# Canned food drives are bullshit **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [November 21, 2019, 5:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/canned-food-drives-are-bullshit/843783 "2019-11-21T17:15:30Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 18\ **Page:** 6
**Author:** ![Gatopescado](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gatopescado/32/5711_2.png) [@Gatopescado](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gatopescado)\ **Post date:** [November 23, 2019, 10:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/canned-food-drives-are-bullshit/843783/101 "2019-11-23T22:27:01Z")
> [@JohnT](#): > > This thread could not be any more wrong. But it’s got a catchy title. Who knew we had so many Food Bank Experts on the board??? ---
**Author:** ![CelticKnot](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/celticknot/32/3392_2.png) [@CelticKnot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CelticKnot)\ **Post date:** [November 23, 2019, 11:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/canned-food-drives-are-bullshit/843783/102 "2019-11-23T23:42:53Z")
So many sad stories in the conversation. A church we went to collected expired bread from stores and commercial bakeries in the city to give away to whoever came. The church stopped the ministry because legal counsel told the church they could not get insurance to protect them from lawsuits. In the litigious society we now have, it is too much of a possibility that someone would sue a church for giving out free, imperfect food. We have unfortunately been in need of getting food from food banks many times in the last few years. We have been very, very grateful for the food, and try to support the very same groups. But there are always problems. We are trying not to develop diabetes, but often get foods that do not help. Rice, pasta, bread, starchy foods and snacks. It’s impossible to be low-carb when you are poor. We have had months in which we got 3 pounds of dry beans and nothing else. What do you do with 4 cans of beans? Or next month, 4 cans of tomatoes? If these were to supplement our budget, that’s great. If we have no budget, we have a problem. One food bank monthly gave us a large bottle of vegetable oil, 5-pound bags of masa, flour, and sugar, a package of margarine, 1 dozen eggs, and a bag of canned beans and vegetables. Food banks need more protein to distribute. Eggs, cheese, meat (frozen and canned), nut butter. ---
**Author:** ![Mallard](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/b9bd4f/32.png) [@Mallard](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mallard)\ **Post date:** [November 23, 2019, 11:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/canned-food-drives-are-bullshit/843783/103 "2019-11-23T23:58:08Z")
For those getting so offended I don’t for a moment believe anyone posting means for those that have legitimate food allergies are expected to eat foods dangerous to them. However if a hungry person is at a food bank and would rather have canned peaches than canned green beans and there are no peaches left, they have a decision to make. ---
**Author:** ![slash2k](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/439d5e/32.png) [@slash2k](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/slash2k)\ **Post date:** [November 24, 2019, 1:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/canned-food-drives-are-bullshit/843783/104 "2019-11-24T01:10:39Z")
> [@Mallard](#): > > For those getting so offended I don’t for a moment believe anyone posting means for those that have legitimate food allergies are expected to eat foods dangerous to them. However if a hungry person is at a food bank and would rather have canned peaches than canned green beans and there are no peaches left, they have a decision to make. The OP’s point, however, is that the food bank would rather have money to go buy green beans AND peaches (AND peanut butter and beans and rice and cereal etc.) instead of pallets upon pallets of “free” green beans and nothing else. ---
**Author:** ![ftg](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ftg/32/2801_2.png) [@ftg](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ftg)\ **Post date:** [November 24, 2019, 1:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/canned-food-drives-are-bullshit/843783/105 "2019-11-24T13:13:18Z")
And I’m sure a charity would love it if a .1%-er walked in their doors and said “I’m going to donate $10 billion and provide free food, housing, medical care, etc. to all of your clientèle.” But it would be stupid to say “Don’t donate X to a charity. Instead donate $10 billion, etc.” There’s a range here. The fact that X is better than Y doesn’t mean in any way shape or form that Y is at all bad. Given that there are a lot of charities out there that gladly take canned/boxed food and distribute _means something_. And, as always, something is better than nothing. ---
**Author:** ![Brayne\_Ded](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/e9bcb4/32.png) [@Brayne\_Ded](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Brayne_Ded)\ **Post date:** [November 26, 2019, 12:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/canned-food-drives-are-bullshit/843783/106 "2019-11-26T12:09:18Z")
Canned goods last well, but I hear the same thing from just about any charity of any kind; the most useful thing for us is _money_. We are always shot of cash, and we need money to run our organization, even if the work force aka volunteers are free. Psychologically, it is easier for us to give a thing than to part with money, especially if we consider that the thing no longer has any value. Two points that come up regarding food for the needy; there are two huge sources of waste in the system. Firstly, down on the farm. If it is blemished, misshapen or not straight enough, it is thrown out. Secondly, in the retail system. Anything that gets damaged is thrown out. Anything approaching its sell-by date gets thrown out. Obviously, the retailers don’t like to undercut themselves by selling the same item for less, or giving it away. But that wasted food could feed people who cannot afford to buy more than a minimum anyway. Sometimes there are regulations prohibiting this, sometimes it is cheaper from the accounting point of view to write something off on the books instead of selling it for a nominal price or giving it away. ---
