I volunteer at a food bank, and the company that sends us our food decides what we get. Last Tuesday they sent so much produce we could not fit it all into fridges. We were trying to give away cases of the food on Wednesday, but people were turning it down because they had no place to store a case of tomatoes, or cauliflower. This was what we had left after last Wednesday’s morning give away. Not pictured the 5000lbs of watermelons, the 2500lbs of onions (those will last a lot longer).
The company that supplies us wants to move from sending shipments every other week, to once a month. This would cause even more no produce loss.
It is so frustrating to have all this food for it to go bad. Even if we got the same volume of produce, but there was variation in what it is we could give it away easier.
Edit: I posted this in a comment.
Because of bureaucracy we have to request this. If it is found out we are giving away the food to unapproved recipients we can lose all of our funding. If we give to unapproved recipients and they in turn give us prepared food to give out, that is okay.
Word got out that we were loading up my pickup with food and taking it to the homeless camps. I did get a number of them to start coming to the bank to get food. But it was easier when I could take stuff to them.
We are not allowed to simply give it out to anyone. This is not like a church pantry where all of the food is donated by the community and’s parishioners. There is government funding, as well as private businesses, which I am guessing get their money back from the government for funding this. If we could simply give it to anyone we would not be in this situation.
I have a large ice chest and a heavily restricted diet due to medical issues and my food banks won’t give me fresh produce unless I show proof of residency (they want you to have a refrigerator). The little daily snack pack with oreos and soda they give you otherwise isn’t worth the trip.
They do this because they can write off the “donation” (e.g. garbage disposal)
All of this produce was going to go bad, they know what date it’s going bad, but they overproduce or customers cancelled orders or under ordered.
UNFI, the massive breached company, is going to have this same thing play out across the board from product wasting away in their warehouse.
I would set up a food collection spot just a few feet outside and ask people if they are kind enough to consider taking a case or two to donate there. This way I can redistributed the way I want with that second charity.
Thank you for your service ʘ‿ʘ
We are not allowed to simply give it out to anyone. This is not like a church pantry where all of the food is donated by the community and’s parishioners. There is government funding, as well as private businesses, which I am guessing get their money back from the government for funding this. If we could simply give it to anyone we would not be in this situation.
Yep. That’s really dumb. When people talk about government inefficiency, this is what they mean.
Is there any chance you have enough (wo)manpower to prepare and preserve it? Even watermelon can be pickled, dehydrated or made into a jam.
There isn’t a food shortage. There are significant problems of wastage created by marketing value and poor distribution. Many solutions have been brought up over the years. To deaf ears. Because your local grocer needs to put 1000 tomatoes out to mostly rot because it looks aesthetically pleasing.
Okay but to be fair it’s very pretty
Do you have a Sikh temple nearby? They cook for the community.
You’re doing your part, but someone else isn’t. Everyone should learn as part of their upbringing that wasting food is bad - just like littering and thousands of other things. Unfortunately we live in a world where someone has to be fined for them to realise they’re doing something wrong.
Silly idle thought (for real): Suppose in a situation like this, particularly if people complain on the internet drawing attention to the fact that there’s 1000s of pounds of produce in a space that likely doesn’t have funding for strong security measures, a group of interested parties brought some trucks and took it without explicit permission or consent from the organization.
What’s the impact to the org in situations where this isn’t given away to unauthorized parties, but gets stolen instead?
I am in contact with someone now that may be facilitating something along these lines. Not to the extent with which you propose, but I am working on something.
Fair enough - glad you’re trying something to address this lot! Believe it or not, did actually mean this as a ‘what if/what are the ramifications for orgs like this if that happened’, but probably best not to entertain that yourself at the moment.
As a total aside, good song to keep spirits up today might be The Last Saskatchewan Pirate by Captain Tractor - very last line before final chorus is relevant :)
Good luck with what you’re doing!
If someone came and stole it all our parent entity would likely tell us we can no longer keep the door open to allow a breeze to come through the building. Or they would install metal bars on the doors.
It’s not the bureaucracy. It’s the capitalist that run the bureaucracy. In a society like this, it’s all about managing perception. It’s all about your brand. It’s about looking good and not doing good. As things start to centralize further and further, you’ll see what this is all about. In my town we have hooverviles. The homeless are there to remind you to work harder, or you’ll become homeless. Working inside the system will not work. Capitalism in the US Empire need overthrown.
The branding is one aspect, they definitely publicize the food bank donations and it’s often one of the few things food manufacturers do that sounds good. The rest is just profit and employing mass contract labor at near minimum wage.
