I am begging the indulgence of the site owner to write about something that is near and dear to my heart: hunger relief, and helping the deserving poor with necessities.
We all like to rail away at welfare, as well as the program formerly known as food stamps, and all of the tax payer funded public assistance programs that truly do generate quite a bit of waste. Those programs really should be better monitored and controlled, and with modern inventory systems in grocery stores, this really is possible even if it is not done as thoroughly as it could be.
But, that does not change the fact that there really are people out there who are in need of assistance to make ends meet every month. By and large, the demographic group that takes advantage of not just public assistance for food purchases, but food pantries on the front lines is actually senior citizens on fixed incomes, many of whom are widows whose husbands’ pensions died with them.
Strange as it may sound to those of us who are well versed in the welfare queen stereotype, the truth is a bit more harsh. There are far fewer of them than the urban legends say there are.
Yes, there are people down on their luck, and women with children whose father(s) walked away, but there are still the elderly and the truly disabled who really depend on the hunger relief system. They do need to be cared for, and thanks to generous Americans that does happen in spades around the holidays.
One of the stops on my personal journey was working in a local food bank. What I learned when I was there was that food stamps are just for that: food. Arguing about what food is is permissible to purchase with funds from the Supplemental Nutritional Assistance Program or SNAP is not the point here. What is is that many other household items are needed for civilized living, even for people in need. One of the items that was like gold to people in need is laundry detergent. The food bank where I worked once got a whole semi full of laundry detergent, and it had to be rationed, it was so coveted. Paper products were popular, as are consumable personal items.
All of it is needed on the front lines for people in need.
The other thing I learned about federal assistance for food is how few dollars are actually available per person. $194 a month for a single man or woman is the maximum one can receive in benefits at this time. That barely covers the basics when it comes to food – and that’s if you know what you’re doing in a kitchen. The food pantries make up the gap. (See the USDA’s page on SNAP eligibility here.)
Why I write today about this is that many church groups, and other organizations collect both giving baskets and canned goods at this time of the year to help the poor. The program my family participates in actually provides a list of what is needed and provides the box for it (and a big bag of laundry detergent pods), but for those who don’t have that, and who are just collecting or buying a few things for the local food pantry, what is needed to keep the people in need healthy is nutrient dense foods:
Hearty soups and stews, including chili
Canned meat and tuna
Canned vegetables
Canned fruit in its own juice
When taking items to a pantry, be sure they are unopened. Please, try to limit starches. This also goes for frozen food. Opened food, homegrown food, and prepared food may be taken at the door of the organization, but the food pantry by law cannot distribute it.
Across the nation, fresh foods are also made available to the poor thanks to the grocery industry, but this is limited. After all, the grocers still have to make a profit. What they do is pull meat on the sell by date and freeze it, and send produce that is still fresh, but might not quite look it to food banks equipped with commercial refrigeration. So long as it is consumed quickly, fresh foods do not go to waste.
Other items that are helpful, of course, are those personal items listed above. Remember, some of the people in need may well be looking for a job, and being hygienic will go a long way to getting the able bodied off the dole.
Thanks for reading and letting me bend some ears. It takes the entire system to keep the American poor fed, believe it or not.
A quick note on an organization called “Feeding America.” Feeding America is corporate America’s food bank system. The vast majority of cities in the country have just this one food bank to distribute donations from the corporate level. That was done very much on purpose. The “food producers” all prefer to deal with a single organization rather than an organic mish mosh of food banks to supply the pantries. QTreepers can guess why. How it works is the front line pantries belong to the food bank, and pay a membership fee for the donations from corporate America. (My hometown is one of the only cities in the nation to have two food banks.)
Giving, of course, is a deeply personal thing. What any of us gives to this cause is worthy. The thing is, the healthier we can keep the population in need, the less aid they will need in the long run. And that saves everyone money in the end.
Good deal! As one of those who advocates LESS government assistance and MORE jobs, I also advocate MORE and MORE RESPONSIBLE private charity. This is exactly what I’m talking about!
Can you see if my comment got dumped in the bin?
Yup – that’s where it was this time! SPAM.
Been thinking about how professional “needy” on the streets have benefited from the human-connectionless-cash-in-hand model of giving. And the ME immigrants religious obligation to give rewards exactly the wrong attitude of learned helplessness. Street beggars thriving in a sick, distorted giving model that is destroying communities. One of many dysfunctions of their system.
ME or muslim only give to muslim charities. Unless it’s a real biggie. We had a devastating fire with a whole town wiped out over 100 dead a few years back. They did a whip round at the mosque and collected $30,000 cash. Remember most are on welfare and working for cash in construction etc. it was generous. My daughter’s school had a preponderance of muslim kids due to their inbreeding but they flatly refused any fundraising because it would also go to non Muslims. Same with voluntary school fees to cover sundries. Even little stuff like the school asked for each family to provide so many boxes of tissues, liquid soap, colouring pencils, etc. nope only the Aussies chipped in. Spoke to the principal about it. Said it was completely alien for them to donate where it might go to the wrong people.
Other ideas on giving.
Donate children’s clothes etc by sex and size. Undies Sox outerwear. Nothing manky. cheap new stuff. School backpacks with stationary Marked in a bag or cheap plastic box
Same with toys and shoes. Easier for charities to sort and hand out.
Bed linen also. Plus towels .
Pack male/ female toiletries in a cheap plastic box as a set per person
Basic household goods same. Laundry and kitchen detergent. Soap. Paper towels
Pet food. Poor people love thier pets.flea and tick prevention.
Basic medical sets. Panadol earbuds disinfectant bandaids household stuff in a box
For disaster relief pack boxes of complete supplies for a sex/age with everything. Mark box boy/girl/man/woman/size.
A lot of them are drug addicts, and any cash they get ends up being spent on drugs. There’s one neighborhood in town that’s known for this.
Then there was the guy who kept his hair in dreads, dressed in rags and drove a BMW back in the 90s. Not sure whatever happened to him.
I admit though I don’t like to that when I became disabled from my cancers ,I do receive food stamps not a lot but it helps. I learned a lesson about the poor as I became one of them and it was a lesson I would not have learned otherwise.when I was living a middle class life I had not heard of the gleaners or community sharing or much about food banks.i had no idea how many people went hungry or without basic things such as laundry soap until my life was affected,I had no understanding, just like many well meaning people say they understand what I went through for 8 years and counting with my cancers.you will never understand until your there going through it.i was very embarrassed the first time I went to sign up for a monthly food box and discovered a whole world so alien to me.the people who helped me were some of the nicest people I have ever met and never treated me with nothing but respect.eventually as I recovered and felt better I would go in and help pack food boxes for others in need.i wear no blinders these days even though my situation is much better.my daughter and her husband help at there local food bank weekly as a way to help others as they were helped in time of need.we should help where we can,and be thankful always that we have these resources available given freely by people in the community who truly care.our community also has lots of local farm produce that farmers give to those who need.its a wonderful way to share and help out.
My first “real” job was working for the state welfare office. At the office where I worked, the majority of the people receiving assistance were either elderly or disabled. Of the able-bodied adults, stories about being a recent victim of domestic violence or some other violent crime were common. And the biggest case of welfare fraud that I saw in my time there was from a Rabbi.
I know experiences vary by state and city and I certainly encountered jerks at that job, but my experience lines up with what Deplorable Patriot said. Most of the ones receiving assistance truly did need the help.
Thank you. There’s a lot of misinformation out there. I learned a lot of this not just at the food bank, but from the St. Vincent de Paul volunteers in our parish where I grew up. There’s a cluster that work together, and it was shocking to find out the number of widows we were helping with all sorts of things.
My experience, too. The widows and older divorced women were always on the edge of going under.
Thank you, DP. You deftly separated political waste/graft from a true need. Your specific suggestions are a great help.
