Hungry turn to shoplifting to avoid food bank shame
 

Following on from this thread...

Hungry families are turning to shoplifting just to put a meal on the table, a police chief says.

People are stealing basic groceries such as meat and cheese, often because they are too ashamed to visit a food bank.

Steve Finnigan, chief constable of Lancashire, claimed the number of shoplifting cases was continuing to rise.

He said: ‘The offenders are very often first-time offenders and when you talk to them, they are not doing this to sell stuff on.

‘The stuff they talk about is food stuff. It is very often meat and cheese they steal and it is for themselves and their family.’

His concerns came as cases of food theft continue to pass through magistrates courts.

A 27-year-old woman from Blackburn was accused of stealing a tuna baguette worth £1.85, while a 60-year-old man from Accrington allegedly stole instant mash and cheese worth £4.

Ros Duerden, from Blackburn Food Bank, believes families who have fallen on tough times do not want to admit they need help. She said: ‘They do not want to come to a food bank and they will not necessarily ask for help.

‘They would rather go shoplifting because they think they can do that in secret.’

Cllr Eileen Ansar, a volunteer at a food bank in Pendle, Lancashire added: ‘People are getting so desperate that they are turning to crime. You cannot blame them, all they want to do is feed their children.

‘It is a sorry state and there is a crisis. The situation is turning us back to the 1950s and 1960s.’

Food banks across Britain are in demand. Most emergency handouts are needed in London and the south-east.

One charity that runs food banks, the Trussell Trust, helped nearly 350,000 people last year, compared with 26,000 in 2008.

Oxfam director Chris Johnes has blamed the rise on ‘a perfect storm of rising living costs, lack of secure jobs and benefit changes’.


Metro

The situation just seems to be getting worse. :(

It is sad and it is shocking too.

Personally think I'd feel more ashamed getting caught stealing food

If you're that desperate you're that desperate, you can't think of feeling 'ashamed'

Well I suppose they are hoping they will not get caught and therefore avoid any embarrassment. Some people don't like readily accepting help. I know sometimes you have to if you are that desperate. I would only do so as a last resort. Who knows what desperation does to people though.

..it's wrong that people should be hungry and something does have to be done if that's what's happening but I don't go with the 'you cannot blame them..'..you can't blame them for being hungry but there has been worse situations and hardships before and especially in wartimes and people didn't steal..is it homeless people..?...

I don't get how someone can be 'too ashamed' to visit a food bank, but okay with shoplifting that will probably result in them appearing in court.

Ah well, Labour will be back in shortly and then everything will be all right. Right?

Yes, that's right.

That's what I was thinking...

Some people especially as they get older too, hate to even say they are having problems.
They rarely ask for help and certainly not financial help, they see that as a bad thing to have to do,ask for help to get some provisions.

Walking round a store,I would guess it seems easy enough to just pop an item or 2 you cannot afford into your bag or even pocket.
Likely the thought of a camera picking that up or it even being seen doesn't come into the equation.

They clearly get caught because of the camera and I would dare guess more than likely that happens because they don't really wnat to do it, are nervous as to doing it and their hesitance likely alerts who is watching to zoom in.

Desperation I would guess is a horrible feeling to have.
The other side of food banks too is, they need a fair bit of personal information and again the elderly in particular don't like giving information about themselves out.

It is wrong of course to shoplift anything but I can understand why it is happening.
I also wonder who are the real 'thieves', I see in the Store I go to, stock on the shelves at say £1.50 one day, not on offer at that price.
The same stock,not new stock, the next day I have seen rise to £1.98.

Where the justification of putting something up 48p in a few hours comes from is beyond me and why should anything rise by almost a third of its original cost anyway.

I can see why the temptation is there - it seems like it must be fairly easy... The number of times I've come home after using self checkout and then realised that something isn't actually on the receipt :/. If you're hungry it must seem like an easy option and also... I can perfectly understand not feeling any moral obligation to the Big Supermarkets. The amount of food they THROW AWAY at the end of each day is sickening, most of it still in date by a few days. there is absolutely no reason for anyone in the western world to go hungry.

So no I don't really blame people... it's the most basic of human instincts - you need food, you find it, you eat it. this whole "money, economy" thing is a completely new construct in the context of human history. the idea that people should feel morally obliged to starve in order to adhere to it is beyond me.

Tbh, its a lot easier to shoplift than it is to use a foodbank from what I can gather. You have to get a voucher for the foodbank from the jobcentre these days (which knowing the jobcentre will take weeks to process), then actually go and sometimes they have nothing :/

I think its disgraceful tbh that so many people today are having to use foodbanks in the first place.

I dont get the 'too ashamed' bit, I would think shoplifting is just as embarrassing if not more so. But I do understand it for the convenience.

Another really compassionate and good response to this issue.

Supermarkets are responsible for tons of food waste, also to buy something much cheaper you have to buy 2,3 or more of the item. for instance,bread rolls.
72p for a pack of 4. however buy 3 packs and you get them for £1.50 as one example.
One pack surely has no need to be 22p at least dearer than if you buy 3 packs.

I have little sympathy with supermarkets I am afraid.

Actually, come to think of it, I do understand how shoplifting can seem the less shameful option. I dabbled in shoplifting quite a bit when I was much younger..and I always convinced myself I wouldnt get caught.

Then I did get caught, but there was no big fuss made, I was taken into the back room and reprimanded and that was the end of it.

Infact, because this was all that happened, I continued doing it for another 6 months or so. Until I matured and realised I had been a tit :bored: