Lent Day 4, Hannah

I had a back to back meetings from 1pm so had my carrot sticks (didn’t fill any kind of hole so I completely understand the desire and actual need for biscuits / filling things when on a budget) and one slice of toast and cottage cheese at 12.30pm.

At the second meeting, a panettone was offered with a coffee and while my host said ‘no thank you’ I was delighted – I would have been any other day, but like yesterday with the fruit today it was even more welcome! Also made me think someone could be put off a little if others say ‘no thanks’ and might say the same even if they really want or need it…

A second slice of toast and cottage cheese at 4pm then cereal as a snack at 6pm as a slightly later than usual teatime awaited.

Tea was half the remaining pasta (a slightly bigger portion as I didn’t eat any pasta yesterday), the remaining meatballs and baked beans. Both have very thin sauces and not a huge amount of flavour…

One more day so I’m keen to use what I have but aware that if this was ‘normal life’, I would be pleased to be taking some leftovers into the next week’s budget.

Lent 2023, Day 3 Hannah

Another normal start to the day, but a lunch time meeting (without lunch!) so I had a slice of toast with cottage cheese about 11.30am knowing I might need another slice after… There were biscuits at the meeting so I did have one while there and it made me think refreshments – however small – are so welcome if we don’t know people’s circumstances.

Back to the office just after 3pm so the second slice of toast with cottage cheese was incredibly welcome, plus carrot sticks. I have an evening meeting that may have biscuits so I’ve not thought about tea today; it’s likely going to be a late one or perhaps cereal with milk as I have those portions still available to me.

Evening meeting and there’s fruit!! A banana and cherries and a satsuma – such a treat anyway, but especially so this week.

Very tempted to ask for any leftovers but acutely aware that there may be others here in the ‘living on a tight budget’ all the time so will leave for others and be so much more mindful of that in the future.

Lent 2023 day 2, Hannah

I knew I was at a meeting all morning but hadn’t remembered lunch was included so I felt two things immediately – one delight at having something different (I know it’s only been a day but I keep thinking about choice and variety) and two relief and delight at having ‘spare’ portions of bread and cottage cheese from my weighed out daily allowances.

Back at the office for the afternoon with tea and coffee and not much else to report. There was a discussion around dinner plans though that I managed to avoid by asking questions or commening on colleagues plans. I wouldn’t have minded, but I put myself in the shoes of someone living with this kind of strict budget and thought I wouldn’t have wanted to invite questions on my meal plans for the week.

I’m finishing a little late today due to a meeting, so I’m pleased my pasta based tea is a quick cook meal.

Tea today was pasta with a quarter tin of meatballs (3.5 meatballs and a spoon of gravy to be precise), plus a carrot and one plum tinned tomato. It looked a lot more than yesterday’s, but the gravy was very thin, as was the tomato juice so it was pretty bland. I ate slowly to draw it out – I was halfway through when hubby had finished his whole meal – but did still feel a little hungry. After washing up and some household chores, thinking a distraction would show if I’m ACTUALLY hungry or not, I had a slice of toast with honey and 2 custard creams. Very nice although I am really missing fruit as I’d often have an apple or pear (usually both) in the evening.

I weighed out the cottage cheese for tomorrows lunch and realised I didn’t eat the cereal portions so I’ve got that ‘spare’ for later in the week if I need it.

Lent 2023 Day 1, Hannah

It’s Monday and started pretty much like other work day. As I did the previous two times I did this, I will drink tea and coffee at work because that’s all provided / available and I don’t pay for it. So by 1pm, I’d had two cups of tea and two of coffee which is pretty standard, but was getting hungry…

I had one slice of toast and half my daily portion of cottage cheese that is weighed out last night. I thought I could easily have two slices of toast, but that I’d still be hungry later so had just one for now then I’ve got one ‘free’ for later.

I’m working this evening so came home early afternoon and, while reading through some papers for a meeting I’m at tomorrow, snacked on my daily cereal portions but stopped after I noticed I was doing it quite mindlessly and, while enjoying it, didn’t want to ‘waste’ the food. I had a cup of hot green tea with lemon – better than I expected as I’d never usually have this, but pleased I’ve got honey which I’ll have a spoonful of in the tea as the week goes on I think!

