# Individuals donating \*food\* to food banks, not money -- is this effective? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [November 17, 2025, 7:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/individuals-donating-food-to-food-banks-not-money-is-this-effective/1024929 "2025-11-17T19:12:01Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Briny\_Deep](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/briny_deep/32/17188_2.png) [@Briny\_Deep](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Briny_Deep)\ **Post date:** [November 17, 2025, 7:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/individuals-donating-food-to-food-banks-not-money-is-this-effective/1024929/1 "2025-11-17T19:12:01Z")
My 6000-employee organization is holding a food drive, encouraging employees to drop off cans of food in bins which will be delivered to three different food banks. We actually do a lot of social services and have quite a lot of experienced social workers and case workers on staff, so this decision challenges my long-held assumption that food banks don’t actually want your food, they want your dollars, which they use to buy and distribute their own food much more efficiently. Is that still true, or could there be a good reason for an old-style Food Drive collecting cans from individuals? Is it just an ineffective feel-good exercise, like collecting pop-tops for dialysis patients? Of course, the food that employees donate will get to people who need food, and that’s a great thing. And it’s very possible that if my organization just put out a call for money, they’d get less valuable donations that way; knowing how people operate, they may have made a strategic decision that they think will have a better result. Not having donated money myself this year, I might actually drop off some cans, but I wouldn’t pat myself on the back for that, as I assume a big check would be much more effective in getting food on tables than my sad offering of Dinty Moore stews and kernel corn. ---
**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 17, 2025, 7:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/individuals-donating-food-to-food-banks-not-money-is-this-effective/1024929/2 "2025-11-17T19:17:56Z")
A truckload of food is a great PR move, possibly with pictures in the paper and online. A company check is a greatly ignored and quickly forgotten blurb…if they are lucky. ---
**Author:** ![hajario](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hajario/32/171_2.png) [@hajario](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/hajario)\ **Post date:** [November 17, 2025, 7:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/individuals-donating-food-to-food-banks-not-money-is-this-effective/1024929/3 "2025-11-17T19:20:29Z")
> [@Briny\_Deep](#): > > And it’s very possible that if my organization just put out a call for money, they’d get less valuable donations that way; knowing how people operate, they may have made a strategic decision that they think will have a better result. I think that this is the main thing. It’s easy to bring in cans of food that you aren’t going to use and lots of people will do that instead of donating money. So it’s significantly better than nothing. I donate to a small food bank in my town that serves a certain neighborhood. I have discussed this specifically with them. They prefer that I call them and ask them what they need that day and I get that. It saves them a trip and they have a small staff. The larger food banks do things differently. They are happy to accept cans but they prefer money because they buy in bulk. ---
**Author:** ![Saint\_Cad](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/saint_cad/32/18907_2.png) [@Saint\_Cad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Saint_Cad)\ **Post date:** [November 17, 2025, 7:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/individuals-donating-food-to-food-banks-not-money-is-this-effective/1024929/4 "2025-11-17T19:22:52Z")
This issue came up in reply to my thread [here](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/local-high-school-collecting-food/1024498). For me, counting on money donations are perfect being the enemy of the good. I guarantee that the amount of food collected by the food drive was a lot more than would have been bought had they relied on donations from those same people. ---
**Author:** ![Dewey\_Finn](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dewey_finn/32/4222_2.png) [@Dewey\_Finn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dewey_Finn)\ **Post date:** [November 17, 2025, 7:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/individuals-donating-food-to-food-banks-not-money-is-this-effective/1024929/5 "2025-11-17T19:23:00Z")
> [@hajario](#): > > I think that this is the main thing. It’s easy to bring in cans of food that you aren’t going to use and lots of people will do that instead of donating money. So it’s significantly better than nothing. I think I read that many people clear out their pantries and donate expired food. ---
**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 17, 2025, 7:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/individuals-donating-food-to-food-banks-not-money-is-this-effective/1024929/6 "2025-11-17T19:23:09Z")
> [@hajario](#): > > They are happy to accept cans but they prefer money because they buy in bulk. Which is something they are afraid to mention, out of fear they will be seen as ungrateful. ---
