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.

  • Asswardbackaddict@lemmy.worldEnglish
    21·
    5 hours ago

    You need to see this. I forgot to mention that, when you grow up poor, fruits and vegetables are a fucking luxury. Nothing beats the crunch you get from fresh vegetables. I love salad and I prefer most vegetables raw. Man, you’ve been so fucking sheltered.

    • MacN'Cheezus@lemmy.todayEnglish
      12·
      4 hours ago

      If they’re a luxury, how do you explain people turning them down because they can’t be bothered to store them?

      • Initiateofthevoid@lemmy.dbzer0.comEnglish
        4·
        4 hours ago

        I’ve addressed this above:

        … 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.

        Why are you like this? You’ve never actually been broke, or you wouldn’t joke about this shit, and you certainly wouldn’t downplay the logistics of impoverished living.

        So, seriously, why? Just having fun?

        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.

        If OP could get the food to the people who absolutely want to eat the food, none of this would be a problem.

        There is no shortage of people willing to eat cauliflower.

      • Asswardbackaddict@lemmy.worldEnglish
        31·
        4 hours ago

        Never navigated beaurocracy, never slept outside, never fucked up enough to learn from your mistakes. You are such a fucking pussy. Go cry into your pillow and call your mommy, bitch.