**Author:** ![DesertDog](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/desertdog/32/11503_2.png) [@DesertDog](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DesertDog)\ **Post date:** [November 26, 2019, 2:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/canned-food-drives-are-bullshit/843783/107 "2019-11-26T14:56:47Z")
> [@Great\_Antibob](#): > > Yes, there are people who would never give money at all, but the OP is really pointing to the people who would rather buy $5 of goods specifically to donate rather than give $1. > > So, yes, ‘something’ is better than ‘nothing’. The ‘good’ is getting people to give at all. The ‘perfect’ is getting people to donate money. The perfect is not the enemy of the good. ^This^ It’s the psychology of the giving. You give a couple cans of corn, in your mind’s eye you can see a hungry family sitting down with a large dish of steaming corn in front of them. A dollar – even a dollar bill stuffed into a donation can, never mind an extra buck off your debit card – doesn’t have that. It’s just a transaction like buying some trinket at the dollar store. As someone mentioned upthread, food banks need donations all through the year but are overwhelmed at the holidays because that’s when people give. The two cans of corn they get is better than the dollar they don’t. ---
**Author:** ![racer72](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/racer72/32/3075_2.png) [@racer72](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/racer72)\ **Post date:** [November 26, 2019, 4:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/canned-food-drives-are-bullshit/843783/108 "2019-11-26T16:19:35Z")
I volunteered to work at a food bank during a labor dispute about 10 years ago. My job was to sort through the donations then shelve the usable items. 2 things really shocked me. 1. Why do people think food banks want expired food? They don’t. They have to pay to dispose of it. 2. Oddball and specialty foods. If you won’t eat that can of taco flavored chicken feet, neither will anyone else. The folks that use food banks do like canned fruits and vegetable, soups, and pasta sauces. Canned chili is a hot commodity, it was hard to keep on the shelf. Also a canned food drive does not mean everything needs to be canned. Things like bagged or boxed pasta, cereals, juice drinks and fruit juices are needed. ---
**Author:** ![Annie-Xmas](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ecc23a/32.png) [@Annie-Xmas](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Annie-Xmas)\ **Post date:** [November 26, 2019, 4:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/canned-food-drives-are-bullshit/843783/109 "2019-11-26T16:49:53Z")
What should people do with canned food that is still good but they don’t want? Toss it? There is someone somewhere who will consider that canned fruit cocktail a real treat. Our local food bank does not accept junk food. When I went there for my December basket, a group of people was outside the place handing out bags of Pepperidge Farm cookies. That was a real blessing. Hunger has no pride, but hungry people should be treated like human beings who deserve pride. ---
**Author:** ![Czarcasm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/czarcasm/32/4050_2.png) [@Czarcasm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Czarcasm)\ **Post date:** [November 26, 2019, 5:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/canned-food-drives-are-bullshit/843783/110 "2019-11-26T17:06:17Z")
When I am shopping for the pantry at the Oregon Food Bank, I try to find things that will brighten up the lives of people like pineapples, Oreos, fruitcakes and other seasonal holiday fare, tortillas, brioche, pies, cakes…basically, anything the client would be pleasantly surprised to find on our shelves. Of course they will get the staples they need to survive, but having been in their shoes I know that just surviving just isn’t enough. ---
**Author:** ![ftg](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ftg/32/2801_2.png) [@ftg](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ftg)\ **Post date:** [November 26, 2019, 9:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/canned-food-drives-are-bullshit/843783/111 "2019-11-26T21:54:40Z")
Another aspect of the psychology of giving food instead of cash is that many of us wonder if some random charity we know little about is going to spend most/all of the money on executive salaries and what not. If you give canned food, you might feel more assured that it’s not going to be used to pay for someone’s golf trip. And mental perceptions count. Feeling better about making a donation means more donations. ---
