Economically, and cost effectively, and nutritionally, it’s bullshit. Sure, they are well meaning, but I want everybody to look at what is given in every canned food drive you have ever seen. I looked at my workplace’s food drive’s contributions and it’s all bullshit. Random very cheap canned vegetables, canned chili (have you ever tasted canned chili? good God!), and ramen noodles. Ramen Noodles!
The thing is, the food banks don’t really WANT canned goods. They will take them of course, because they will take everything they can get, but what they want, nay, what they need, is simply money. They can turn the $5 you spent on 5 cans of lima beans into a full thanksgiving meal for two people. It’s simple economics. You are paying retail, and they are not. You do NOT know what they truly need and they do. It even makes more sense if you factor in the man hours they have to spend to sort through all the crap that’s donated. You just know there is some poor volunteer out there wondering what she is going to do with 300 cans of creamed corn. It’s not too late. It’s never too late. I just gave $200 to the Middle Georgia Community Food Bank. But, it doesn’t have to be that that much. Small is still more effective.
Just, please, that $10 you were going to spend at Kroger or wherever for something to put in your office canned food drive, save it - then go online, find your local food bank and give it direct
It works pretty well for weekend backpack lunch programs for kids. The idea is not to provide an entire meal, but to provide food that may supplement whatever the family is able to put on the table. We ran our own two-person program for the local elementary school, providing weekend lunch material for up to 25 kids. We had the luxury, with that small sampling, to choose foods that were high in protein, low in sugar, low in fat, but that would appeal to young kids.
If they didn’t accept canned foods, some folks wouldn’t donate – they don’t have the money to give, and only end up giving the extra canned food they know they don’t need. But I think you’re right that money is better than cans for those able to give.
In Southern Maryland, on the weekends there are reps from a local charity standing outside the supermarket with a list of things they need. I just grab their list and buy some of the items that they suggest and give to them when I leave. That seems to work pretty well.
This holds true for nearly all charitable giving. Yes - dropping off a load of toddler clothes you’re never going to use again at the women’s shelter is very much appreciated and of use. But going to Walmart and spending $50 on toddler clothing to donate is wasteful.
I buy the canned beans, chick peas, hominy, etc. for myself. I get those cardboard trays and fill it up. Some goes to the bank, like on the drive back home. Sometimes they come cheap, to expire within a year, in packs of 24 cans or something. I already have some at home but they are cheap enough that I can save by buying all 24. I’m not going to eat 40 cans of Goya black beans before March but I’m also not going to drive home and get the beans that expire later, then drive all the way back to the food bank. What I don’t think I can eat, goes to the bank or the trash.
And they tell me what they need too. Especially around the holidays they don’t need so much food, it’s like diapers or toothpaste. I don’t carry diapers but if I have extra toothpaste that goes into the car next time I shop. Toothpaste is sometimes on sale for a two-for-one at the drug store, and sometimes I have extra at home at no cost to me.
I don’t stop by the food bank often enough, only once every couple months. But without the canned food drives that would probably drop down to once a year or less. Other charities eat up the charity portion of my budget. From my perspective as an infrequent donor, food banks are all about convenience and reducing waste.
That is precisely the type of thing the OP is arguing against–because the charity can buy it cheaper and their transportation cost is lower if you were just give them cash. But almost all of us have food in the pantry which we are never use and to me it is better to give it to a food pantry than throw it into the garbage.
Charities sometimes simply throw up their collective hands and take what is being given even when it doesn’t make economic sense to do so. See above link for examples.
My ex-wife is volunteer coordinator at the San Antonio Food Bank, my daughter was Jr volunteer of the year in 2013 and 2016, I have been friends with Eric Cooper, the CEO, for about a decade and, Holy Mother of God, you could not be more wrong. Seriously: WTF?
Every can of food donated is a dollar they don’t have to spend on food and can be spent on distribution and outreach. Every can of food they don’t need or use gets sold to other Food Banks via the national food market (and the exact name is escaping me right now… may come back with it later), generating revenue for this Food Bank.
