together. Fundraising is always the one that makes me most uneasy, as it is always so ripe for fraudulent activity.

It's also very interesting when you work for a charity to see lots of money going in, and seemingly becoming unaccounted for. I remember working for Mind and most of the workers contracts were the result of bidding for work that was being outsourced by councils, community schemes etc. The salary the workers got paid was often skimmed, so mind always got a direct cut. Then after all that you had the fundraising money. It was often difficult to see where that all went.

This really annoys me, as I spent a few years doing the book for a small local charity and they were SO careful with volunteers expenses, grant applications, holding restricted funds appropriately even though they could have been spent elsewhere. To know now that they pretty much could have done what they liked (for the good of the service users and ease for volunteers) and not been held accountable really boils my piss!

 

[ClaretFairy]

I’ve posted this in the JM threads but it fits here too. If you look up the most deprived areas in the country, then go onto the TT website, they’re miles away from them all. I’m in Blackpool and their nearest branch is in a posh village 7 miles away (depends where you are in Blackpool obviously). They’re the perfect fit for grifters like LadBaby and Jack Monroe.

ETA: and they don’t sign post to any other orgs. Even in areas they don’t operate so it’s not “competition”. Most independents will have the area they cover and then suggestions of other local help for people.

I live in a village and we have a food bank, rural poverty is a thing.

I do find it odd though that they wouldn't have branches in Blackpool? I love Blackpool but it is somewhere that would absolutely need the help.

I don't have a TT one locally as they're all independent or church led locally to me. You're right though they absolutely do help people get in touch with other organisations.

 

[CabalofBolorneaise]

Exactly. So many people don’t look further than the name and whether it sounds like a good cause. In the case of Trussell Trust, many people just assume that their money is putting food on people’s tables. So much better to contribute to your local food bank because at least you have more visibility as to where it’s going.

Another example (for me) is cancer charities. Something like Cancer Research is so massive, you’ll never really know where your money goes. It’s just all a bit vague (not all “grants” for research are that worthwhile, being cynical). I don’t mean there’s any shenanigans or anything with that particular charity - just that your little bake sale or whatever is tiny to them and is going to get lost among all the big corporate donations and you’ll never know if you’re making a difference. So in my case I prefer to donate to my local hospice because I know them and can see what they do.

It’s a bit off topic but hopefully allowable due to the theme of big charities etc?

I don’t donate to cancer research because they’re one of the charities known to directly target vulnerable people and pressure them into taking out and increasing their donations. This article is a few years old now but I know of it happening more recently from CRUK too : https://www.archive.is/oldest/https...ler-room-tactics-pressuring-vulnerable-people

I also question any charities that use street recruiting aka chuggers or door knockers as realistically if most adults were stopped and asked for their bank details or asked by someone knocking on their door, they’ll say no - it’s again targeting the most vulnerable to try to pressure them in public or in their own homes. (Bucket collecting of change or just signatures for a petition obviously totally different)

Also things like this below aren’t uncommon from CRUK, they largely get away with a lot of very dodgy tactics because they’re a charity and cancer is obviously such an emotive topic.

Cancer Research and Genetics UK and Recycle Proline Ltd: December 2022

Read the summary.

www.fundraisingregulator.org.uk

 

[no-no]

This is what monthly donations go towards - long term change addressing the root causes of the issue.

And they’re rubbish at that, too. Generating conversations anyone can do that for a lot less than the millions they have sitting in their accounts.

 

[CabalofBolorneaise]

It costs a foodbank £1,500 to join TT and £360 a year every year thereafter. in poorer communities without pockets of affluence, many foodbanks can’t afford that.

TT makes £500k a year from foodbanks plus all the donations. I’m really shocked than none of the donations go on food

This comes with the disclaimer that this was all a couple of years ago so perhaps they have lightened the criteria, but it wasn’t just paying either.

Obviously they need to do diligence before having their name attached to a local service and I totally get that, so some vetting has to take place but the gentle thanks but no thanks case very much seemed to be that their “faces didn’t fit” for the lack of a better term.

The service was successful before them and is still running now.

 

[Merpedy]

It sounds to me like they enable the creation and development of food banks through advice and support rather than run their own

It sounds to me like this is really expensive to the local organisations/people who want to start their own food banks though

I think campaigning and policy stuff is fine if it's useful. TT apparently provide a lot of data to inform debates/MPs which is great, but is it actually achieving anything? I'm sure MPs will throw out the numbers and something about the issues faced in their local area and that will basically be that

 

[CabalofBolorneaise]

It’s all such a minefield! I prefer to buy items and pass them on to foodbanks via the supermarket, we do collections at work and sometimes my son’s school do drives too. Then I feel comfortable knowing that the stuff will go directly to the people who really need it.

I just had a look on the TT website and there are only 10 foodbanks coming up for me in the whole of Scotland. There are hopefully many other ones but I wonder if the cost and referral process puts organisers off becoming TT. That’s a lot of money to a church/small organisation to pay out.

I clicked on one in my area and it was open between 1 and 3 today and is now closed until Wednesday. What if there aren’t any other foodbanks in the area? Are people given enough to last over a long weekend, or a voucher? One is in Royal Deeside and it doesn’t look like TT are in affiliation with anyone else so are people expected to make their way to Aberdeen over a 4-day weekend to possibly be turned away because there isn’t enough food for people who live in the area?

I don’t think I’ve ever seen an advert for TT and this is maybe just me but I’m a bit weird of charities who ask for set amounts. “£31 will do this” “£19 will give someone this”. Often there’s an (or what you can afford) in small print but I do think a lot of people want to help, there’s just so so many people now who we could help. And people who genuinely want to help might feel bad if they can’t afford a set amount.

And what will always go against TT for me is their involvement with Jack Monroe!

This is what gets me most really, that you search and there’s nothing yet they don’t offer any sort of signposting to other orgs.

Maybe they’ll say they don’t have time to vet small ones and there might well be truth to that, but what about eg Salvation Army (I know they have their own set of issues but they’re not a scam and many TT operate in churches so frankly big overlap of issues) or at least a link to the local council’s page on a relevant topic?

It just seems so heartless, they’re not Asda trying to hold onto market share, there’s zero disadvantage for them in highlighting other options and especially so in areas they don’t cover.

 

[Veronicaaa]

And as for Trussell Trust not doing that much … I mean, there’s a thread on here about them - they’re a household name - they’ve started umpteen conversations about food poverty - them and their cause are prescient in public consciousness.

You say that BiB as though it's a good thing. Really gets people talking, eh.

 

[Shimmering]

I hate the fact I once donated 30 quid to them

 

[Veronicaaa]

You might note I wrote ‘long term change’. Food poverty isn’t going to be solved in few years - it’s structural and deeply embedded into the way uk society operates. Expecting on small charity to solve that in a very short time frame is naive at best
---

I’ve skimmed some of the jack monroe threads - I get the gist. And I don’t think it was a smart move of them, nor do I particularly like what I read about jack. But she’s not the sole reason they’re a household name.

I would honestly never had heard of the Trussell Trust and its millions in the bank, had it not been for Jack Monroe.