# 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:** 2
**Author:** ![Broomstick](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/broomstick/32/246_2.png) [@Broomstick](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Broomstick)\ **Post date:** [November 17, 2025, 9:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/individuals-donating-food-to-food-banks-not-money-is-this-effective/1024929/21 "2025-11-17T21:26:11Z")
I’ve donated to various food banks for nearly 40 years. And occasionally made use of them. Particularly for small ones I like to ask them what they need. One of the first times I did that for a shelter/soup kitchen they said “potatoes”. In a can? I asked. Potato flakes? Nope, _just plain old potatoes._ Unprocessed tubers. So…a friend and I donated 100 pounds of potatoes. Other times there have been requests for other things, from food to hygiene supplies. Once or twice I’ve gone to drop off my contribution and been asked if I wanted something that wasn’t moving. A carton of matzoh. A dozen cans of green beans (I’m the weirdo who likes canned green beans). I passed on the cans of sauerkraut, though. Anyhow - call ahead and ask. With the games the government has been playing recently with WIC and foodstamps I imagine there’s a lot of need out there at the moment. ---
**Author:** ![ZipperJJ](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/zipperjj/32/211_2.png) [@ZipperJJ](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ZipperJJ)\ **Post date:** [November 17, 2025, 9:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/individuals-donating-food-to-food-banks-not-money-is-this-effective/1024929/22 "2025-11-17T21:49:01Z")
> [@Mighty\_Mouse](#): > > 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. This is why I mostly donate feminine hygiene products. I only get the stuff that I myself would use. I’ve had to use free and low-cost products before and I don’t want anyone to have to use that stuff on a regular basis. There’s such a wide range of products that women need but thankfully our local food pantry publishes a list specific to the needs of their active clients, so I don’t have to guess at sizes or styles. ---
**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, 9:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/individuals-donating-food-to-food-banks-not-money-is-this-effective/1024929/23 "2025-11-17T21:52:05Z")
> [@DrDeth](#): > > I disagree, With whom? ---
**Author:** ![gkster](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gkster/32/14107_2.png) [@gkster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gkster)\ **Post date:** [November 17, 2025, 10:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/individuals-donating-food-to-food-banks-not-money-is-this-effective/1024929/24 "2025-11-17T22:19:01Z")
> [@Broomstick](#): > > With the games the government has been playing recently with WIC and foodstamps I imagine there’s a lot of need out there at the moment. This 1000%. I volunteer at a small food bank a few times a month and there’s a world of need. We have 6 refrigerators usually filled with milk, cheese, yogurt, burritos, lettuce and other perishables, but for the past weeks they’ve been almost empty. Apart from other items that people have mentioned, we have a big demand for shelf stable milk, cooking oil, coffee, toilet paper, laundry detergent, disposable diapers, shampoo, soap and toothpaste. ---
**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, 10:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/individuals-donating-food-to-food-banks-not-money-is-this-effective/1024929/25 "2025-11-17T22:20:14Z")
Our food bank’s standard is 2 years past the best by date on canned food is fine. I think that’s a pretty accepted standard. 2 days past on fresh prepared food, zero days on prepared seafood. Baked goods are fine until too stale or moldy. ---
**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, 10:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/individuals-donating-food-to-food-banks-not-money-is-this-effective/1024929/26 "2025-11-17T22:29:07Z")
Good for you, but many food banks and pantries have rules and regulations they must follow to stay open, and it always best to find out what they are before you donate, otherwise they will either refuse your donation with good reason, or take it…then dump it in the trash. ---
**Author:** ![Broomstick](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/broomstick/32/246_2.png) [@Broomstick](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Broomstick)\ **Post date:** [November 17, 2025, 10:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/individuals-donating-food-to-food-banks-not-money-is-this-effective/1024929/27 "2025-11-17T22:46:01Z")
> [@gkster](#): > > This 1000%. I volunteer at a small food bank a few times a month and there’s a world of need. We have 6 refrigerators usually filled with milk, cheese, yogurt, burritos, lettuce and other perishables, but for the past weeks they’ve been almost empty. I know Illinois EBT recipients are finally getting their money - they’ve been flooding into our store the past few days. Some of the other folks are asking “why are you so busy?” and I explain we have families who are able to shop for the first time in 6-8 weeks. I don’t know what some of the WIC people have been doing for baby formula. I do know we’ve been selilng a LOT of it the past couple days. ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [November 17, 2025, 10:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/individuals-donating-food-to-food-banks-not-money-is-this-effective/1024929/28 "2025-11-17T22:51:05Z")