We participate in several food giving programs with our grandkids, and have taken them to visit food banks because it is important to be aware. My neighbor is active in an after-high-school hour where they casually offer healthy take-home snacks to exiting teenagers too proud/cool to admit they are hungry. She says many teens accept the snacks & sandwiches.
As much as the holiday can/food drives are important, my ‘higher angels’ (who do far more than I), say what they really need is money, no matter the amount. They say the food bank can leverage the money with quantities & discounts that make it more effective for them to purchase items than what we can. Now that is merely a local perspective from two food banks. Ultimately it’s the giving that matters most.
Thank you, DP, for a nudge in the right direction!
Yes, the food banks need money for leveraging stuff, BUT, and this is VERY IMPORTANT, specify what you want your donation to go toward. I mean this. If you don’t, it goes into a central pot called “unrestricted funds” that pays for overhead, the executive director’s salary, speaking engagements, etc.
The key word in S.N.A.P. is Supplemental. It is a stipend to “supplement” one’s food budget. My wife and I get $164 per month which works out to about 17 days worth of food because we budget the hell out of it. The rest of the month food comes out of SSI-SSA.
Every so often, people invite us over for dinner or to a diner for lunch. It’s amazing how grateful one can be for what to our friends is a small favor (considering their better finances) but to us is very generous.
Praise the Lord for the givers of America.
If you are near a Sikh gurdwara, there is a practice known as langar — sometimes referred to as a “free kitchen”, but that’s a gloss from another tradition. People of all ranks of life receive a simple vegetarian meal that they get to eat while seated on the floor (so none are higher than the rest).
The Sikhs are a fiercely honorable people. Every adult male will carry a kirpan — a dagger meant to separate truth from falsehood, or light from darkness. Indian airlines allow Sikhs to carry kirpans past security. My experience with Sikhs in business has been that they are cast-iron sonsabitches about doing what is right — which is a pleasure once you figure it out.
Once my life settles down, I hope to seek out a langar myself…..but in Silicon Valley, travel becomes insanely difficult near the dinner hour, so it hasn’t happened yet.
Incidentally, Sikhism is a monotheistic religion that believes in baptism — so there’s something to initiate conversation.
There are other fiercely honorable peoples in that region — https://www.indiatimes.com/news/armed-with-only-a-khukri-this-gurkha-soldier-took-on-40-men-and-saved-a-girl-from-being-gang-raped-247639.html .
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gurkha_Memorial%2C_London
My understanding is that their battle cry is the admirably restrained, “Ayo Gorkhali!” — which translates to “The Gurkha are upon you!” Understanding the deeper meaning of, “and, now, you’re really screwed….” is left to students of history.
I think I got dumped in the bin.
“Home-grown” food may be taken at the door of the organization, but by law the food pantry cannot distribute it.”
We have so many people in the USA with the land and ability to produce all types of food. Would people producing food be good for local costs, local incomes, local employment and business?
Would this be good for the folks who are involved? Oh let us have Freedom In Food.
The most effective food redistribution program I know of is Leket in Israel. It’s a full system with volunteers trained, facilities, trucks and a network you have to read about to begin believing it could be this good. Farmers that are reworking crops call them in to glean all remaining produce/fruit and it all gets distributed in a timely way so it’s still good for the elder care or day care centers when it’s served.
In America I’m not sure it could be pulled off. But I’d love to see someone try.
With studious organization and due diligence, there is no reason in the modern world most communities could not produce and provide for themselves. Those of us with parents who were raised during the economic depression of 20’s and 30’s learned that pretty early.. you didn’t run off play and get lost before pulling weeds and tending/harvesting the garden..
BTW ,anybody else watch that Jayz video someone share here yesterday?
I started, got busy and had to run. I think he’s onto something in Cody Wyo .
Sorry, that comment was meant to follow Zorro rides.
Also wanted to mention, even though home canned goods are turned away at food banks,
there is absolutely nothing that prevents bartering between neighbors , so one can trade fresh or home canned goods for commercial canned goods that CAN be donated to local food banks .