Tea was 100g of pasta (I usually weigh rice for meals but never weigh pasta, but this has to last me 5 meals) with half a tin of sardines, half a tin of baked beans, a carrot and a spoonful of tinned tomato juice.

I have some carrot sticks and 2 custard creams ‘left’ which I did eat on my way home after my evenings work – did I need them or was it because they were there…? I had a cup of green tea and a small glass of lemonade when I got home; I’m feeling ok, but already a little bored of my choices, wondering what I could have switched out – maybe no honey (if I’d known the tea would be fine without) then I could have had bananas… Hindsight is a beast…

Lent 2023, Hannah preparation

I’ve done this twice (2019 and 2021) so am going to do it a little differently this time, spending £10 for us as a couple (although hubby isn’t keen to do it!) and then split the provisions 50/50.

Looking at my previous receipts, I will double some items (twice the pasta and soup and baked beans) but I think it will mean I can get some fruit or ‘pudding’ which I couldn’t afford on a single person’s £5. It’s definitely better value buying more, which isn’t always possible if you don’t have the cash up front of course. A small loaf of bread for example is practically the same price (circa 79p) as a larger loaf which a single person may not get through in a week. I have a freezer so could preserve that way, but not everyone does so that could create food waste for someone else.

Buying for 2, I do have to consider tastes and preferences – hubby has a food allergy which I don’t, so that needs to be catered for (and increases costs / reduces choice) and isn’t a big fan of fish which I can get cheaper than meat when looking at tinned items.

I did my shop – it took over an hour, just to spend £10! A lot of back and forth in the aisles, stopping to tot up again and again, scouring the shelf labels for price per gram and were there any other options.When I made a list of options of food for £10, I wrote a lot of suggestions, but quickly crossed off eggs and ham due to prices, sadly crossed off fruit although did manage one kiwi! I saved 1p by getting whole tinned tomatoes rather than chopped, 9p by getting lemonade instead of fizzy water and 20p by getting green tea instead of fruit because there wasn’t any and I definitely wanted an option for a hot drink.

After I’d got what I considered the essentials, I had 78p left. Cheap sliced ham and 5 bananas were 79p each and I considered going over budget by 1p, but if I had £10 cash, that wouldn’t be an option so I opted for biscuits and 1 kiwi which was 78p combined…

Very frustrated / sad that there were no own brand cuppa soups I’d previously priced at 46p for 5 so I had 92p to do both our lunches. No such luck. I walked to Tesco which was practically next door (I wouldn’t have driven) and the cheapest cuppa soups were 75p for 5 so that threw a big spanner in my budget and I really was flummoxed for a moment. I considered going back to Lidl another day to check, but thinking about my days, I wasn’t going to be passing so that would be extra time and petrol – another cost to consider. I therefore bought these soups…

Ironically, I then got petrol at £52 which seemed ridiculous as I had agonised over spending 1p more on bananas 30 minutes earlier.

I spent close to another hour (considering how much more time / effort / stress this would take if kids were involved!) doing the maths and portioning items for the week ahead. I have 9 slices of bread (half the loaf), 187g of cereal (half the box), half a tin of tomatoes, half a tin of meatballs, 8 carrots and 12 custard creams.

I’m discounting all the soup as hubby’s lunch (he’s not doing it, but I’ve spent £10 on 2 people’s food so trying to be realistic and fair) and I’ve got all the cottage cheese and the whole kiwi (!) and everything else is halved.

I’ve written out the dinners for the week, alternating meatballs with sardines, tomatoes and baked beans but all dinners will be pasta with carrots. I know I didn’t need to write it down as it’s pretty basic, but wanted to remind myself that the meat and fish need to do 2/3 servings each.

I already feel like I’m cheating as I had lots and LOTS of fruit and veg today, knowing I’d be without for the next 5 days and also not including a Saturday or Sunday purely because I did this last time and found it the hardest day. The routine was different and I still had ‘normal’ cupboard / fridge and freezer food in sight. At work, I only have what I have so that’s easier. I know I’m not doing it to make it easy, so I think I’m just confessing really!

Archie & Sophie Lent 2021: Day 2

Last night I couldn’t sleep (despite a very filling dinner) so watched a film in bed. I was very tempted to have a snack to help me stay awake but managed to restrain myself! A lie in the next day as I had a day off made it a bit easier to get from breakfast through to lunchtime (as there was less time between them). Even this was a luxury though – I usually work 12-hour shifts and I don’t know how I’d manage to do that on £1 a day worth of food, and lots of people have other responsibilities to get up for too!