> [@Briny\_Deep](#): > > 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. I don’t think this is quite accurate. They’d prefer your dollars… but they’re still happy to get cans and boxes. ---
**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, 10:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/individuals-donating-food-to-food-banks-not-money-is-this-effective/1024929/29 "2025-11-17T22:52:27Z")
Most definitely. ---
**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, 11:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/individuals-donating-food-to-food-banks-not-money-is-this-effective/1024929/30 "2025-11-17T23:27:50Z")
BTW, I think the food banks prefer the sort of cans that don’t need a can opener to open. (In other words, the cans with a pull tab are preferable, just because the recipients may not have a can opener.) ---
**Author:** ![nearwildheaven](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/90db22/32.png) [@nearwildheaven](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/nearwildheaven)\ **Post date:** [November 17, 2025, 11:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/individuals-donating-food-to-food-banks-not-money-is-this-effective/1024929/31 "2025-11-17T23:38:18Z")
Because I volunteered at a food pantry when I was in college, and saw that their clientele was mostly senior citizens, I like to get low-salt or sugar-free items. Non-peanut sandwich spreads are also needed, and rarely donated. I read a while back, “You don’t want that can of escargot that expired in 2012, and we don’t either.” ---
**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, 11:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/individuals-donating-food-to-food-banks-not-money-is-this-effective/1024929/32 "2025-11-17T23:41:47Z")
Again, food banks are all different and cater to different demographics. Just call the one by you and ask. ---
**Author:** ![nearwildheaven](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/90db22/32.png) [@nearwildheaven](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/nearwildheaven)\ **Post date:** [November 17, 2025, 11:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/individuals-donating-food-to-food-banks-not-money-is-this-effective/1024929/33 "2025-11-17T23:42:47Z")
You can use evaporated milk as baby formula, with a little sugar added, in a pinch. That’s what my sibs and I got when we were babies, although it’s not recommended for long-term use nowadays. The recipe is IIRC 1 can of evaporated milk and 1 can of water, and add 2 teaspoonfuls of sugar. My mother used dark Karo syrup but any sugar other than honey is fine. ---
**Author:** ![wolfpup](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wolfpup/32/10618_2.png) [@wolfpup](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wolfpup)\ **Post date:** [November 17, 2025, 11:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/individuals-donating-food-to-food-banks-not-money-is-this-effective/1024929/34 "2025-11-17T23:58:53Z")
> [@hajario](#): > > > [@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 agree. The argument is often made that food banks can buy a lot more with your monetary donation than you ever could yourself, but that’s often irrelevant. The more pertinent point is that it’s often a choice between getting food donations or getting nothing. There are many reasons that people end up with perfectly usable, nutritious food that they’re willing to donate, and many reasons that they can’t afford to part with cash. And cash is also subject to abuse, such as inappropriately inflated “administrative salaries” within some charitable organizations. I have a few large cans of good vegetable soup and some pasta sauce that I’m never going to use that I’m dropping into the food bank bin the next time I visit the local supermarket. But these days, if any charitable organization asks me for money, I feel like showing them my household accounts and then demanding that they give **me** money! ---
**Author:** ![DrDeth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b487fb/32.png) [@DrDeth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrDeth)\ **Post date:** [November 18, 2025, 12:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/individuals-donating-food-to-food-banks-not-money-is-this-effective/1024929/35 "2025-11-18T00:14:38Z")
> [@hajario](#): > > With whom? Posters who claimed that most canned foods had “expiration dates’ which they do not. In fact Consumer reports had a whole article on consumers who routinely mixed up “best by” , “use by” and “expiration” dates on products and thus threw out a lot of perfectly good food. > [@Tride](#): > > Our food bank’s standard is 2 years past the best by date on canned food is fine. I think that’s a pretty accepted standard. Note a bad rule of thumb. > [@Czarcasm](#): > > Good for you, but many food banks and pantries have rules and regulations they must follow to stay open, and it always best to find out what they are before you donate, otherwise they will either refuse your donation with good reason, or take it…then dump it in the trash. > **[Shelf Life Guide](https://www.lafoodbank.org/programs/shelf-life-guide/)** > > By following the information in this Shelf Life Guide, you can reduce food waste in your life which will help keep perfectly good food out of landfills. ---
