Aldi type places.

[irmscher]

To all the supermarket snobs Aldi on Christmas eve are giving all the leftover food to homeless charities and shelters .All the other supermarkets Tesco,Waitrose ,Sainsburys ,M&S etc all refused to be involved and would rather put it in a skip .I say good on you Aldi for helping hungry and homeless people at this festive time of the year and giving them a bit of happiness

[palacebear]

We've probably all seen the customer food donation points in the big supermarkets, where you and I can donate unwanted dry, tinned and bottled foods.

Although the media emphasise the plight of the hungry and the homeless during the festive season, we all know these are year-round issues. So do the major supermarkets. A quick google search produced the following information on their surplus food donation programmes.

All the major supermarket chains donate surplus stocks of both perishables and non-perishables to a number of charities both nationally and through local schemes.

Aldi has been donating through the Fareshare scheme (national) since 2012, with Tesco joining them in 2016.

Waitrose donates nationally, again through the Fareshare scheme as part of a wider waste reduction scheme called the Cortauld Commitment.

Since 2012 M&S have donated through a community services platform (nationally-accessible by local charities) called Neighbourly and also provide chilled transport from store to end-user. Lidl joined this scheme earlier this year.

Since 1998 Sainsbury's has operated its own Local Food Donation Programme to supply local food-banks and local organisations who provide meals for those in need.

Needless to say, all the above surplus food redistribution programmes run year-round. They are not merely seasonal. The needs of the hungry and the homeless do not diminish once Christmas is over.

[irmscher]

Tesco near to me definitely fill around 5 skips a week full of food I know this is true as my friend is the manager of a large branch.Most of the large supermarkets don't do as they say and when did you ever see an M&s refridgerated van outside a homeless charity it just wouldn't and doesn't happen.I understand that the problem doesn't diminish but it may give them a bit of hope and normality over an otherwise bleak period .I personally help out at animal causes and they don't get half as much as they need but manage to feed all the animals due to donations .

[Blaketon]

I tend to give to animal charities and some of my best friends are animals .

My parents & I went out for a Christmas lunch on Sunday. I think as you get older, your appetite is less keen, so we skipped a starter, knowing that there would be more then enough main course. I think people expect a mound of food these days and when I think back to chip shops forty years ago, what was large then is barely small now; no wonder there are so many obese people (My parents were children during WW2 and said your didn't see so many obese people then). My parents dislike waste and so when they took what vegetables they wanted, I finished the rest (I think I've cycled them off).

I have heard that some vegetables are discarded for being the wrong shape and that best before dates (Not the same as use by dates) cause a lot of good food to go to waste. I have heard that best before it to be outlawed.

I don't know whether Brexit will ever happen (Or what it will entail) but with world populations rising and aspirations rising around the world, I think Britain must learn the lessons of two world wars and become more self sufficient in food (And other things). No doubt, we will do nothing until we are up the creek again .

[les]

Firstly good to hear your animal sentiments Lee and Blaketon, and further to wanton food waste, I'm taking things a bit off topic here but I was upset to hear the amount of our plastic waste polluting and killing in other living creatures habitat i.e. The sea. I knew it was bad but not millions of tons bad. What a mess we've made of things. How do you make the world change? Must go, I need to camp out for the latest phone, the one I've got is so yesterday. Phone overboard.

[Blaketon]

I'm sad to say that the only way I feel the world will get better, is by some kind of mass extinction, natural or man made. The pity of it is that innocent beings would be caught up in it. I believe the Bible refers to plagues of locusts; we now have a plague of human beings. That wouldn't be so bad, were it not for the fact that vanity is the most popular pastime, which manifests itself in such things as the wish (I don't say need) to have the latest phone. So many people are living to impress others and when you see what that entails, I am bound to ask, when you have impressed a moron, what have you achieved? I see it all the time in the bike trade. Even those who race will rarely buy a proper training bike; they always relegate their last blingy bike (Also bought to outdo someone else) to that role, a role for which it was never intended. For example, they won't take a set of mudguards (Essential in our climate), they have short wheelbases, so get blown about in the wind and to make matters worse, some have deep section rims, that catch cross winds. Some are using electrically operated gears (An unnecessary complication in my book; they are going like cars), which are getting wet and going green. Added to that, there is an obsession with weight saving but they seem to overlook the item, where most can generally be saved, the rider.

Packaging is a real pain and it's all geared to large outlets and numpties, who buy everything on looks. It all ends up in the bin or out at sea, whereas a paper bag or cardboard box is easier to dispose of and if went out to sea, would soon rot. The thing is we all feed this monster and until people start to wise up en masse, we are left to trust in my aforementioned mass extinction episode. I am not persuaded by many of the self professed green types; I think in many cases it's a badge they like to wear, provided it doesn't cramp their style or involve too much effort or inconvenience.

[les]

Got to be a bit careful here but mentioning extinction, I wonder if Him up there has a cunning plan!

[Blaketon]

Whether you believe that nature is inanimate or controlled by someone, it has a way of getting the upper hand. Drug resistant germs are an example.

[les]

I normally know where I stand on most things but regarding evolution and the other option, I'm afraid I sit on the fence! When you think about life on earth and it's workings, it's mind blowing. Logic questions one viewpoint, the sheer wonder of the complexity, questions the other!
I think I'll get out of this deep water.

[SteveClem]

Funny really, you have a grump about a sad little shop and before you know it everyone is exploring the meaning of life....must say,as an ex geologist, I can't understand how anyone can reasonably question evolution.