I have found myself thinking about food a lot recently – whether that is the psychological effect of being limited in what I’m eating or a genuine desire to have a bag of crisps every five minutes I’m not sure! So far neither of us have felt desperately hungry which is a relief, although I think it’s fair to say we’ve both been a little grumpier than usual!

We made some stuffing sandwiches for lunch (an unusual but cheap filling which we both could agree on!). I had to unexpectedly rush into work for a late shift, so I took some of the leftover sauce with rice for dinner. I left it as late as possible before I ate, because I wasn’t finishing until midnight and wanted to string it out as long as I could but I finally cracked at about half nine. It was slightly torturous when people were passing round mini eggs and ordering McDonalds but I managed to restrain myself!

END

Norwich foodbank is heavily reliant on volunteers and during the pandemic, the charity has been delighted, humbled and at times overwhelmed with the generosity of time offered by exisiting volunteers to take on new roles or more tasks, and new people wanting to get involved because they can.

Pre-covid, the charity utilised around 200 volunteers across it’s 10 distribution centres, in the warehouse, in the office, in the transport team, at the holiday project FISH and at supermarket colelctions. Some volunteers helped weekly, others on a rota perhaps fortnightly or monthly and others on an adhoc basis.

Since March 2020, the charity has worked in quite a different way – not least with all centres closed and a 100% delivery model in palce – and currently has around 90 active volunteers involved regularly.

Archie & Sophie Lent 2021: Shop

Welcome to our next ‘Live on £1’ participants:

Hi Everyone, we’re Archie and Sophie. We’ve both supported Norwich foodbank in various ways for a while, and as it’s Lent we decided to do the £1 a day food challenge.

We’re both students at UEA (Sophie is studying Natural Science (maths, physics and biology), and Archie is studying Paramedic Science). We both ‘go’ to Kings Community Church in Norwich, and at the moment Sophie is part of the foodbank warehouse teams on Monday and Wednesday afternoons.

We’ve decided to do the challenge for 7 days rather than 5, because surprisingly we thought that this might actually make it a bit easier – there was a little bit more wiggle room for buying extra bits like herbs, and the packet sizes worked better for 14 portions of meals than for 10!

We chose to do our supermarket shop at Asda, firstly because it’s the supermarket we normally go to (so we know where things are!), secondly because they are fairly cheap for the basics anyway, and also because they have some cracking yellow-sticker bargains on a Sunday afternoon! We are so lucky to have the means to even get to a cheaper supermarket though – our nearest Asda is 3 and a half miles away – not fun when you’re carrying tins and on foot, and we’d have had to double our shop to make it eligible for delivery. We worked out that if we had bought our £14 worth of supplies at our local supermarket (a medium sized Co-Op) it would have been much more expensive at £28.24!.

We spent a bit of time before we went looking online and budgeting what we would eat each day so we had a rough framework for when we were in the shop. We started off by listing some basics that we definitely wanted to include – onion, garlic, herbs, sugar, milk and tea bags – those came to £3.51. Then we added breakfast – a pack of cornflakes at £0.53. Lunch, which was limited to bread, butter, lettuce and cucumber, a filling and a piece of fruit came to £5.80 leaving us £4.16 for dinner, which means 29p per portion – not easy! We settled on a bag of pasta, a bag of rice, 3 tins of tomatoes, a few tins of beans and a bag of carrots, which left us with £1 spare to spend on anything we saw that was on offer.

When we actually got to the shop we were surprised to find many cheaper options than what they advertise online. Nearly all the smart-price range seems to be absent from the Asda app / website – which is awful at the moment when people for all sorts of reasons may not want to / be able to get to a physical shop and so would have to spend more. Luckily for us this did us a few favours – we ended up £1.43 under budget, leaving us room for a few extras. We decided to go shopping about an hour before closing time, thinking that we would get better deals – which we did, but unfortunately that meant the stocks of the things we actually needed were quite low! We couldn’t get any teabags (no 40 packs in stock, and 80 packs were far too pricey to fit in), and no semi-skimmed or skimmed milk (we had to opt for less whole milk and watering it down).

