Voluntary food banks are useful for filling a niche during good times. They provide a charitable outlet for those who want to give, and feed the small percentage of folks who fall through the cracks, either by their own poor planning or by the occasional external circumstance.
Food banks are not an adequate means of providing broader support if the overall economic situation overwhelms so many people that the food bank goes bare. That’s a point at which only government can provide broad-scale assistance.
The food bank can act as a barometer. When it’s out of food, it’s out of food. Such a scenario will trigger more formal intervention. While the food bank delivery mechanisms might be harnessed by governmental programs, the solution is to recognize that overwhelmed food banks are the canary in the coal mine. Hunger is not an appropriate option for our society and cannot be left to the vicissitudes of charity alone.
I do notice, wryly, that many of us seem to have stored away enough calories to tide us over for a bit…
Original: Did I mention upthread that I volunteer about 3x a month? My comments here are snark-free…
New and improved: The following comments may appear to be snarky. Did I mention upthread that I volunteer about 3x a month? Obviously I sympathize but might point out…
So no, I wasn’t saying anybody else’s comments were snarky—I just realized that mine might come off as such.
@Broomstick, agreed wrt treating oneself etc. I’m just saying it can alter the public’s perception of how poor people really are.
ETA Ditto @Kalhoun wrt drug dealers and perception. Most people IME don’t mind helping others, but the drug dealer on “public assistance” pisses off a lot of people.
To take this to a more philosophical place, I think the question is - do you believe in the basic goodness of people?
If you don’t, then you think government should be the driving force behind “charity” through food stamps, welfare, etc.
If you do, then you think the government should back off, let the charities do their job, and only step in when there is a catastrophe.
I am of the second opinion. Just in this thread, we have thought of many ways to up the donations at the food bank. Now, whoever can take these ideas and put them into practice. The heartfelt pleas and creative donation ideas will activate sympathy, and donations will go up. You just have to get in their face. There is a reason that you can’t get away from all of those skinny Africans with the giant bellies on late night TV - it works.
I believe that, at the core, most people are good, sympathetic people. We’ve all met jerks and selfish assholes, but if the majority of people are that way, then human society would have collapsed long ago.
And, as an aside - I usually pick four names off the Angel Tree at Christmas time. Reading this thread, I’ve decided to take that money to Aldi and buy bags of food for the local food pantry. See - it’s working already!
I’ve noticed that in the last half year or so, supermarkets nearby have suddenly started the practice (which they were not doing for years before) of setting out carts and carts of dented, damaged, close-to and expired foods at 2/3 to 3/4 the full price. At first I thought this was just that they had a sudden influx of bad items, but now I’m wondering if they’ve weighed the tax benefit from donating it versus the revenue and gross margin from selling it at a loss, and decided to reduce food bank donations.
How about soliciting donations during the ‘slow’ times of the year? No one is asking for donations in the middle of the summer. During the traditional charity time at the end of the year, I’m overwhelmed with requests for donations.
Food stamps should only be redeemable for scratch food.
This problem is going to escalate, especially after the commodity crash boomerangs and prices soar. Many people are going to have to learn how grow their own food, that is the long term solution.
Many people have dietary restrictions that don’t allow them to eat nothing but “scratch” food. Also, I’ve been on food stamps. It’s not a lot of food. MOST people buy mac ‘n’ cheese and other crap that’s not good for a healthy diet because that’s the only way to make it stretch for a month. Most people don’t buy luxury grocery items because if they do, they’ll be out of food by the middle of the month.
Not everyone lives in the country or even has a yard. When I was a kid my mom went on food stamps for a time. It meant the difference between going hungry and eating. Kids need proper nutrition to grow right as do mothers to have healthy kids. You wouldn’t condemn people to a life time of dealing with developmental defects to save a few tax dollars would you?
This is a nice thought, unfortunately, while we are waiting for people to be basically good, other people are actually going hungry because the food shelves don’t have enough food.
And when times are really rough, some of the basically good people cannot afford to feed their own families, so food shelf donations fall while demand increases.
I think people are basically good, but the charity load required is too high and in picking and choosing charities you end up not having everything funded sufficiently (while other charities turn out relatively well funded for the services provided because they are the favored charities of either a lot of people or a few wealthy ones). We give a lot of money to charities - but very little of it to local food shelves.
A good example of this is wealthy donors giving truckloads of money to private universities. Yes, it’s a charitable donation, and yes it gets counted when we’re all praising ourselves on how much we give to charity as a country. But a 10 million dollar bequest to the University of Notre Dame isn’t in the same category as a much lesser donation to the women’s shelter.
I say reach out to more local companies. My company actually has a “charity store” where we are allowed to sell candy, chips and soft drinks at a slight markup (but less than you would pay from a typical vending machine) and the resulting funds are donated to local causes. This typically includes food banks like Gleaners, etc. If someone from Gleaners came and told us they were hurting bad, I am sure we would step up our donations to them a bit, or run a food drive for them, or something.
We’re an IT/Business office for a financial firm. I would think that a rep from the food bank shousl have (or be making) contacts all over the palce to step up and help with this sort of thing.
Also, in marketing campaigns, mention something like “Giving toys to charity for christmas is great, but please consider giving what many families need most: Food.” And be sure to mention how many people the food bank serves each month/week or whatever.
What jsgoddess has pointed out (and the other cites listed confirm) is that a catastrophe is coming, if not already here.
And that while you’re bags of food are great, they alone are not going to feed the 37,000 people in Kalhoun’s area, nor the 4,600 families in just one of the neighborhoods in my area.
This catastrophe has occured not because people aren’t good - but because they’re not necessarily organized, they do not necessarily have the capacity, nor are they necessarily paying attention.
Yes, it’s more important. Education is the very best way of getting people out of the slums into good paying jobs.
You know, charities are now all on my “wolf” list. Every single year they have news articles saying “the need is now more than ever, donations are down, we need your donations more, etc”.* Every *year? Methinks they have cried “wold” about a half-dozen times too often.
If your donation is designated specifically for scholarships for low-income students, then I’ll agree with you. If it goes into the general pool of money that refurbishes the student center and builds new dorms, then not so much.
Growing your own food is incredibly inefficient. There isn’t anywhere near enough land on the planet for everyone to grow their own food. Even ignoring the laughable impracticality (have you heard of a city before?), it would simply be stupid.
There isn’t a lack of food anyway, more than enough food is produced for the entire planet.
We’re facing the same crisis with our food banks here, so I came here to find the magic solution.
Our government cannot step in. We’re facing a massive budget shortfall, and our health and human services are getting cut, not expanded. There’s no potential tax revenue because property values are plummeting. There’s no money anywhere to be redistributed.
The state and federal government are in no shape to help either–they’re taking back what little money they were providing.
Our food banks are part of a vast and organized network of charities (religious and otherwise), government agencies, shelters, etc. Calling up our local church isn’t going to be a solution. These charities give what they have until they run out, lather, repeat.
Maybe we can reach out to private corporations, but I don’t blame people for looking after their own while they’re facing layoffs or gutting their savings.
And this is a wealthy county that until recently had plenty of jobs. I can’t imagine a situation like Kalhoun’s.
