I am so angry..... really angry.

[saundra]

i watched the program Wm the lady who had lost so much weight didnt have a clue
surely toast with egg or beans isent hard to put together a pkt of bacon for the daughter
to have a bacon sarnie is more expensive than a 4pck of baked beans on offer
shoppers should have a storecupboard for basics
i felt a bit sorry for the elderly man but a pkt of soup over 2 days was stupid
i dont expect he had never cooked a meal he probably never had to
im afraid my bill would be like that
no he never cooked came from a generation who never needed to
and didnt think he should my dad was the same
both my boys can cook in fact eldest loves cooking
and cooking salmon for the family well he was just stupid
PS i watched the program straight after about living on bennifits
well it was an eye opener

[Workingman]

I obviously did not explain my anger clearly yesterday.

It was not aimed at the specially chosen 'victims', it was aimed at the BBC treatment of them and the subject in general. It was false - budget meals with fresh salmon at £11 a throw!. It was a slebfest. It had elements of GBBO, Masterchef and a few other cooking programmes within it. It even had its own sleb garden party with a panel of experts to tell us all, in the most patronising ways, just how beautiful and tasty the budget meals were. Worst of all, it treated the ordinary people like imbeciles. They were nothing more than vehicles to show just how clever everyone else was.

[debih]

Yes - that was ridiculous with the salmon.

The three of them couldn't stick to the budget and Richard buying the salmon was just pathetic - what would he do if he was on a tight budget, buy the salmon and then starve for the rest of the week.

And I agree that it did seem to treat them like imbeciles.

(Express your anger properly next time man!!!! )

[Rodo]

I have a much better solution - just send them all to shop at Aldi.

[Workingman]

(Express your anger properly next time man!!!! )

Yes miss.

If, as some research shows, there are 500,000 households using food banks then there is a serious problem. Serious problems need to be tackled seriously. The irony is that food banks have unintentionally become part of the problem. On the one hand they offer free food, and freebies tend to be used and abused, especially when there is no payback involved. The other is the type of food that is handed out, it tends to be tins and packets - open, heat, eat.

If I was running a food bank it would be alongside cookery and budgeting lessons, and in order to get at the free food attendance at those would be mandatory.

[Kaz]

That's what I was rolling my eyes at Frank............incredibly patronising.....

[cromwell]

Rodo, Osc, you're kidding!

People need to be taught how to shop? They need to be taught how to fry a chopped onion and add some mince? They need to be taught how to chop potatoes, carrots and cabbage and boil them? They need to be taught how to put the lot on a plate.

No wonder we are in a mess! If things have got that bad what a bloody state we have got ourselves in.

There are many area where the people are like that though WM.
Karen Matthews, the infamous woman who arranged the kidnap of her own daughter, never did one day's work and never cooked one meal for her kids.
I was talking to the owner of a local farm shop and she said that during the horse meat scandal they were having people come into the shop asking advice because they had never bought any proper meat before!.
That's how some people live. I was behind two people in a supermarket and every item of food they had bought was processed food.
Maybe domestic science lessons should be a compulsory part of the national curriculum.

[Suff]

I'm so annoyed with the BBC in general that one of the few programs I can make myself watch is Top Gear. And that is only because Clarkson is so UN BBC that it makes it so much more fun to watch.

Whatever happened to the days of Drama on BB2 where their "plays" portrayed the government of the time and the threats to the way British people live????

I would never watch a "budget" slebfest on any channel about cooking. It's just crazy, they can't stop for 5 seconds and think that someone might have to choose between actually eating and something the chef thinks might be "trendy" and look good.

Much better is the "Cook 6 portions and freeze 4" household management. Also if you are freezing 4 to parcel them as 2 x 1 and 1 x 2 to maximise how you can use it later.

WM has mentioned mince, potatoes and veg. How about bacon and bean pie. Super cheap, nutritious and, with broccoli on the side, a full meal. Oh and it freezes too....

TV is turning me off broadcast media. Fast. Most of it is total junk. They seem to set a low standard and vie to see who can undershoot the mark by the widest margin. Then they all set their new low standard from the winner of the previous "junkview" competition and start all over again....

[TheOstrich]

I didn't see the programme, so I can't comment except in response to posts on this thread.

One thing ..... I'm extremely loathe to knock food-banks. I think they are, for an increasing number of people, an important life-line. I support a very local one, (not Trussell Trust), which is properly set-up, and run by the local churches. All hand-out recipients are vetted and are Social Services or Charity referrals.

My only concern is recent media reports that the Government are increasingly using food-bank referrals as a means of "bridging" the effect of delays in the issuing of Welfare Benefits. I believe in food-banks as an effective method of direct charitable giving, a form of wealth distribution from rich to poor, if you like, but I don't want to see them become simply a substitute for the Government's Welfare State.

[Workingman]

My only concern is recent media reports that the Government are increasingly using food-bank referrals as a means of "bridging" the effect of delays in the issuing of Welfare Benefits. I believe in food-banks as an effective method of direct charitable giving, a form of wealth distribution from rich to poor, if you like, but I don't want to see them become simply a substitute for the Government's Welfare State.

Ossie, I could not agree more about them NOT being used by government as part of the Welfare State. I also believe that they are a necessity for some people, but I also think that the users of the system need some sort of self-help and I see no reason why that should not be tied in with access to the free food.

There was a programme on some months back and it proved that some of the users were taking the Mick. I'll try and look it up.

10/08/2012: ITV's Tonight programme feature on UK hunger and foodbanks. Unfortunately not available now.