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Food Banks
Dec. 15th, 2010 11:48 pmI received a couple of requests to expand on my headline "I Got To Run The Office Food Drive For Charity, And Here's Everything I Learned About Food Banks And Some Of The Idiotic Things People Expect Them To Accept (not the people in my office, but people)" in my last post. While I can't tell you everything right now because it's late and I have to get up early, I can tell you the important things that everyone should know about food bank giving, all of which I learned from the office food drive and some independent research I did because of it. The key things:
The most useful gift you can give to a food bank is a cash donation. Yes, this from the person who organized a donation of actual food (hey, I learned something in the process and now so will you). Food donations are good, but cash lets the food bank buy up to 20 times as much food to distribute, because they have access to wholesale and overstock deals, and they use them. Boiled down, a donation of a $1 box of noodles is good, but a $1 cash donation will allow the food bank to buy as much as $20 dollars worth of bulk food. Either way you're helping, but cash gets more food out there.
The second most helpful gift you can give to a food bank is food, but use your brain. Food donations are good because they add diversity to the foods available. The bulk purchases do provide more pound-for-pound food, but it's what foods are available, not necessarily a broad mix of foods. Donated foods ensure that a client won't have to eat only mac-n-cheese one week and only canned green beans the next. But for goodness sake, use your head. Some people use food drives to clean out their cabinets of yucky stuff sans guilt about food waste, but really, if you wouldn't eat it, no one else wants to, either. That two year old jar of cocktail onions isn't "food" to anyone else any more than it is to you. You may need to use a food bank someday, or maybe you already have. When giving food, the rule of thumb to follow is to think of what foods you yourself like to eat, and give those foods. Which leads to:
Idiotic things too-often foisted upon food banks that they can't use and don't want:
*Opened/half empty packages of food
*Styrofoams of restaurant leftovers
*Deposit bottles/cans (They don't have the volunteer staffs to cash them in for the $1.10)
*Restaurant packets of soy sauce/ketchup, etc accumulated in someone's fridge door (this is food?)
*Cans without labels/damaged cans (they throw them out, and so should you)
*Religious tracts
*Expired foods
*Home Baked goods (Not idiotic; it's a kind thought, and one that that I had myself, but there are liability issues. Some homeless shelters do take home baked goods, though. Call first.)
There are many, many food banks in Eastern Mass, and here is a partial map of some of them. Pick any -- they all have needs higher this year than they've ever faced, and that's not crying wolf. If you live in a different state, find your local food bank.
Goodness bless us, everyone!
The most useful gift you can give to a food bank is a cash donation. Yes, this from the person who organized a donation of actual food (hey, I learned something in the process and now so will you). Food donations are good, but cash lets the food bank buy up to 20 times as much food to distribute, because they have access to wholesale and overstock deals, and they use them. Boiled down, a donation of a $1 box of noodles is good, but a $1 cash donation will allow the food bank to buy as much as $20 dollars worth of bulk food. Either way you're helping, but cash gets more food out there.
The second most helpful gift you can give to a food bank is food, but use your brain. Food donations are good because they add diversity to the foods available. The bulk purchases do provide more pound-for-pound food, but it's what foods are available, not necessarily a broad mix of foods. Donated foods ensure that a client won't have to eat only mac-n-cheese one week and only canned green beans the next. But for goodness sake, use your head. Some people use food drives to clean out their cabinets of yucky stuff sans guilt about food waste, but really, if you wouldn't eat it, no one else wants to, either. That two year old jar of cocktail onions isn't "food" to anyone else any more than it is to you. You may need to use a food bank someday, or maybe you already have. When giving food, the rule of thumb to follow is to think of what foods you yourself like to eat, and give those foods. Which leads to:
Idiotic things too-often foisted upon food banks that they can't use and don't want:
*Opened/half empty packages of food
*Styrofoams of restaurant leftovers
*Deposit bottles/cans (They don't have the volunteer staffs to cash them in for the $1.10)
*Restaurant packets of soy sauce/ketchup, etc accumulated in someone's fridge door (this is food?)
*Cans without labels/damaged cans (they throw them out, and so should you)
*Religious tracts
*Expired foods
*Home Baked goods (Not idiotic; it's a kind thought, and one that that I had myself, but there are liability issues. Some homeless shelters do take home baked goods, though. Call first.)
There are many, many food banks in Eastern Mass, and here is a partial map of some of them. Pick any -- they all have needs higher this year than they've ever faced, and that's not crying wolf. If you live in a different state, find your local food bank.
Goodness bless us, everyone!