**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 18, 2025, 12:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/individuals-donating-food-to-food-banks-not-money-is-this-effective/1024929/36 "2025-11-18T00:46:04Z")
That is a great guide for telling individuals how long they can safely keep food. Where precisely is the section that tells us what _they, the food bank,_ can accept from _us_, according to regulation and law? ---
**Author:** ![DrDeth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b487fb/32.png) [@DrDeth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrDeth)\ **Post date:** [November 18, 2025, 12:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/individuals-donating-food-to-food-banks-not-money-is-this-effective/1024929/37 "2025-11-18T00:50:15Z")
> [@Czarcasm](#): > > Where precisely is the section that tells us what _they, the food bank,_ can accept from _us_, according to regulation and law? > **[FoodDonation\_Guidelines2024.pdf](https://pw.lacounty.gov/core-service-areas/uploads/2025/03/FoodDonation_Guidelines2024.pdf)** > > 1016 B Remember- canned food generally does NOT have an “expiration date” instead it has a “best by” date. ---
**Author:** ![DMC](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dmc/32/18049_2.png) [@DMC](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DMC)\ **Post date:** [November 18, 2025, 1:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/individuals-donating-food-to-food-banks-not-money-is-this-effective/1024929/38 "2025-11-18T01:08:29Z")
> [@DrDeth](#): > > Remember- canned food generally does NOT have an “expiration date” instead it has a “best by” date. We know that, you keep ignoring the actual point @Czarcasm is making. Regardless of whether you would eat it or not, and even whether you consider it safe or not, the food bank itself might have rules around what can be donated dependent on the offset from the “best by” date. You can disagree with those rules, but that doesn’t mean they don’t exist. Your links say nothing to dispute that either. In case you want to argue that that isn’t true, here’s [the outline of what the Utah Food Bank will reject based on food dating](https://www.utahfoodbank.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/02/Complete_Guide_09-25-12.pdf). A couple of examples are: Canned foods - _May be accepted up to 1 year past sell-by or best-by date depending on the condition._ Baby food - _May be accepted no less than 1 month before sell-by-date._ Also, @muldoonthief was correct in that it’s a shitty move to give things that an individual doesn’t personally think are worthy of consumption. ---
**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 18, 2025, 1:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/individuals-donating-food-to-food-banks-not-money-is-this-effective/1024929/39 "2025-11-18T01:11:44Z")
> [@DMC](#): > > In case you want to argue that that isn’t true, here’s [the outline of what the Utah Food Bank will reject based on food dating](https://www.utahfoodbank.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/02/Complete_Guide_09-25-12.pdf). A couple of examples are: Canned foods - _May be accepted up to 1 year past sell-by or best-by date depending on the condition._ Baby food - _May be accepted no less than 1 month before sell-by-date._ There is that, and even though the date on the can isn’t about _safety_, it very much is about _quality_. If you want to eat food that’s 18 months past “best-by”, that’s between you and your palate, but dumping it on your local needy population does not get your name written in the Book of Life. ---
**Author:** ![DrDeth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b487fb/32.png) [@DrDeth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrDeth)\ **Post date:** [November 18, 2025, 1:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/individuals-donating-food-to-food-banks-not-money-is-this-effective/1024929/40 "2025-11-18T01:14:25Z")
> [@DMC](#): > > We know that, you keep ignoring the actual point @Czarcasm is making. Regardless of whether you would eat it or not, and even whether you consider it safe or not, the food bank itself might have rules around what can be donated dependent on the offset from the “best by” date. He asked for > [@Czarcasm](#): > > section that tells us what _they, the food bank,_ can accept from _us_, according to regulation and law? Which is way different from what they will accept due to their own internal guidelines. And you showed= > [@DMC](#): > > Canned foods - _May be accepted up to 1 year past sell-by or best-by date depending on the condition._ So, yes, they accept canned goods past their “best by” date. > [@HMS\_Irruncible](#): > > If you want to eat food that’s 18 months past “best-by”, that’s between you and your palate, but dumping it on your local needy population does not get your name written in the Book of Life. There is a difference between a can of Smoked Oysters five years past it’s ‘sell by” date- and a can of Campbells soup one month past it. Too many people toss that. Dont toss- donate. But skip the really old stuff, sure. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/individuals-donating-food-to-food-banks-not-money-is-this-effective/1024929.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/individuals-donating-food-to-food-banks-not-money-is-this-effective/1024929.md?page=3)