Great thoughts and Seasonal timing on the post DP
I began a program through my church as deacon called Loafs and Fishes. We used home grown food and during the week I went to grocery storers and collected food. I got to know the green grocers personally and was given cases of fruit and vegetables sometimes the butcher gave a ham. A doctor stocked a freezer in his church and I was given permission to take what we needed.
The program was not just for the poor but also for senior citizens who were lonely. I gathered the good cooks from churches and they make excellent meals for the people. I loved just to interact with those who came. We fed 150 people the last two Saturday of the month. I ask the church to use real china and silver for the event. After 6 years I past the ministry off to the next group of active deacons. They went to paper plates and hot dogs.
Giving to me is not just food but also keeping the dignity of the receiver in tact.
I fought the church in reorganizing the pantry and put real food in it with the money the church allowed. Oatmeal, eggs, low sodium canned food, dried beans and rice. Again I collected much from the grocer I could hand out.
What I learned was that some people are good gatherers and if they would put their talent into work they did not have to visit the pantry.
Others I could tell were truly in need and I gave extra. Some were embarrass to come and when they had a job again they came and brought food for the pantry. I love this ministry and handed out food twice a week.
I also visited other pantries and sow some of my costumers shocked seeing me 🙂
We traded good with other pantries when they were given much they shared and so did we.
One time I got a call from Portman’s office that the next morning a big truck would show up at the market place and deliver canned cheese and butter and other stuff.
After that I moved on to other things my time as Martha was done and now was time to be Mary 🙂
Yes give but make sure your money is well spend and only given to organization or groups who do not take a salary. I never did because it was God’s work.
I remember cooking for a local church-affiliated charity that fed the needy. This was a recurring weekly event and different Church groups took turns.
Anyway, the recipients were not thrilled with the menu: chili with all the fixings, bread, salad, desserts. Some even declared they would not eat chili.
Once they tucked into the meal, though, they were very happy. So many came back for seconds that there was no leftover chili.
It taught me a lesson: doing God’s work is not for us to get kudos. It is simply our duty to do good for the glory of God.
There is a local food bank with which we have been loosely affiliated for a number of years. It has gone through changes as the political winds have blown about. We live in the very heart of Silicon Valley. The freeways are lined with tents, industrial areas are lined with RVs and cars…..we don’t have the needles and feces to the level that San Francisco does, but it ain’t pretty.
It is reasonable to suspect that the local foodbanks are enabling the problem.
OTOH, one time I was up in Sacramento and a couple with their foods was using food stamps, and I could tell they were getting every bit of nutrition they could. There weren’t crackers or cookies or even tortillas — there were rice, beans, chicken (not boneless breasts). Onions, cooking oil, flour, pork, milk, lard. They were going to cook their way out of poverty and leave little for Kraft, Unilever, Mondelez, or ConAgra to extract from them. It wasn’t the sort of situation where interaction would have been appropriate, but I was proud in that moment that a thin trace from my taxes might make its way to their food stamps.
That’s what SNAP is supposed to be for, that and those truly in need.
As for the people on the street…it’s more than the food banks that are enabling that.
How many people know that SNAP benefits can be used to purchase foodstuff seeds?
They can also be used at most farmer’s markets, and to buy vegetable plants already growing in pots.
Our local food bank distributes fresh vegetables grown in the local community garden by volunteers for this purpose.
Most of our local grocery stores donate massive quantities of food to the food bank here.
We used to joke if the president of one of the grocery chains here knew just how much product they donated every year, changes would be made. Most of their donations were in frozen meat.
For another take, Deut 14:21 — “Ye shall not eat of any thing that dieth of itself: thou shalt give it unto the stranger that is in thy gates, that he may eat it; or thou mayest sell it unto an alien: for thou art an holy people unto the LORD thy God.”
The efforts of our nation should be mustered to sustain our nation.
Terrific post, Dep, and especially timely.
Thank you.
This belongs here:
Well, that was touching. He didn’t hesitate a minute.
Great post DP. Excellent timing…weather has turned cold and the holidays are upon us. Genuinely needy folks out their. Quite fortunate my family and I are. Sharing, helping commonly part of our conversation.