If they threw out thousands of pounds of product it would look like a bad number if publicized… if they donate ten thousand pounds of tomatoes a couple days before they go bad they get to look like they donated ten thousand pounds of tomatoes in value, and then they get to write that off as a donation.
I’m pretty sure when they do said “donations” they get to write off the retail value, whereas if they just wrote it off as a loss to the business it would only be the actual cost.
I have been volunteering feeding homeless for a number of years and I was never happier than when I was tasked with throwing away compromised food. The sadism of it mixed with the altruism, sweet Jesus.
Tax Churches Into Oblivion. A society that runs off a charity is a society that doesn’t function. Christians always side with the fascist when they come to power. The private businesses are the fascist. The United States supported the Nazis during World War II. This was all to weaken the Soviet Union. America is an imperialist empire and fascists are the useful idiots of empire. The bureaucracy is just basically how things work. And there are rules for things for a reason. Trump and Elon Musk love bureaucracy. They just want it to work for them. Capitalism is a wasteful system. It prioritizes the profit incentive and sometimes over producing and outpacing your competitor until you corner the market. Charity is just one way to manage perception especially if you get less taxes. It doesn’t make sense on purpose because fulfilling people’s needs is not its purpose. Charity is a business and it’s not about helping people. Even if it’s a Christian church. We no longer produce our own food, and big agriculture is the only thing we got. We have enough to make sure people don’t go hungry. But the capitalist wants you to go hungry. Or pay the highest price possible. But less than the guy down the street, that’s competing with them. The nonsensical madness that surrounds me on the daily is just, it makes sense if you know how things work.
this has nothing to do with churches.
This is companies maximizing their tax deduction by donating at retail value instead of writing off the loss of actual cost.
This happens ( was exposed) at our local foodbank. (London, UK)
Seldom have I seen a better example of why universal basic income is so preferable to food banks.
Except for the fact that a lot of these people aren’t capable of managing money.
They are on the street because they have serious issues
Yeah, but the crux of it would probably lie in the fact that they’ve never had money to manage. From what I’ve seen, everyone mismanages their money. If we had basic income, I would guess 90%+ would eventually get their shit together. 10 people needing food because they can’t manage money is better than 100 people needing food because they don’t have money.
Yeah, some of them need assisted living as well. Not all of them, though, and there’s also a lot of food (and other) insecurity among the housed.
I never said all of them.
I’m just speaking from my experience volunteering to help
Yes, it’s probably good to note, although in this context it sounded like you were giving a reason government help would be pointless.
Have an upvote, friend.
Turns out that money is one of those things that the less you have of it, the harder it is to manage.
It is also a bit tricky when you can’t read or write and are struggling with schizophrenia, bipolar and other disruptive issues. And that is before you take in account all of the drug and alcohol addiction.
Indeed.
Each of the issues you described is mitigated - if not cured - by steady income. And each is greatly exacerbated by a lack of such income.
What is really important is that the family and friends of the people struggling with these conditions aren’t also impoverished. The outcomes of each these conditions are vastly improved when the sufferer’s caregivers have the time and resources to attend to them.
UBI benefits everyone involved.
For the cases where the individual is not capable of managing their own money, it is still better for their caregiver to receive and manage their money on their behalf than to periodically send them crates of cauliflower and tomatoes.
I personally disagree with UBI as it doesn’t solve the core issue. Giving people money doesn’t teach long term skills that lead to success. I also think it would be better to have private organizations that have less bureaucracy. Smaller charities tend to do much better in my experience. Homelessness isn’t something that can easily be solved by a single thing. It is something that has been with humans since civilization began and it takes hard work to help people.
Smaller charities tend to do much better in my experience.
UBI is not charity. UBI is what the nation owes you as a shareholder of USA, Inc.
Giving people money doesn’t teach long term skills that lead to success.
Exactly. Which is why the children of rich people so often become homeless. All that money they had when they were kids kept them from learning long-term skills that lead to success. It stunted their financial growth, rendering them particularly susceptible to poverty.
The children of the impoverished, on the other hand, were forced to learn money management skills for their very survival. The superior money management skills of impoverished kids practically guarantee their future success.
This explains why self-made millionaires are so common, and generational wealth is so difficult to maintain.
Right? That’s how it works in your head, right? The people with easy access to money never learn how to manage it and ultimately squander it, right? The people who have to fight for every dime are the most successful, right?
Right?
I also think it would be better to have private organizations that have less bureaucracy.
Agreed. And an organization doesn’t get smaller or privater than a single individual. We can cut out 100% of the bullshit bureaucracy and give it straight to the individual, directly, or their caregiver if they are not qualified to maintain their own affairs. Remove everyone else, as they don’t add shareholder value.
