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.
If you’re willing to go there, you might post on local facebook groups.
The woman who runs the bank has been posting on Facebook. We have to be careful because we can lose our funding if it is discovered we give food to anyone And not only those in our system approved to get food.
Truly bureocracy manifest.
That’s the most messed up policy. They want your org to shut down.
We have already stopped getting any government commodities. We used to always have some kind of nut and dried fruit, for two years that I have been volunteering we always had those two things, since February we have not had either. We do not even have government cheese any longer.
So who is putting these restrictions in place?
Can nursing facilities take some?
In general the company who funds us. They also facilitate the government goods. I only volunteer and perform my duty handing out goods. I am not privy to anything else other than what the woman who runs it vents to me. Other than my parents, I am the longest serving volunteer and I know the distribution system of our goods very well, so she vents a lot of her frustrations to me.
Seems kinda wasteful
This is what we have been telling the company that sends us food, stop sending huge shipments of fresh produce.
American Charity*
*Terms and conditions apply
America has always been a place where transactions matter more than people. At least, it has been that way ever since European discovery. Native Americans were nowhere near this inhumane
The victims of the Aztecs would beg to differ. Lots of people were fed to the sun god, to quench its thirst for blood, all to delay Armageddon. Like any other continent, Native America had genocidal maniacs and the Five Nations that resembled a federation. Good and Evil has no homeland, just the feelings that grow inside of people.
You’re unestimating the scale of present day US atrocities
At least the Aztecs were up front and direct about it.
For the company it is a tax write off and getting rid of their surplus. They don’t care what happens next.
Not pictured the 5000lbs of watermelons, the 2500lbs of onions (those will last a lot longer).
That’s brutal. This time of the year has festivals pretty much every weekend for the next few months, so can these be donated to those events, so that it doesn’t go to waste?
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.
People shouldn’t downvote you, it’s an educational experience.
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.
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 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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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Yay, free watermelons!
Oh no, a fruity mass driver!
I take it the most pressing issue right now is cooling. If that is right, you might have yet another avenue to explore: Ask facilities with cooling needs if you can store one or two pallets there. I’m thinking schools, (yet again) restaurants, ice cream parlors, ice skating rinks (not sure how they work exactly – is the whole building cooled or just the rink itself?), butchers. You could ask an outdoor gear shop (I mean a place where skis and winter jackets etc. are sold) if they know of a place where one can test jackets. They might know a cool place, too.
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.
I am working at an Amazon company’s warehouse that specifically stores food items.
The amount of shit we throw in trash just because “packaging is slightly off” makes me angry and just one day of bad management spoils enough food to feed entire family.
There is no air conditioning or fridge. It’s summer in Texas so if we delay a single day, half the items go bad. There are dairy products here. (And people in border of heatstroke but that’s another topic.)
That’s fucking crazy and frankly also what I expected/why I would never order perishables from Amazon. Of fucking course they neither store it properly nor even keep the facility cool.
I work for a produce delivery company as a courier and yeah fresh produce is ass for storage and transit. I’m legit thinking about jury rigging a small air conditioner into the back of my truck for summer cooling.
Have you seen if there’s any way for your foodbank to do canning?
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.
I was nodding along until
Not even the destitute want pickled cauliflower.
It’s great!
Use 20L food safe buckets.
Yep food pantries will repackage food but rarely process or cook it because that’s a whole different animal.
But, many food pantries I’ve worked with had ways to offload large amounts of things creatively, it’s how I got the best pear gelato I’ve ever had in my life.
You need to teach people how to do it themselves instead. They can do it in small groups helping each other making the event more joyful.
Wait - do you think that people who need food banks have a ton of free time for cooking clubs? Do you think it’s because they don’t work enough instead of what everyone knows which is that most people on the edge can’t make rent if they only have one job?
Why are you so judgemental without any reason?
Guess what, I work full time and I raised two kids alone and got time to cook. This being said, I fucking don’t know about them, but some would enjoy the initiative among them instead of being stuck with someone like you who is not seeking for solutions but someone else to blame.
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.
You could pickle it with vinegar and salt
At the food bank where my mother works, she finds pig farmers are a good source to get rid of almost gone food. While it’s not solving the feeding people part, it does help with disposal. Good luck, hopefully you can pickle some of it too.
Second the pickling idea. Read a similar story that a food bank had a lot of excess fresh material. Thry had set up production through a commercial food processing site, had put labels on them, and were selling them online and at farmer’s markets. The proceeds were going back to the food bank. Zero wastage. They were also making things like sauerkraut, kimchee, and kombucha. Watermelon can also be juiced and the rinds pickled.
I imagine for food safety and liability reasons, you wouldn’t want to do it in someone’s kitchen. Plus, licensing fees. But you have a great story to tell (good health, zero waste, help food bank).
Quick search since you mentioned NM: https://www.newmexicofma.org/food_processing_permits.php
You could give it to a pig/chicken farm, or compost it at the very least.