We called in at Aldi, a Co-Op and a Tesco Express on the way home but none of them had any cheap teabags (although we did spend some of the remaining money on cheese sauce, biscuits and another loaf of bread)- so an early start is in order tomorrow! I don’t drink tons of tea, but I know that when I don’t have any for a few days I get really awful headaches so we decided it was worth trying to find some because (theoretically at least), teabags are cheaper than paracetamol!

We made a big effort to try and include enough fruit and veg to get 5-a-day but we found it really almost impossible on such a budget. I think we’ll just about manage 3-a-day if we try! We also took into account 20p for salt and pepper. We weighed this out from the salt and pepper we already have (from Asda, using their prices = 3p for 75g salt and 28p for 10g pepper) – mainly because we didn’t want to end up with another half-used pot of each – but even this is a luxury many don’t have.

END

Norwich foodbank has collection points in most major supermarkets acorss the city – Asda, Co-op, Lidl in Sprowston, Morrisons, Sainsburys, Tesco, Waitrose – all of which, thanks to generous donors, are empited and collected at least once a week by volunteer drivers. The charity’s website http://www.norwichfoodbank.co.uk is kept up to date with what it’s needs are (currently fruit juice, tinned fruit, toilet roll and 40s / 80s teabags!) and it is incredible to see these items come in, without fail, after the website or social media has been udpated with these items. Project Manager Hannah says, ‘We are constantly humbled and delighted at the support we receive – from donations direct to us or via collection points, volunteers supporting us all day every day, financial gifts coming in by cheque or BACS and we know prayer and advocacy is being done all the time too. For ALL this, we thank you.’

Dawn Lent 2021 – Day 4

I made pancakes for breakfast with flour, oil and water, as we are running low on milk (oat and soya) I used up all the mixture cooking them for my daughter, so I don’t have breakfast. I am well enough (and chubby enough!) to miss the odd meal, unlike so many of the people who use the Foodbank, who often look unwell and malnourished.

I eat plain rice for lunch. I feel tired and hungry. Food is no longer something to look forward to but has just become functional. And boring. I spend a lot of my life thinking about food – it’s one of my greatest pleasures, especially cooking for others (not so possible in lockdown) but now it just feels bleak. I am already longing for the end of the week and the prospect of homemade pizza, roast veggie Sunday lunch… and I have heartburn (probably because of what I’m eating), so I’m feeling miserable. I have also put on 3lb, which is probably because my diet this week has been loads of carbs (white rice, flour, sugar, cheap biscuits – which were really horrible, but I ate them anyway). I wont even comment on my digestive system… Vegan diets are not necessarily healthy, especially if they have very little fruit or vegetables. How must it feel to have to live like this for more than a few days? Or to always have the worry that it might be like this again?

END

Norwich foodank can cater for all sorts of dietary needs and often those served with specific requirements are the most grateful because these foods can be more expensive or harder to source (i.e. not available at a corner shop). So far in February, the foodbank hadeliver 352 food parcels and of these, 74 have been ‘specially’ made due to cooking facilities or dietary needs. Boxes of food that delivered usually need cooking with a hob and sometimes an oven (for example a Fray Bentos pie), but some people only have a microwave or kettle – especially those in temporary accomodation – and some have nothing at all (not necesarily homeless but quite often the case) so the charity ensures that not only the recipient receives a ‘full’ parcel, but that it is all appropriate for their circumstances.

With regards to dietary requirements, requests are made for vegetarian, Halal, diabetic, food allergy such as nuts and lactose and all are made to the best of the volunteer’s ability. This message was received from someone the foodbank delivered too:

‘I have a milk allergy and we are both vegan for compassionate as well as health reasons, and could not believe how thoughtfully the boxes had been packed. We want to extend out profound gratitude for what you have done for us and to let you know that your efforts have made our lives a tiny bit less awful.’

Dawn Lent 2021 – Day 3

Breakfast was oat pancakes with (the very precious) banana – not entirely successful but we ate them anyway as we are both really hungry. I cracked and made coffee – worryingly, my headache stopped. Coffee was not in my weekly budget, so I have cheated (again). Lunch was very boring. My daughter went to Coop with our remaining 34p to see if she could find anything in the bargain section (preferably a vegetable of some sort) but there was nothing – even an apple cost 40p. There were no loose potatoes and a bag cost 90p. So – rice and lentils for tea again.

