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What was yours....?

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Re: What was yours....?

Postby Earthmaiden » Wed Apr 14, 2021 5:11 pm

I have had one in relatively recent years. The pastry was exactly as remembered with the layers and as nice to eat. What tiny bit of meat there was wasn't great. I didn't feel compelled to buy another.

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Re: What was yours....?

Postby herbidacious » Wed Apr 14, 2021 5:15 pm

I've never had one! There weren't many vegetarian ready made things around back in the mid '80s which is probably partly why I became interested in cooking. That and thrift and suddenly having a massively expanded horizon of food to explore after nearly two decades of meat and two veg!

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Re: What was yours....?

Postby Stokey Sue » Wed Apr 14, 2021 6:29 pm

I always hated Fray Bentos pies, yuck, I didn't mind the "stewed steak" which could be jazzed up

Our local food bank has asked people to stop donating them, as the local Morrison's often has them on offer, so they get quite a lot, but clients don't like them as they take so much cooking in a proper oven, which isn't always possible for food bank users -who may not even have an oven, and won't be able to afford to heat it just for a pie

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Re: What was yours....?

Postby KeenCook2 » Wed Apr 14, 2021 6:49 pm

Yes, Sue, I read that that was a criticism of the government food boxes they were delivering during the first lockdown. They so often contained a pie like that, which would obviously then require the oven - not necessarily very helpful for some households.

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Re: What was yours....?

Postby Binky » Wed Apr 14, 2021 8:52 pm

Did I ever post a pic of my weekly foodbox? Gratefully received before they sorted out supermarket slots for vulnerable people but it didn't half contain some rubbish.


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Re: What was yours....?

Postby herbidacious » Wed Apr 14, 2021 9:44 pm

My mother was never offered one in the end. But wouldn't have been any use ot her anyway. (Unless she got tinned fruit too.) That's quite a lot of food.

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Re: What was yours....?

Postby karadekoolaid » Thu Apr 15, 2021 3:20 am

Fray Bentos pies?
Nah - but Marks & Sparks minced meat pies, yes. THEY were very good.

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Re: What was yours....?

Postby Badger's Mate » Thu Apr 15, 2021 9:23 am

Mrs B is still waiting for her foodbox. :D

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Re: What was yours....?

Postby Pepper Pig » Thu Apr 15, 2021 9:29 am

Binky wrote:Did I ever post a pic of my weekly foodbox? Gratefully received before they sorted out supermarket slots for vulnerable people but it didn't half contain some rubbish.


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I’d jettison the Dolmio and the mushy peas because OH doesn’t like them but the rest is acceptable IMHO.

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Re: What was yours....?

Postby Earthmaiden » Thu Apr 15, 2021 10:05 am

I'm assuming that the goods were donated by kind individuals. It must be hard to make up anything like a balanced food parcel if you haven't got a very balanced assortment of donated goods in the first place. They've clearly tried hard and you could make meals from the contents even if not particularly nice ones. I always donate tinned meat (stewing steak etc) when I donate a few items to food banks. It would make a nice addition to that box (assuming the recipient wasn't vegetarian).

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Re: What was yours....?

Postby Binky » Thu Apr 15, 2021 10:23 am

Earthmaiden, this wasn't a charitable donation from strangers, it was the Government national initiative to provide a weekly delivery of food, tea/coffee and toiletries to the extremely vulnerable. This was at a time when people were stripping supermarket shelves bare. So even if I could go out there wouldn't be much choice.

In our area the food partner was Brakes Brothers (the ones who supply pubs and hotels) and they were paid £25 per box. It was supposed to be nutritionally balanced and also offer variety. I'm not complaining, but it was tomato soup every week and the awful Ready Brek.

What happened eventually was that GP surgeries (or someone in the NHS) provided a list of names to all supermarkets. If you were on the list, you could get a delivery slot when others couldn't.

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Re: What was yours....?

Postby herbidacious » Thu Apr 15, 2021 10:45 am

It took quite a while for those delivery slots to come through. I had a very anxious 2 months trying to buy food for my mother from 200 mile away. Of course her carers and neighbours helped out in the end.

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Re: What was yours....?

Postby Earthmaiden » Thu Apr 15, 2021 11:12 am

Binky wrote:Earthmaiden, this wasn't a charitable donation from strangers, it was the Government national initiative .....

Yes, I remember now :evil: . I think that both tomato soup and Ready Brek are acceptable but to eke out a tin of hot dog sausages and a tin of baked beans as your protein source for an unknown period while isn't ideal. Thank goodness things changed.

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Re: What was yours....?

Postby Pampy » Thu Apr 15, 2021 12:11 pm

I didn't get mine in the end either although I did get one from a local mosque. It must be very difficult to decide what to include but every one that I've seen seems to rely heavily on tomato based items which wouldn't be of any use to me as I loathe them in any shape or form! Plus, there doesn't seem to have been any consideration given as to whether or not the recipient follows any particular diet, either through choice, religion or medical need. In Binky's photo, there's very little that I'd eat (I don't eat red meat or pork as well as the dreaded tomatoes and as for the Ready Brek... :vomit ). It was a very well-intentioned initiative but very hard to administer well, I think.

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Re: What was yours....?

Postby WWordsworth » Thu Apr 15, 2021 2:32 pm

Looks like you've been contemplating this for some time Wordsworth :D


Blame it on lockdown!

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Re: What was yours....?

Postby Badger's Mate » Thu Apr 15, 2021 3:36 pm

It took quite a while for those delivery slots to come through.


Indeed, I think people classified as Clinically Extremely Vulnerable were supposed to have been notified by the end of March. A significant number must have been missed off the original list, people who clearly (according to the Govt's criteria) should have been on it, such as (in Mrs B's case) some transplant recipients. A mate of mine undergoing chemo also missed out but through another person living in the same village with the same problem, found a dedicated helpline that Tesco ran for just this eventuality. We got on their list some time in April and we started to see priority slots. Eventually the NHS letter & text arrived in May, after which slots became available with other supermarkets. Presumably the local volunteer groups were working to the original list. We were fortunate in that we had some items in the house in any case, but a number of friends and neighbours ran errands for us in the first few weeks.

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Re: What was yours....?

Postby Pampy » Thu Apr 15, 2021 4:02 pm

I don't think that the local volunteer groups would have been provided with lists of vulnerable people - data protection and all that. If they had, I'd be very annoyed to think that my health status had been shared without my permission.

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Re: What was yours....?

Postby Badger's Mate » Thu Apr 15, 2021 5:42 pm

Whoever was delivering the food parcels must have had a list of people to deliver to.

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Re: What was yours....?

Postby Pepper Pig » Thu Apr 15, 2021 5:53 pm

*whispers*. Ready Brek is my guilty secret. :oops: :oops: :oops:

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Re: What was yours....?

Postby PatsyMFagan » Thu Apr 15, 2021 8:00 pm

Pepper Pig wrote:*whispers*. Ready Brek is my guilty secret. :oops: :oops: :oops:


When my Dad was still working, his breakfast every morning was made in a pint jug of a very milky Ready-Brek mix... When my daughter ever stayed there as a toddler, she had Ready-Brek too. She then said that MY porridge was too lumpy and not as nice as Nanny made .. it took us all some time before we realised that while mine was the real thing, the breakfast at Nanny's came out of a packet .. :roll: ;) :lol:

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