Then what is the fucking point of the food bank then? Are you just expected to roll over and die?

Try finding a Food not Bombs org in your area idk man that is supremely fucked.

What in the blue fuck? The food bank in my area that I always recommend and donate to is no questions asked. Just give your name and contact info if you like, and what you need. They have clothes and do a dental clinic too.

That’s so fucked up. I’m sorry

Best of luck with your new job. I hope it’s the start of something good. You deserve better.

Disclaimer: I don’t know if this will work or not.

A post office in my country, Australia, will accept mail that is sent to the attention of someone - you. If you talk to the post office, they’ll generally (in my experience) keep mail for you, at least for a little while.

If you used the post office address as “your” address, would that circumvent the belligerent attitude of the foodbank?

If not the post office, perhaps another address?

And finally, you could refuse to provide an address because of personal security concerns and find out what policy exists around people who fear for their life.

I don’t have all the answers, but hopefully this will get some food in your belly.

Good luck.

Food bank workers can be awful. My local food bank is so time consuming to access - you have to get a referral from citizens advice or the GP, and it can take days to get an appointment with citizens advice or for the GP to respond to my request and actually do it - then you have to make an appointment at the food bank which could be the following week, then they give you what I wouldn’t even class as food - mostly milk, coffee and tea, with a pack of biscuits, some tortilla chips, sugar, a tiny loaf of bread and a small packet of pasta. This can easily be eaten in a day. Then it’s the whole process again, starving waiting for the next chance to go.

I spoke about the difficulty of accessing this food bank on reddit and someone there said he worked for a food bank and would arrange a drop off for me. He asked if I had any allergies or intolerances, and I told him of a food intolerance I have. Weirdly, he got really angry and offended that I was trying to dictate what he could give me, basically accused me of being a choosing beggar and did not respond to me any more. Even though HE ASKED about any intolerances! So I never got the food.

Another redditor saw my post and put me in touch with a facebook group - farmers who give some of their produce free to people on low incomes. They offered me some fresh packaged meat from a farm, which I gratefully accepted. I gave them my address. Having been starving for a while, living off nothing but the drinks and cookies from the food bank with many days of no food in between, I was salivating at the thought of it, so excited to finally feel full. The next day a woman turned up at my house with a shopping bag of food. She said the farmers hadn’t been able to send the meat as I lived too far away so they’d asked this woman to bring me food instead. She said she’d been to the supermarket and bought things that she would like. The bag had about £30 worth of stuff in it, but it was just tea, coffee, milk, sugar, chocolate, and toiletries like shower gel. Nothing filling or nutritious at all. I thanked her politely but when she had gone I burst into tears from the disappointment. She’d spent £30 on stuff that wasn’t going to benefit me. I thought of all the real food I could have bought with that money. And had to face the fact I was going to remain hungry.

That’s how I found hexbear. I got so desperate at my situation that I joined a suicide forum, looking for someone to help me kill myself. (my last attempt failed and I’m disabled so I wanted help to do it properly.) The person I made a plan with backed out and I realised my end wasn’t coming swiftly. I was so hungry that I tried to sell my prescription meds on there to buy food. I had nothing else to sell. They banned me for that but just before they banned me, someone recommended mutual aid on hexbear, so I came here for help.

It’s really hit and miss though, several people have helped me, which is the only way I have to feed myself. However several people have also strung me along with promises of help and then not come through. And I often have to make multiple posts before getting help. My latest request has been up for 24 hours and no-one has responded yet. It’s such a precarious way to stay fed, never knowing whether anyone will respond or not, but there’s nothing else I can do. Well, I have shoplifted food a few times but it’s scary and I hate doing it. I can’t cope with being arrested on top of everything else.

I read about a Christian food bank in America where they turned a starving family away for being Muslim!