**Author:** ![SciFiSam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/47e85d/32.png) [@SciFiSam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SciFiSam)\ **Post date:** [November 27, 2019, 4:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/canned-food-drives-are-bullshit/843783/112 "2019-11-27T04:05:47Z")
Giving money might mean the food bank could cook a thanksgiving meal, but some people don’t want to eat at the food bank, they want or need to cook at home. (I hope I don’t have to give a list of reasons people might need to cook at home instead of going to a food bank with kitchen facilities, which not all have anyway). And while there are costs involved in storing food at a food bank, they’re not necessarily as high as you might think. The food bank my daughter volunteers at is in a church and it has loads of storage space in the cellars which wouldn’t be used for anything else at all. Tinned/canned food is especially good there because it’s easy to store due to not needing a controlled temperature and so on. Stacking the food in the cellars and bringing it out is low-skilled labour that is easy to find volunteers to do. Nobody at the food bank has to go out and collect the food, it’s brought in by donors, quite often on their way to do something else. The supermarket donations are brought in by delivery drivers who are in the area anyway. Whereas dealing with monetary donations requires skill, technology, knowledge about taxes, and all sorts of other factors that drive down the efficiency of monetary donations. It’s harder to get unpaid volunteers who can do that. This is a small independent food bank, not part of a nationwide network, and I don’t think they even take monetary donations. If they accepted cash donations they’d need a way to safely store and transport the money, because otherwise they’d get robbed, whereas far fewer people are going to try to steal a load of tins, load them into a van and drive away in a heavily populated area. > [@needscoffee](#): > > Our food bank always has packages of canned food set aside for people without cooking facilities. Canned food is highly valued, despite the sodium content. And people love canned chili. Yep. And they’re easy to store even if you don’t have a fridge or of you share a fridge and freezer. I have a fridge freezer, but still buy quite a lot of canned food because it doesn’t go off and lasts so much longer than fresh food, which is especially handy when there’s just one or two of you eating dinner. > [@bump](#): > > There’s a world of difference between an honest-to-God food allergy or intolerance, and someone (or a food bank/pantry/soup kitchen) deciding that they’re going to turn their nose up at food because it’s not their personal preference. > > That’s what I’m getting at- if you’re in a position to be begging for food, you aren’t really in a position to bitch if they give you wheat bread instead of white, or sardines instead of tuna fish, or peanut butter instead of ham. You should be grateful,not picky. No, but if you went to a food bank and were given entirely sardines and expected to live on that for a week, you might well end up ill, and your body would start to reject the idea of eating yet more sardines. Obviously food banks don’t do this because they know that people need some variety in their diet even if they’re not picky. > [@ftg](#): > > Another aspect of the psychology of giving food instead of cash is that many of us wonder if some random charity we know little about is going to spend most/all of the money on executive salaries and what not. > > If you give canned food, you might feel more assured that it’s not going to be used to pay for someone’s golf trip. > > And mental perceptions count. Feeling better about making a donation means more donations. Seconded. What I thought this thread was going to be about was the food donation boxes in supermarkets. I get why they’re there, for the exact reason you’ve just given. But they’re explicitly set up for people to buy _extra_ food, so the supermarket still makes a profit from selling those extra food items, and then they get credit for “donating” these goods. So I’ve never liked them. But some supermarkets top up the value of the donations, which I didn’t know before looking it up just now. Tesco tops it up by 20% by weight: [Tesco - The Trussell Trust](https://www.trusselltrust.org/get-involved/partner-with-us/tesco/) So to me that actually means that donating really HEAVY items is better. That includes tinned/canned food. Think I might do that next time I’m in there! ---
**Author:** ![ftg](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ftg/32/2801_2.png) [@ftg](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ftg)\ **Post date:** [November 27, 2019, 1:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/canned-food-drives-are-bullshit/843783/113 "2019-11-27T13:42:27Z")
The psychological aspect affects other areas of charity. Take charity-run thrift stores. Near us we have a large Goodwill, a small St. Vincent DePaul, a large one that works with AmVets and another small that is run by a local group of churches. Plus several others a bit farther away. The large ones do a _lot_ of business. They get household items, sell them and use the proceeds to help others. The items that are donated are all over the place. People often donate new items they never got around to using or otherwise don’t want. (Which makes the slogan of one of those stores telling people to never buy new funny.) Some donated stuff is “gently used” which is their target zone. Some donated stuff is crap and has to be tossed. The fact that some of the stuff is unwanted doesn’t overwhelm the fact that most stuff is. Would they prefer cash instead? Sure. But people are more willing to drop off a trunkload of stuff worth $100-200 dollars when sold than just fork over the dough. ---