**Author:** ![bump](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/7c8e57/32.png) [@bump](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bump)\ **Post date:** [November 17, 2025, 7:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/individuals-donating-food-to-food-banks-not-money-is-this-effective/1024929/7 "2025-11-17T19:24:32Z")
Depends… Our local food pantries _love_ getting fresh produce from local community gardens because due to the way the regional umbrella food bank organization works, it’s really easy to get inexpensive shelf stable food through them for little to no cost. Produce is different - due to the perishability of produce, it has to be done on a much more local scale, and that gap is often filled by church/synagogue/mosque/school community gardens and local gardeners. Non perishable food drive stuff? While I’m sure they are happy to take them in and redistribute them, I think that the scale of things is such that that sort of donation is not a huge percentage of the total food donated to the needy. ---
**Author:** ![Cheesesteak](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cheesesteak/32/3694_2.png) [@Cheesesteak](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cheesesteak)\ **Post date:** [November 17, 2025, 7:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/individuals-donating-food-to-food-banks-not-money-is-this-effective/1024929/8 "2025-11-17T19:28:37Z")
> [@Saint\_Cad](#): > > I guarantee that the amount of food collected by the food drive was a lot more than would have been bought had they relied on donations from those same people. “Effective” is what increases donations. Sometimes it’s having a lavish expensive party, sometimes it’s a physical food drive, sometimes it’s asking for a check. ---
**Author:** ![hajario](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hajario/32/171_2.png) [@hajario](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/hajario)\ **Post date:** [November 17, 2025, 7:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/individuals-donating-food-to-food-banks-not-money-is-this-effective/1024929/9 "2025-11-17T19:32:22Z")
> [@Dewey\_Finn](#): > > I think I read that many people clear out their pantries and donate expired food. That certainly can happen but it’s typically cans. The bigger issue is cans of stuff that people have around and don’t want which people who use food banks don’t usually want either. Things typically used only for Thanksgiving recipes are at the top of that list like green beans or pumpkin pie filling. > [@Czarcasm](#): > > Which is something they are afraid to mention, out of fear they will be seen as ungrateful. Exactly and that includes cans of stuff that they probably won’t be able to give away like what I mentioned above. ---
**Author:** ![susan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/susan/32/17537_2.png) [@susan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/susan)\ **Post date:** [November 17, 2025, 7:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/individuals-donating-food-to-food-banks-not-money-is-this-effective/1024929/10 "2025-11-17T19:33:06Z")
Can’t speak for this week, but in my community last week, food donations were not even being shelved, but handed out immediately. We donate funds and food. We try especially to donate allergen-sensitive food. When we made a food bank drop-off last week, a recipient thanked us for giving gluten-free products. That’s not always high on the bulk purchase list. ---
**Author:** ![hajario](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hajario/32/171_2.png) [@hajario](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/hajario)\ **Post date:** [November 17, 2025, 7:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/individuals-donating-food-to-food-banks-not-money-is-this-effective/1024929/11 "2025-11-17T19:36:16Z")
Check with your food bank but the one where I donate also likes to get feminine hygiene products and small containers of over the counter headache/pain medicine. ---
**Author:** ![Briny\_Deep](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/briny_deep/32/17188_2.png) [@Briny\_Deep](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Briny_Deep)\ **Post date:** [November 17, 2025, 7:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/individuals-donating-food-to-food-banks-not-money-is-this-effective/1024929/12 "2025-11-17T19:37:52Z")
> [@hajario](#): > > They prefer that I call them and ask them what they need that day and I get that. Brilliant, thank you. > [@Saint\_Cad](#): > > This issue came up in reply to my thread [here](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/local-high-school-collecting-food/1024498). For me, counting on money donations are perfect being the enemy of the good. I guarantee that the amount of food collected by the food drive was a lot more than would have been bought had they relied on donations from those same people. Sorry to partially dupe your thread. I think you are spot-on here; in a perfect world, everyone would donate money resulting in more food, but in our actual world, donating food is still way better than donating nothing, which is what would happen for many (including me, so far this year.) So many good responses here, much food for thought, hurr hurr. Yes, also true that a fatcat luxury charity dinner can be a highly effective way of getting food out there on tables. I worked the front line in a food bank once, and I am here to tell you, the ONLY cans anybody ever wanted were whole-kernel corn; it’s because that’s what their kids like. People would just pass on all the other cans, to a person almost. ---