And who’s supporting them?
Clearly not you.
Please explain how that would solve the issue of people not wanting to eat their vegetables.
OP (this dickhead):
Have you considered giving it away to your neighbors?
OOP:
If we could simply give it to anyone we would not be in this situation
They can’t give it away. There are unfortunately rules. If they were caught doing so, they would no longer be giving it out to anyone. This is, again, why basic income would be better than food banks.
Not to mention the fact that plenty of people aren’t starving today, but will be starving in the next week or two, after this very perishable food is spoiled.
Why are you like this? Are you having fun mocking the impoverished?
Are you dense? The OP said they tried giving it away but nobody wanted it. I guess people must not really be starving that badly if storing it is their main concern. UBI isn’t going to solve that because if people won’t even take it for free they sure as hell aren’t going to pay for it.
I said they did not want it in large quantities. Most of the people who come through the bank are conscious of other’s and know they do not have the time or means to deal with all of the extra fresh produce while working multiple jobs, or some live in a motel room with only a microwave. So they do not take something that maybe someone else could use. We did have some people taking cases. But not everyone can deal with that.
Everyone was given, I think, 4 heads of cauliflower and a dozen tomatoes in their cart. Very few did not take them. They were also offered a case of veggies. Which most declined. Hell I did not even take a full case myself because I know I did not have time to process it.
they had no place to store a case of tomatoes, or cauliflower.
It wasn’t homeless or starving people turning it away. It was other organizations that didn’t have the space to store it. Probably because their shelves were also full of food that they need to give away before it spoils.
If there were individuals turning it down, they probably already had enough food for the day (likely also from OP), and had no way of keeping a crate of vegetables for later because -
storing it is their main concern
… How exactly do you imagine this works? How do you accept food that you can’t put anywhere? Do you take it, and put it outside, so it can spoil faster?
If you put it out on the street in an urban area, it would be infested by rats within the hour, which would literally make them more dangerous than starvation. Sickness from eating food tainted by rat droppings would leave you with far less calories than you started with.
Or let me guess, you think they should just bring it straight to the homeless who need it? Well:
Word got out that we were loading up my pickup with food and taking it to the homeless camps. I did get a number of them to start coming to the bank to get food. But it was easier when I could take stuff to them.
OP literally can’t bring the food to the starving. If they could, the food would all be eaten by the people that need it. There are people that absolutely will take and eat this food because they want and need it, but OP can’t deliver it to them. None of this is about a shortage of people willing to eat cauliflower.
Where did you read that? I’m actually curious, please quote!
Literally the third sentence in the OP:
“We were trying to give away cases of the food on Wednesday, but people were turning it down because they had no place to store a case of tomatoes, or cauliflower.”
I see your confusion, people aren’t simply saying no to vegetables, they’re saying no to cases of the same vegetable as they know they realistically won’t be able to eat it all before it goes off.
I also have a feeling you skipped the last part:
“We are not allowed to simply give it out to anyone. This is not like a church pantry where all of the food is donated by the community and’s parishioners. There is government funding, as well as private businesses, which I am guessing get their money back from the government for funding this. If we could simply give it to anyone we would not be in this situation.”
People shouldn’t downvote you, it’s an educational experience.
Edit: Nah, fuck this guy.
People should be able to buy what they need, not be at the whims of what a capitalist entity dumps in a food bank.
Not everyone has the ability to store, prepare or even cook vegetables. Due to lack of utensils, food storage or even something to heat with. For many, vegetables would just be a liability and force you to choose between other necessities as you battle limited carrying capacity.
the downvotes are part of the education
You know, you’re right.
Especially after the guy doubled and tripled down on his stupid comments.
Something something beggars can’t be choosers.
Cooking cauliflower isn’t rocket science. All you need is a pot and some water, and maybe a bit of salt. You can even eat it with your hands if you lack utensils. It’s also good raw with some ranch dressing. You’re making it sound a lot more complicated than it really is.
It’s not cooking some cauliflower, it’s cooking a shit ton of cauliflower. And storing it before and after cooking. Some places you only buy a couple days worth of food because you have a tiny place. And that’s actually housed people, if you’re unhoused you can’t store shit.
Less than a block from the food bank is an old motel that has been turned into apartments. But they have no kitchens. The place is so old most of the rooms do not have microwaves. A lot of our “customers” live there.
I worked in the movie industry for a couple years, and I lived in motel rooms with microwaves. I hardly cooked anything because it was a pain in the ass.
Have you considered giving it away to your neighbors? That’s what I would do if I was given more cauliflower than I know what to do with. Consider that not everyone even has the means to make it to the food bank.