[les]

Its hard to doubt things evolve but some say Someone planted the seed and let evolution take over. Where do you go from there? Beats me. Yes, you could say this thread has evolved!

[myoldjalopy]

Blaketon - you are so right. Unfortunately, human greed, hyper-capitalism/consumerism/materialism has warped our judgement of what is of real worth in this world. Such things, and the obsession with technology as an end in itself, will destroy everything. So much has already been lost to us.........we live in a far uglier environment than we did even 30 years ago. In fact, it seems to me that there is less talk by politicians of the value of the natural environment than there used to be. We live utterly unsustainably and will reap the deadly consequences in due course.

[irmscher]

Animals are far superior to humans in my mind in every respect .In the 70,s you didn't hear of shootings and stabbings everyday now its just normal and not enough police to stop it .People have become greedy and will stop at nothing to get what they want even killing .Manchester has had a shooting nearly every week and people getting stabbed usually over drugs its become the everyday norm .I wish the government would bring back National service that would send a few religions back to there motherland and maybe teach respect and self worth to some but not all younger generation .

[sid]

well i think we are heading for BIG trouble in this country,with the present on-going invasion
and the more houses we build,the less room for nature,and the animals.will humans never learn?
we need less people,and more animals.what REALLY peed me off a few weeks ago..an escaped circus Tiger (in Paris),was shot dead,because it was a danger to humans.yet humans,who are a danger to other humans,are generally allowed to roam at will
..and don't start me off and the recently escaped Lynx..

[irmscher]

The first thing they do is get a gun why not a tranquiliser .The sad thing is its human error that let them out as animals don't use keys.

[Blaketon]

Let's not forget that the animals concerned didn't ask to be brought to Europe or to be locked up.

[firedrake1942]

.In the 70,s you didn't hear of shootings and stabbings everyday now its just normal and not enough police to stop it .People have become greedy and will stop at nothing to get what they want even killing .Manchester has had a shooting nearly every week and people getting stabbed usually over drugs its become the everyday norm .I wish the government would bring back National service that would send a few religions back to there motherland and maybe teach respect and self worth to some but not all younger generation .

No, you didn't hear as much about them, but they were still there! Great Train Robbery, Irish republican and middle-eastern terrorism - Moors murderers, Nielsen, Black Panthers, Red Brigades etc etc. Local events can become national at the flick of a mobile phone button. Everyone is a citizen journalist. There were as many stabbings, murders rapes and robberies then as now, possibly more but largely unreported, at least nationally - Domestic Violence never ever got reported or sent to court, Rape in Marriage was the husbands 'right'. From the historic child abuse enquiry, that particular vile crime (s) was rampant in the so-called civilised 60's and 70's. A case of rather selective memory and rose tinted spectacles - Greedy ???? Corrupt councillors police and politicians - sex scandals - Ring any bells ? Grunwick, Miners, Dockers, Leyland - Management and Trades Unions! As for sending religions back to there (sic - don't get me started on education, bad spelling and poor grammar)) motherland, would that include Christianity, which as I recall was middle eastern cult at one time - When Islam had the best scientists and mathematicians after the greek classical period, most of the west lived in mud huts and painted themselves blue (No change there really!) . As for 'lol' - no thanks, not funny especially when you have dealt directly with the bloody results of exclusion and extremism. I am for inclusion and diversity rather than bigotry and division.

[Nickol]

Just briefly, as I do not have the book to Hand. Steven Pinker wrote a book that has a simple one word Translation in its german Translation namely "Gewalt" -violence, but its english title is something like - how violence has decreased over the years - now is the best time to live. It is a very big book, over 900 pages and is full of Graphs and statistics and Shows that, despite the modern Shootings as well as the massacres by islamic faschists, there has never been a more peaceful and violent free time. He quotes that if you could choose any time to live in the whole history of mankind with the least expectation of being a victim violence, then the place to be is western europe and the time is now.

[firedrake1942]

Unless of course you voted to divorce from the rest of western Europe. Ho Hum!

[Blaketon]

I think that has been the case but I'm not so sure about the future. There was a lot of euphoria when the Cold War ended but the USSR did act as a counter weight and it also kept it's client states under control. Basically each side knew how far to push the other and the idea of mutually assured destruction loomed large. It's ironic that the most destructive weapons ever devised kept the peace for so long. I think the world is becoming less stable and with populations increasing and consequent competition for resources could come trouble, perhaps not in my lifetime but that is only perhaps!! I certainly feel the UK needs to become more self sufficient in food (And other things).

Of course MAD only works when you have basically sane people at the helm (Or at least ones who are not tired of living); put a suicidal lunatic in charge of a nuclear arsenal and you have trouble. The trouble is you can't dissinvent what has been invented.

It's heading towards 40 years since I was a youth. We didn't have the drug culture then but there was gang culture / violence and football hooliganism. I have the impression that youngsters spend more time on computers now, so perhaps this keeps them off the streets (Maybe having the latest Smartphone is now more important than being "Hard"). There was a lack of discipline in my day and there still is. To an extent it snowballs with each generation, though whether it has flattened out, I don't know; perhaps I would need to be younger and live in an inner city to know.

I have to say that I don't think a bit of military discipline does any harm (I have some experience of it) BUT that isn't to say that you don't get bad eggs with two or three stripes or even a few pips; I know you do. On balance I feel the gains outweigh the losses.

We have come a long way from shopping in Aldi.