**Author:** ![kitap](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/b9e5f3/32.png) [@kitap](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kitap)\ **Post date:** [November 27, 2019, 1:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/canned-food-drives-are-bullshit/843783/114 "2019-11-27T13:59:11Z")
> [@Brayne\_Ded](#): > > Canned goods last well, but I hear the same thing from just about any charity of any kind; the most useful thing for us is _money_. We are always shot of cash, and we need money to run our organization, even if the work force aka volunteers are free. Psychologically, it is easier for us to give a thing than to part with money, especially if we consider that the thing no longer has any value. > > Two points that come up regarding food for the needy; there are two huge sources of waste in the system. Firstly, down on the farm. If it is blemished, misshapen or not straight enough, it is thrown out. Secondly, in the retail system. Anything that gets damaged is thrown out. Anything approaching its sell-by date gets thrown out. Obviously, the retailers don’t like to undercut themselves by selling the same item for less, or giving it away. But that wasted food could feed people who cannot afford to buy more than a minimum anyway. Sometimes there are regulations prohibiting this, sometimes it is cheaper from the accounting point of view to write something off on the books instead of selling it for a nominal price or giving it away. Hnestly, unless there are health code reasons for not donating close-to- expiration date foods, you should at least call and ask. Back when I worked at Taco Bell some promotion ended and our district managers suggested that we donate all uneaten foods from that, so I called the local food bank and asked if they were interested. I warned them the buns would expire in the next day or so but they were more than happy to take them, so I piled everything in my car and drove it over. ---
**Author:** ![Kovitlac](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/2bfe46/32.png) [@Kovitlac](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kovitlac)\ **Post date:** [November 27, 2019, 7:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/canned-food-drives-are-bullshit/843783/115 "2019-11-27T19:30:24Z")
> [@armedmonkey](#): > > They really are. Hear me out. > > 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 You’re acting like what the average person eats is that much better. Hell, nutritionally, it’s probably worse. ---
**Author:** ![armedmonkey](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/d6d6ee/32.png) [@armedmonkey](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/armedmonkey)\ **Post date:** [November 28, 2019, 5:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/canned-food-drives-are-bullshit/843783/116 "2019-11-28T05:12:03Z")
> [@Gatopescado](#): > > But it’s got a catchy title. Thank You, and yes, it was intentional. 🙂 My intentions were most definitely to bring people in. I still feel a little guilty for making it sound so combative, but I also knew that that would draw people in, and maybe, just maybe, if they’re in the thread they might consider opening their checkbooks, so to speak. I don’t want anybody to feel guilty about giving food. I just like to look at the way the world _actually_ works. I do that in my job, my finances, and I do it in charity too. This is a good bit about getting more bang for your buck. But I will tell you something that is truly, _truly_ bullshit. It’s that most of us only think about this once a year. That’s not really effective, is it? We don’t really think enough about hunger in say, February, and that’s a problem. There are no food drives for President’s day. Money, however, works year round. Feeding people is possibly the oldest form of charity there is, and people need food every day, regardless of the month. I want people to consider giving money to charities that feed people not only for Thanksgiving, but throughout the year. ---
**Author:** ![Asuka](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/dec6dc/32.png) [@Asuka](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Asuka)\ **Post date:** [November 28, 2019, 8:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/canned-food-drives-are-bullshit/843783/117 "2019-11-28T08:52:15Z")
I have no idea why but the ferocity of some of the responses here made me wonder “Did John Oliver or Adam Ruins Everything cover this?” and surprise surprise two people posted links to an ARE episode. They each really need to do an episode on how watching a 10 minute segment in an infotainment show suddenly doesn’t mean you can now argue with experts. As for my contribution, my family used to rely on a Church Food Pantry which seemingly got all of its food from grocery store clearance aisles. The food was all brand new and from big name brands, but it was some of the weirdest foods you could think of getting donated, such as GoGurt, Vanilla Milk, and Tombstone oven pizzas in varieties that weren’t normal pepperoni. Sure it wasn’t the healthiest food but it actually did a pretty good job of supplementing our normal diets. They once gave us a 100 count unopened box of name brand granola bars which was weird but they were good snacks for when we went to school or went to the park. So apparently grocery stores also just dump their canned goods as it will onto local charities. ---
**Author:** ![Czarcasm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/czarcasm/32/4050_2.png) [@Czarcasm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Czarcasm)\ **Post date:** [December 10, 2019, 6:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/canned-food-drives-are-bullshit/843783/118 "2019-12-10T18:10:38Z")
I am reviving this thread in light of [recent news about benefit cuts](https://www.msn.com/en-us/money/markets/trumps-tighter-food-stamp-rules-cause-anxiety-at-local-food-pantries/ar-BBY26OA?ocid=spartanntp) that will certainly increase clientele at food banks/pantries. _Please_ give money and/or fresh food and/or time. If you are unsure as to what is needed, call up and find out. Thank you. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/canned-food-drives-are-bullshit/843783.md?page=5)