The 12 most wanted items for all Food Banks are largely canned items. To come in here and argue that Food Banks don’t want or need canned food is, frankly, wrong and detrimental to the cause of fighting hunger.
And if the Food Bank in Milledgeville or wherever is claiming they no longer need canned food, then what they really need is new management.
12 most wanted: Peanut Butter, Cereal, Tuna, Beans, Rice, Mac & Cheese, Chili & Soups, Baby Food & Diapers, Canned Lunch Meats, Pet Food, Full Meals (Canned or Boxed), and Pop Top Food Items (?)
This makes no sense. Free food is free. Food bought with donated dollars is not free. The external costs in providing the free food lies fully with the donor, and not the food bank.
No. It’s not. In this case, the charity gets what they need and doesn’t have to deal with the processing and storage of random donations. Simple money would be more efficient, but as has been said, a lot of people wouldn’t give otherwise. I have no problem with that. What my OP is actually arguing against is don’t succumb to the workplace peer pressure to buy a thing, because that’s inefficient. Bypass that and give direct, if you can.
My God, the Food Bank here has a 100 acre farm. Should they not bother to grow food?
What about all the farmers excess, especially in the realm of produce? Should that not be donated? 16,000,000 pounds of produce were donated last year. The Food Bank’s cash budget is $2.2 million. Where the hell are they going to get the money to buy 16 million pounds of produce, when the food donated requires a 500,000 square foot warehouse?
This thread could not be any more wrong. You may be speaking to a local experience… I don’t know… but here in Texas, food banks want both money and food.
Factoid: A thrift shop near me run by a local church routinely puts on the store’s sign requests for canned food.
Sometimes it’s easier to get a box of canned goods that have been sitting on the shelf out of someone than $10.
Some want it. Others might not.
Canned chili is a blessing if you’re poor. It takes a certain kind of person to turn up their nose at something like that. And cheap veggies? Puleeeze. What an attitude.
I have an aunt who got in on the ground floor of this nonsense, and it drives me crazy. Every time I visit (my grandfather, not her—but she almost always stops by) she nags the crap out of me and everyone about making sure to set aside the pull tabs because blah blah blah charity blah blah blah. I blame McDonald’s for perpetuating this nonsense and giving her a place to drop the tabs off at.
You may be correct armed monkey, but I see two good exceptions to the absolute rule:
In November, my kids’ school holds a canned food drive. Kids use their donations to “vote” for a specific teacher - one item equals a vote - and the “winner” gets to wear the ridiculous turkey costume during the annual Thanksgiving lunch with kids/parents/grands. It’s a nice little way to make it fun for elementary kids to share. (I always assume that it’s mostly canned corn, though, so I try to send slightly better items like tuna, nut butters, brown rice, etc.) I hope the coach wins again this year. He’s about 8 inches too tall for the costume, and has a great time being silly and making drumstick jokes…
The other good one is the collection drive at the local Christmas light display. There’s no admission charge, but they accept donations for local pantries. I usually give money and/or pet food, but I also help my mom dehoard her shelves ahead of a visit. Ma has a shopping problem, in that she can’t pass up a good bargain, so the pantry is always waaaaay too full. So it’s an annual tradition now: on the day after Thanksgiving, we purge her pantry, I cull anything expired, and we take the first tour of the lights. It’s usually several boxes, which would otherwise just quietly rot on my mother’s shelves. (I usually reserve a couple of small boxes for the big kids, too, because they visit the light display, are broke college students, and know better than to show up with no donation.)
But I also volunteer with the lunch kitchen connected to the local food bank. You’d probably be shocked to learn how many wholesome, nutritious, and yummy meals can be made from donated canned goods. (Meal planning often includes items that are very close to the expiration date, since they can’t be given away nor served afterwards.) Heck, after Hurricane Matthew, we were serving up literally hundreds of hot meals per day using nothing except shelf stable foods. And every donated can of green beans is used.