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.
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.
Send in Newman, he can make a room full of muffin stumps disappear.
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.
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.
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!
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.
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 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.
Seldom have I seen a better example of why universal basic income is so preferable to food banks.
Please explain how that would solve the issue of people not wanting to eat their vegetables.
i cast ten thousand watermelons falling on top of you
Yay, free watermelons!
Oh no, a fruity mass driver!
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.
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.
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.
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
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.
If I were in that situation, I would try quickly whipping up some homemade posters and put them at our market square, maybe in front of schools, and in front of grocery stores. I would make sure to specify why these are given away, otherwise people might be suspicious.
That would probably illegal, but …well… who’s going to sue a food bank over hanging a few posters for 2 days?
In the US? Where we pour bleach on food that has been discarded to make sure that someone who is hungry can’t eat it?
But yes, this is a great suggestion. Also, looking for a local farm or farms that could feed these to their animals (specifically chickens or pigs).
Where we pour bleach on food that has been discarded to make sure that someone who is hungry can’t eat it?
What the fuck? Seriously?
Yes, grocery stores sometimes do this because they are afraid of being sued by someone who gets salmonella or something from the dumpster.
This is what they tell the public.
In reality they just don’t want homeless people near their dumpsters.
Or to give away anything for free. They’d rather destroy it than give away something that could’ve made money.
I’m sure that’s a reason too.
It’s the only reason.
If it was a liability concern, why are they intentionally poisoning the food? That would make them much more liable for someone becoming sickened.
I don’t get it, if this is government funded, when you guys submitted the funds request, or when you discussed your contract with the company that sends you the food, shouldn’t you have added like, in a contract, what happened not only when you receive the produce, but the expected amounts and what procedure you will follow if those amounts did not match, either exceeding or lacking?
Seems like a HUGE oversight to me. Did it ever occur to them that you could either not receive anything or receive too much?
Unless you all did and it exceeded your calculations by far (and even then I’d argue that whoever did your calculations fucked up and you lot should have either review it again or rejected the offer altogether) this is all on whoever said “that sounds like a great idea let’s do it”
Unless it didn’t matter? In which case why the worry? This surely must have happened thousand of times by now in that case
Last year our bank’s ability to place orders was taken away from us. Now we get what we get.
Before that happened we did not have issues like this every delivery. The previous delivery we received frozen falafel in wraps, but so many that all of our freezers were full of it. Volunteers were taking it home by the case. We turned away multiple pallets of the stuff because we were out of room. My chest freezer is so full of them I have a 50 pound bag of rice sitting on top to make sure it stays closed.
We also went from not having milk for months, to having no room to place it all.
pickle pickle pickle!
2% salted water brine, spices, glass weights to maintain under water in not-too-tight closed jars with co2 escape. keep at room temperature, and here you go!
The jars likely cost more than the volume of produce it could store.
Also - have to arrange logistics for labor, supplies, and a kitchen to do the boiling in. Now that you are making a cooked food product, your kitchen also likely needs a license.
And insurance in case your rushed pickling operation creates any jars that go foul and anyone gets sick.
Also – ew. Not even the destitute want pickled cauliflower.
hmm no big deal, but either i expressed myself wrong, or you are mis-informed about pickling :)
there are several pickling techniques, the most common is lacto-fermentation and:
1/ it doesnt require any boiling. you could be boiling your jars to disinfect them, but thorough wash with soap and/or vinegar is more than enough. so no “cooked food”, no license, thanks.
2/ the labour is barely more than any other preparation of that food. actually much less, as no cooking is involved. cut the goods (sometimes even by hands with cauliflowers, no knife is needed for most of the job), immerse them in salt water and that’s it. it scales very well.
3/ the cost of the jars can be minimum, by recycling existing ones, and/or investing in 10, 20, 50L crocs that can be used hundreds of time. their cost is thus divided by the number of fermentation cycling…
4/ like for previous point, this is assuming that the people confronted with that question are not here at their first rodeo, and that they may face that problem again, so it’s more like an investment.
5/ with a little experience of fermentation, you see and smell immediately if something went bad (mold), and discard those batches. the other do look and smell good and there is no way anyone gets sick. it has worked like this for centuries, way before fridges or the notion of microbiome were invented… I also imagine that people getting food for free have an expectation to use at their own risk, no guarantee, etc… but maybe everyone sues everyone in 'murica, i dunno?
6/ for the taste of pickled cauliflower… well it seems you may never have tried it? like with anything lacto-fermented it is deliciously complex, sour, and goes with everything as a condiment, minced and mixed with other things, or lightly cooked like sauerkraut… it brings vitamins and probiotics that the body craves for, and usually rather tastes “woaa” or “hmmm” than anything else… even if you dont like cauliflower in the first place… do you think the “destitute” want rotten raw cauliflower, or no cauliflower at all, more than the pickled one?
7/ pickling/lacto-fermenting is a practice of autonomy. the labour could be contributed by the people themselves who will benefit from it, who will thus learn a very simple and accessible technique that will enable everyone in the future to conserve food ie. deal with stocks in excess, when they are cheap, abundant, etc. and save them in ways that benefit the body for times when they are not. seems pretty compatible with the objective of anyone collecting and re-distributing unused food!
Also: Where is this? It’s a small world, some Lemming might pick up a cauliflower or two.
This same thing plays out at many major food banks countrywide.
Find out where the manufacturer’s warehouses and production plants actually are, and the nearest large food banks will be the recipients of their trash.
Rural nm (edit NM is the state abbreviation for New Mexico, a lot of US residents, our president included, think we are actually Mexico, but they still recognize the postal abbreviation NM. Using it is a work habit I have.)
For the tomatoes you might see if there’s canning groups on Facebook for your area? It takes a metric fuck-ton of tomatoes to make a can of sauce so they’d likely be able to use quite a bit of them.
I think the bigger problem is that there are at least 50 trays of tomatoes there and it’ll take a bunch of kitchen space and time to process all of them, all of which has to be done on next-to-no notice. It’ll also take a lot of time and supplies to can them all - though at least whatever they have the time and space to process will be shelf-stable in the end.
The real question is who the fuck is this “company” that is supplying them with far more stock than they could possibly handle, and why the fuck are those incompetent morons handling so much produce at all?
What the food bank can manage would be known. All “excess” should be handled by the supplying company, instead of making their oversupply the problem of volunteers to manage and dispose of.
I’d be willing to bet the profits of the supplier, or lack of funding to distribute the stock over a larger area, are the reason for this entire situation.
Having volunteered at a church’s food distribution for over 25 years, I can say that some food banks are pretty special with how they do things. We purchase food from a large food bank for distribution once a month. If the food bank has a lot of produce or something they haven’t been able to move, sometimes they’ll throw a pallet or two extra on the trailer when we pick it up, so that they can get rid of it. When we get the trailer, sometimes it’s just a surprise what we end up with.
In general, we have some people that come that have extended families or neighbors that they give some of the surplus to. Then there’s the church that were hosted at. There’s some things that they’re able to keep for the next day to offer to the parishioners. Beyond that, there’s the occasional phone call to other churches to see if anybody could use it. In the end, the pastor knows a pig farmer where if we have a surplus of a surplus, some stuff will go to.
I think the “hit up local churches” suggestion from another commenter would help with that, since (larger) churches often have decent kitchens that are less likely to be getting used on a weekday.
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.