I met a friend for a walk after work and we usually have a coffee (from the mobile café in an old horsebox). I have to ask him if him will pay, which is embarrassing. He is fine about it but I wonder how this would feel long term? (He also bought me a flapjack which was marvelous!) I haven’t included coffee in my weekly budget so I can’t even bring a flask of coffee (assuming I have one). I suspect I would feel really ashamed and wonder if I would start to avoid meeting up? Would I start to lose my friendships? This is something that had NEVER occurred to me before… that poverty can cause even greater isolation, at a time when people need each other most. So far, this is the worst thing that I have realised all week, and the one that makes me feel most saddened.

END

Pre-covid, Norwich foodbank operated from ‘distribution centres’ where people who have been referred would collect their food parcel and any extras (toiletries, pet food, occasionally fresh items such as end of the day produce from supermarekts). All 10 Norwich foodbank centres (covering Wroxham, Wymondham, Loddon and all areas in between) had free tea, coffee / cold drinks and biscuits and 3 centres also offered a free hot meal, thanks to the church and volunteers for this provision. With specific regards to the meal-sites, lots of people would come for the food parcel at the start of the session and stay til the end – it was somewhere safe and warm and welcoming and, if appropriate and ‘wanted’, plenty of volunteers were around to chat and help and support.

This is something that is missing from the current ‘covid-secure’ delivery model – a phone call referral, a reasonably quick doorstep delivery and that’s it. Not much interaction and little ‘contact’ and we know in this current climate, lonliness at worst can be a killer and at the very least has a big impact on mental health.

Dawn’s comments about meeting up with a friend does remind us once again that for some in our community, they are very isolated and a foodbank delivery might be the only contact they have.

Dawn Lent 2021 – Day 1

I went shopping and took my daughter along so we could double check the shop. What feels like a challenge rapidly become very anxiety inducing. I made a list and had an extras list in case we were under budget. How different this is to usual, when I just buy what we want and don’t really worry about the cost. We debate the ‘extras’ – shall we buy raisins to liven up the porridge? We don’t have enough. Or more veg? Ditto, not enough. Or something nice to go with our pancakes? We settle on 3 bananas. I have a car, so we go to Aldi (where we usually go) but I can see that, if I had to walk to the local Coop, my shop would be much more expensive… The poor, as we know, pay more.

Our total food cost is £9.64 for the week but with almost no vegetables (a cabbage, ½ cauliflower and 3 bananas). The rice and lentil portions look worryingly small (100g lentils and 200g rice a day seemed a lot but it actually isn’t). Syrup was too expensive, so we have sugar instead and lemon juice in a bottle (as it was cheaper than a real lemon).

So far, it’s not been too bad, though mostly because I ate 3 biscuits at work and had 2 cups coffee and then my best friend brought me cake for lunch (as she knew I was doing this). And then, someone sent my daughter birthday cupcakes (10 days late but very much welcomed!) and we had 1 each with a cup of tea. We plan to have another one while listening to Boris Johnson tonight.

Our menu for the week is:

Breakfast – porridge with sugar (raisons, fruit and syrup are out as too expensive)

Lunch – for me, leftovers: for my daughter – bagels with baked beans or spaghetti hoops (no margarine or vegan cheese – way too expensive).

Dinner – rice and dahl with cabbage every single night – we can stretch to potato or cauliflower fritters on 2 or 3 nights if I am careful.

Pudding – vegan pancakes (to cheer us up) with sugar and lemon (no fruit). We don’t usually eat pudding but flour is cheap and I don’t want my daughter to feel hungry.

Drinks – tea with milk or lemon juice. No coffee, no herb tea or rooibos (my usual favourite).

END

Norwich foodbank receives referrals every day from people who say they are completely on their own with no friends or family to ask for help or who have exhausted these options due to family and friends personal constraints or embarrassment at needing to ask for help ‘again’. Our communities are so different from previous generations when people knew their neighbours and whole street and you could just pop round to ask for a bit of food or company or whatever was needed, because chances were you would do the same in return if / when needed. But currently, regardless of lockdown, this just rarely happens and so many people are genuinely alone and not known and worringly, the charity expects there are even more ‘hidden’ people in need who aren’t receiving their or any other support.