Table 7.

Qualitative data.

Theme	Example Quote 1.	Example Quote 2.	Example Quote 3.
Food banks as a treasure trove: availability and variety: This theme represents the nuance of customer experience at the food bank including high and low availability and variety, and the personal effects of these, including empowerment when availability and variety are high, and a time cost when availability are variety are low. Empowerment (availability and variety high): This theme represents situations where customers experienced high or abundant food sources at the food bank. Time cost (availability and variety low): This theme represents situations where customers experienced difficulty from low or limited food sources at the food bank.	“You’re given the power, the opportunity, the respect to do what you want to cook.”	“…I like the range. Everything I need, I get there…”	“I feel actually more spoilt for choice now than if I wasn’t going to Foodbank. Then my selection would be even more limited because I would have to pick the cheapest options”
	“going to the food bank is a more time resource expense…”	“People say ‘oh, get out and get a job’ or ‘do part time work’ but you know, it’s a difficult sort of thing because you’re spending so much time putting food on the table from different sources”	“… you really can’t plan, meal plan. You can’t do anything like that because it just depends on what they’ve got in at the time”
Discretionary food as a luxury: The central organising concept of this theme is the idea that people value discretionary food. This includes as a comfort, for the ease of catering to children’s wants, and reducing chance of wastage.	“…last time I went, I got some ice cream… That’s just a luxury we just don’t have…”	“I mean we all need to have some junk food because it’s, you know, it’s fun and just because you’re poor shouldn’t mean that you don’t get to have any fun”	“You can get some of the luxury items that you just can’t afford at the supermarket”
	“They tend to have a lot of junk food there, but they don’t tend to have a lot of healthier-style foods”	“I call it rubbish food. I wouldn’t eat it but, you know, it’s great for a family”	“I do love the variety of things that are there… using food bank is surviving. It’s not thriving.”
Donation quality and safety: This theme explores customer’s experiences of the nutritional quality of donated food, perceptions of food safety in donated products, and how they respond to these issues.	“I did get a fresh produce bag last week. And a lot of that I couldn’t eat ‘cause it had gone off. So that was a little bit disappointing, but the quality of the food is usually really good”	“I’ve found that a lot of it went to waste before you got to use it…”	“… it’s all donated so you can’t, sort of be picky…”
	“… usually there’s pretty good range. Sometimes there isn’t though, and I, you know, I had to give some of it away”	“It’s really stressful because on the one hand, you sort of know you’ve gotta eat. And on the other side, you’ve got in the back of your mind, ‘is this actually good enough to eat or am I actually gonna poison the kids cause this is out of date?”	“…on its last legs.”