**Author:** ![HMS\_Irruncible](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hms_irruncible/32/7394_2.png) [@HMS\_Irruncible](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/HMS_Irruncible)\ **Post date:** [November 17, 2025, 7:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/individuals-donating-food-to-food-banks-not-money-is-this-effective/1024929/13 "2025-11-17T19:39:43Z")
Food donations can be useful if they have nutritional value & are a shortage good. But they require time and effort to process. if they’re expired they have to be discarded. If they’re not in shortage at the point of donation, they have to be transported to where they’re needed. Cash donations don’t have those issues. I couldn’t say why they still do can drives. Perhaps as a PR exercise, or perhaps when there’s a big can drive going on, there are enough hands to help with the intake and sorting, so it makes more financial sense. Or maybe it just prompts someone to say “cash is better, I’ll just do that”. But that’s just me guessing, really. ---
**Author:** ![Tride](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tride/32/13907_2.png) [@Tride](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tride)\ **Post date:** [November 17, 2025, 8:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/individuals-donating-food-to-food-banks-not-money-is-this-effective/1024929/14 "2025-11-17T20:28:04Z")
Our food bank takes in a ton of canned goods and they seem to move well. That said, the bulk of what goes out is just-out-of-date fresh and frozen food from Costco, Walmart, Safeway etc. They definitely buy a lot of staples in bulk. ---
**Author:** ![DrDeth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b487fb/32.png) [@DrDeth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrDeth)\ **Post date:** [November 17, 2025, 8:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/individuals-donating-food-to-food-banks-not-money-is-this-effective/1024929/15 "2025-11-17T20:30:21Z")
> [@Dewey\_Finn](#): > > I think I read that many people clear out their pantries and donate expired food. If cans, those more or less do not expire, as long as the can is not damaged. ---
**Author:** ![muldoonthief](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/muldoonthief/32/3188_2.png) [@muldoonthief](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/muldoonthief)\ **Post date:** [November 17, 2025, 8:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/individuals-donating-food-to-food-banks-not-money-is-this-effective/1024929/16 "2025-11-17T20:43:23Z")
Canned food most certainly has an expiration date printed on it, so saying “I won’t eat this because it’s past the expiration, but I’m sure the poors won’t be so picky” is a pretty shitty thing to do. ---
**Author:** ![DrDeth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b487fb/32.png) [@DrDeth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrDeth)\ **Post date:** [November 17, 2025, 8:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/individuals-donating-food-to-food-banks-not-money-is-this-effective/1024929/17 "2025-11-17T20:47:20Z")
I disagree, in fact i cheerfully eat canned food beyond that bogus date- Besides most canned food does NOT have any such _‘expiration date”_ they usually have a ‘best by” date. So, no. generally canned food has no such expiration date anyway. ---
**Author:** ![Mighty\_Mouse](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mighty_mouse/32/7776_2.png) [@Mighty\_Mouse](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mighty_Mouse)\ **Post date:** [November 17, 2025, 8:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/individuals-donating-food-to-food-banks-not-money-is-this-effective/1024929/18 "2025-11-17T20:49:28Z")
I work for a food retailer that donates a lot to food banks and food pantries. I also volunteer at a food pantry that collects food from individuals (hundreds of households donate a bag of food six times a year). Yes, cash it better. But in kind donations are absolutely helpful. Many in-kind donors (including me) go shopping specifically for that bag. There are specific items the food pantry patrons prefer. It varies by food pantry. Urban vs suburban is different. Our company and many other retailers will push “private label” products to food banks. But the patrons like familiar, trusted brand names. But everything is appreciated and some patrons will take it gratefully. ---
**Author:** ![doreen](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/858c86/32.png) [@doreen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/doreen)\ **Post date:** [November 17, 2025, 8:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/individuals-donating-food-to-food-banks-not-money-is-this-effective/1024929/19 "2025-11-17T20:52:18Z")
> [@HMS\_Irruncible](#): > > I couldn’t say why they still do can drives. Because different banks/pantries operate differently. Some of them prefer getting the food because 1) they aren’t big enough to do bulk purchases and 2) They would have to find a volunteer to go shopping, while if people donate food they just need someone to open the door during their opening hours. ---
**Author:** ![Darren\_Garrison](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/darren_garrison/32/92_2.png) [@Darren\_Garrison](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Darren_Garrison)\ **Post date:** [November 17, 2025, 8:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/individuals-donating-food-to-food-banks-not-money-is-this-effective/1024929/20 "2025-11-17T20:57:39Z")
> [@muldoonthief](#): > > Canned food most certainly has an expiration date printed on it, so saying “I won’t eat this because it’s past the expiration, but I’m sure the poors won’t be so picky” is a pretty shitty thing to do. I have a cousin who picks up a box of donated food every once in a while, and sometimes offers me the stuff she doesn’t want. Not only do you get expired canned food but expired boxed stuff like cereal and even (recently) expired fresh baked goods. But a lot of the people donating I’m sure are barely scraping by themselves, only a little better off than they donate to. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/individuals-donating-food-to-food-banks-not-money-is-this-effective/1024929.md?page=2)