Donate Food

[Jazzy]

Do you donate food to your local food bank/pantry?

 

[Lamb]

My church collects food to donate a few times a year. They also have a community garden and donate a lot of their produce.

 

[tango]

Do you donate food to your local food bank/pantry?

Generally not.

I've often thought that grocery stores are as much a beneficiary of food banks as anyone else. People pay full price for an item or two while the stores get the publicity for allowing collection there (as if they'd refuse, given the enticement for people to buy additional items) without having to donate a dime to anything.

More and more it seems to me that a better way of doing things like this would be for individuals to donate cash to their preferred cause, and then allow the cause to buy in bulk. That saves money because they can get bulk discounts, while also making sure they get what they need rather than what people feel like dropping off. If the food bank is a registered nonprofit it also offers the potential to save local taxes on the price of the items. As an added bonus people can give online rather than being expected to drive out of their way to drop off a handful of items, that has to be at a time that suits the food bank.