And what if I don’t end up using the whole box if it’s going to rot away at the food bank anyways? I’d take the whole box if need be, and I’d eat as much as I physically can and try to give away the rest before it spoils. Literally all I’m hearing in this thread is “I don’t want to eat cauliflower because chicken wings taste better”.
“What’s that? You’re tired and just want some food? Fuck you here 3 boxes of cauliflower, now you have to distribute it too. Live in a sketchy neighborhood? Sounds like a you problem fuck you. Took the bus in? Fuck you you have to lug it on the bus and distribute it. Can’t eat it? Fuck you now you have rotting food in your apartment that you have to clean out. What you don’t want it? You fucks just want chicken wings fuck you. Beggars can’t be choosers, so fuck you.”
Until this reply I thought you were blissfully unaware. Now I know you’re a prick.
“Oh boy, I can’t take these free cauliflowers because I live in a sketchy neighborhood where people are just going to steal it.”
Said no one, ever.
Sounds like you’ve had a nice, pampered life, princess.
Sounds like you just don’t want to eat your veggies, princess.
I like making stew. Great way to make something tasty with the veggies you have that are getting ready to go bad. In my apartment. Where I have a stove, a refrigerator, and a place to hang out while I cook. Being homeless (I’m no stranger), you gonna carry a fucking head if cabbage in your backpack? Fuck no. Protein, sugar, can’t expire, doesn’t need heat to eat it. That’s what you want. You suck, bro. Keep thinking these bums are just too snobby for the food we’re all so considerate to give away. Hey, maybe we can skip the part where they carry rotting veggies in their backpack in 100 degree whether, and just feed them compost? You’re moralizing the actions of victims of systemic abuse while your morality ain’t fucking nothin to snuff at. Justify anything you believe. I’ll fucking wait.
Not everyone who goes to the food bank is homeless. Plenty of people these days can’t afford grocery store prices and have families to feed, and cauliflower is a healthy and nutritious vegetable that’s full of vitamins. But nooo, apparently it’s too much of a hassle to cook it.
You’ve just added like 10kg of carrying requirements to someone who likely has all their worldly possessions on their back.
And that’s not even counting being forced to use gas for food instead of saving it for warmth on a freezing cold night.
Wow you didn’t use a single brain cell considering that from any other perspective than your own with that comment.
Just wanted to confirm that, cause that is the vibe you seem to have purposely put out there.
I might be privileged enough to be able to afford to buy whatever food I want at the moment, but you can bet your ass that if I was broke and forced to go to the food bank, I’d be stoked AF to get a whole box of cauliflower for free, and I’d be eating it for breakfast, lunch, and dinner.
You’d be lucky to even have a gas stove, let alone a tent and blanket to sleep in.
Give me some ranch dressing and I’ll eat a whole head of cauliflower raw. And the rest I’ll use to throw at your idiot visage.
i cast ten thousand watermelons falling on top of you
Yay, free watermelons!
Oh no, a fruity mass driver!
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I’m one of the returns clerks in a Costco. First thing we do every morning is process stuff to send the food bank. It irks me how much stuff we aren’t allowed to send because the manufacturer won’t allow it. Even despite that we send a lot every day. Everything that does spoil at the food bank goes to a local pig farm, who donates pig products back to the food bank whenever he can.
It irks me how much stuff we aren’t allowed to send because the manufacturer won’t allow it.
Name and shame. This is such bullshit. I’m sure it’s some to protect brand value, but IMO you earn more value through kindness and generosity.
Well, all the Nestle stuff gets sent back to them. Pretty much all the big name cereal outfits have orders that damaged products are to be sent to a salvage company.
Happily most cheese and sliced meats can be donated, plus we generally send 8-10 shopping carts of baked goods and produce directly from us to them every day
We are trying to find one place that will consistently take our spoilage.
We get a lot of expired stuff from Walmart and the grocery store in town. But Walmart takes forever to get it to us. Usually when we get it, it is a week expired. Where the grocery store we get it a day or two before it actually expires.
Thank you pigs! Also compost piles.
yet another reason to really dig costco. huzzah, respect
I worked in the produce department at Jewel-Osco for some time. It was when I peaked in life. We never gave food away to anyone. It was either sold or found its way into the trash compactor. Kinda sad to waste so much food. But I was so lost in the produce sauce that I couldnt even process it
This is because if something goes bad from the food you give away the business will get sued for not having cold chain verification or a quality department to make sure the food was not altered in any way. Warehouses (aka ‘distribution centers’) typically have that kind of process, but retailers do not as Quality department employee salaries are typically several times what retail employees make, and often substantially higher than department managers, shift managers, and other low level retail management roles.
