[Sundae]

A family cannot live on beans alone.

An example of a request from a food bank for people donating suggests items such as:
Milk (UHT or powdered)
Fruit juice (carton)
Soup
Pasta sauces
Tomatoes (tinned)
Cereals
Tea Bags/instant coffee
Instant mash potato
Rice/pasta
Tinned meat/fish
Tinned fruit
Jam

There are other suggestions, but those are the basics. Protein, sugar, carbs, fibre. Items which don't require much preparation.
And how could we survive without hot drinks, especially tea (says me, who only gets tea in hospital)?

Things used to be worse of course.
My Dad grew up eating sugar sandwiches when the money ran out. But his Dad was a drinker.
My Grandad's parents (and subsequently Great Aunty Alice) could make a roast last four days. For a whole family.
And poor families these days are more likely to scrape up enough money to go to the local chippy than use that money to keep a goose or a rabbit in their backyard.

But times have changed.
You don't expect the super-rich to have their staff serve lukewarm food because of the trek from the kitchens to the table.
So why expect those who are struggling with poverty to keep and kill their own meat.
Probably illegal in most low-cost housing anyway.

Most people who use foodbanks use them temporarily. Often only once or twice. They get to fill their bellies - and those of their children - with cheap, bland food, but the money goes instead to keep the wolf from the door long enough to recover. An electricity or gas bill paid, power back on, bus fare to work that month until payday, a new pair of shoes for a schoolchild etc.
Some need longer term help, but in general a foodbank is a stop-gap.

Crikey me, when I was working I used to send shoeboxes to UK troops serving overseas. "Luxury" items like boiled sweets, decent razors, toothpaste that didn't taste of old socks.