We live out in the sticks and once a week, surplus produce and dairy shows up for anyone who wants it, no income or age limits, just “Please come and take this stuff before it gets bad!” sort of thing.
I like free produce, so go and get it every week. Back before COVID, I could “shop”. This doesn’t mean I could pick through things to find the perfect items, but it meant I could say “Just one, please” or even “None, thank you”.
Now I drive up, pop my trunk and watch helplessly while my trunk is filled with perishables. Far too much for 2 old folks to eat. I retired from state service and know that state workers are underpaid AND that everyone likes free food, so I started picking out what I wanted from the weekly supply and taking it to my ex-office where I learned that I could tell when people are smiling while wearing a mask.
After 7 weeks of food deliveries (which were welcomed by the line workers, nothing got left to go bad), management suddenly woke up and got involved.
It seems as though I am abusing the surplus food giveaway by doing this and I am not allowed to bring more food in.
And here is my question: Is food that was given to me, no matter if there is an income limit or not, mine to give away, or do I have to use it all at home?
Don’t know the answer to your question but maybe you ought to be meeting one of your former co-workers off-site so you could send the food and they could distribute it in the parking lot or something. Jeez. Good for you for trying to be kind and logical, and poop on the management weenies.
My garden is crazy prolific this year. In the past I’ve taken excess produce to the local women’s shelter.
They won’t take it this year. No reason given. Just an apology and a statement that a monetary gift is always welcome.
Maybe there’s a CDC guide against it. WAG.
Transmission via surfaces hasn’t been proven, but there’s a difference between highly regulated sharing of food and you doing it yourself. Even if you wore gloves and a N95 mask while you were handling the food received and passing it on, there’s no one to certify that it was really done.
I’m sure lots of others don’t do this, but when I go shopping now, if I touch it, even a fruit or vegetable, I buy it. I just got a negative result yesterday (sinuses have been acting up the past week), but my greatest fear is that I somehow transmitted the virus unintentionally.
Sharing and getting free food is great. But I agree, if you don’t absolutely need it, don’t take it. There’s almost always someone who needs it more.
As someone that works with produce, I can tell you, you don’t need to buy everything you touch. It was picked by someone with dirty hands, it was touched who knows how many times before it even made it to a box. It may have been touched by all kinds of random people between the time it left the farm and the time it made it to the store (people open boxes, look/touch/smell as they inspect the produce). It was put on the rack by a teen that …well, probably didn’t wash his hands and glove up to put some nectarines on a shelf. And, even if it made it that far and is still 100% sanitary. Plenty of customers touched it before you got to it, and everyone should be washing anything they’re going to be eating raw.
Having said that, what people really should be doing is not touching everything. I understand that’s difficult with produce, but you really don’t have to hold the bottle jar of pickles while you decide if you want them or not, and more people need to know what they want, come in, grab their stuff and leave.
From how you wrote your OP, it appears you can still get food, and do basically what you please with it, however it appears where you are giving it away is the problem, they don’t want you there for that purpose. As that is not your place, and you don’t work there, it is a reasonable request.
Now for their reason, it appears like a misunderstanding, as it seems that the food bank is just giving too much away, but they take it as you are intentionally getting too much or going too many times. And that last one makes sense, perhaps you should go once every other week instead of every week.
Just to add around here state workers are paid decently, but additionally have some of the best benefits and retirement offered and also pretty good advancement opportunities and many have overtime opps as well. They are not looked upon as a in need group, but more of a privileged group, even getting out of traffic tickets and free rides on public transportation, and some have shorter then the standard work hours with full pay.
If I need to know the ingredients, yes, sometimes I do. That portion of the label may be turned away from me, and/or in minuscule print, and/or well out of my line of sight because it’s far above my head or so close to the floor I’d need to lie down on the floor to read it.
Having said that: I try hard to minimize handling stuff in the store, and usually only touch the one I buy.
Update, and also to try to clear up some misconceptions.
This is NOT food bank food. This is surplus food, the stuff the food banks don’t want. Its all perishable and has traveled around the county before ending up at our distribution center, which is the last stop. Anything that doesn’t get taken will be thrown away. This is why they over-stuff everyone’s trunks, and is also why I go once a week and give away what I don’t/can’t use right away.
I am a backyard gardener and take my surplus homegrown produce to my old office, which is welcomed with open arms.
I have learned that only one member of management thinks I should stop bringing the surplus food in and really hasn’t been clear about her reasoning. I know this because a different manager called me today and suggested that I park behind the building and call her so the food can be smuggled in.
I do agree that delivering this food isn’t my job and that the state has every right to tell me to stop. I just hate to throw away food that can still be eaten, but not stored long AND I still have work friends who are always happy to get free food.
*Also, as someone who retired from government work, the last 4 years with the state, I think I can confidently say that the great state of Arizona doesn’t value their workers nearly as much as other states. There is a special unit dedicated for food stamp eligibility for state workers. The minimum wage in Flagstaff is higher than entry level state worker pay, so those offices don’t hire new workers. Workers who are above that the city minimum wage will be transferred to Flagstaff without choice. Oddly enough, there is a 45% (yes, that is correct according to latest data) state employee turnover per year.
*can we all pretend that I know how to change font size?