Donate food and clothing through out the year. Our focus is county centric food bank and Vets. Quarterly local supermarket has case lot sale and coincidentally local Sheriff’s are in front collecting food for county needy. Works out nice, cases at a time;-)
Christmas time always have each Grandchild pick out a toy, hand it to the Marine collecting for Toys For Tots and wish the Marine, Merry Christmas;-) Donation in Salvation Army kettles most everytime m
we pass them. Grandkids with us, they stop the money and wish the bell ringer, Merry Christmas.
School supplies and kids coats direct to local school.
A more personal side, working to break cycle of poverty for family in Philippines. Big families here. Incredibly poor folks whose job prospects quite difficult. A couple nieces through nursing. They esrned BS in Nursing. (Successes;-) Modest ventures in livestock chickens. pigs and goats. Fish ponds… Banca boats and nets for fishing. Hit and miss regarding success. So long as folks are willing to work their asses off, we work with them. That’s the way life is here.
For lack of better words, gave up on some. Sad. But personal initiative and personal discipline essential. It’s not perpetual assistance. Learn to fish, not hand out fish. That said, anyone shows up at meal time is well fed. No question or stigma. No one goes hungry while we are here. Typically feed a dozen or more each meal.
Working a new tact, minor, interest free loans. We draw up a mini business plan. More like a budget forecast, ledger for income, expenses… We fund it. Gives them a personal stake in the effort. This is working, seems to be anyway. Easy to do with chickens. 45 days and off with their heads…income:-) Every 15 days new chicks. Three batches at a time. After sales, money is set aside for chicks, feed, medicine or sorts for chickens…remaining money theirs. Admittedly. a minor step forward. Trying to build confidence and very basic business perspective.
Back to the thread focus, rather sure, most if not all that post here donate to the needy. We focus our assistance where we are comfortable maximum helps directly goes to those in need.
Another good idea for giving is your local school lunch program.
If a child is “in arrears” in our lunch program, they get a pb&j, not hot lunch. Which is sad to me. It’s not the little one’s fault.
You can give the lunch program money to pay off arrears accounts so they kids get to eat.
this is a very helpful and valid thread, not just for this time of the year (Thanksgiving) but for every day, considering “those less fortunate”….
something that almost always comes up in various conversations about welfare, the Homeless, the elderly and people “in need”,generally, is the fact (or it seems this way) that Orientals are not usually seen begging or wanting or on welfare or Homeless in this country…
and I would say the same thing about Jewish folks…
they seem to take care of each other…and to respect their elders.
FWIW
smiley2
Good point concerning elderly. I found elderly not coming to the food pantry. That I believe the church needs to step in trough personnel contact with people at home. If each church or Synagogue takes care of their own there would be not so much loneliness and hunger.
Sadly often they are forgotten in a congregation because everyone is busy with extended families or friends.
My mother in law was special she invited people for dinner on Sunday’s or Holidays. She just kept an eye out in the neighborhood or church. I remember a gentler time but now neighborhoods change so much and everyone is busy.
your Mother-in-Law sounds wonderful….very kind-hearted…if elderly folks are suffering, financially, or having a hard time making ends meet, in today’s world, they are so easily “unwanted” and forgotten….unless they are fortunate enough to have a family or a family member stick by them, somehow.
Some people have no family or family lives far away.
Yes my mother in law was a very kind woman. When someone was begging she would ask them if they are hungry take them into a diner paid for their food. She never gave money. She was German and came to the US in 1920. She had a hard life until she married.
compassion …based on suffering.
Wisdom comes from tears.
<3
This is so true. So many churches just turn their own needy congregants to a gov6program. It is terrible. Saw it happen in our own parish. A couple of us just ended up helping the widow ourselves.
Lots of elderly need help with home maintenance, too. Something the youth in the parish can do with help from a contractor type.
So true we helped many and it is very rewarding. We are conditioned to help one another sharing and caring. There used to be a kinder time in the church maybe still have that gentle spirit.
I get an high from it need no drugs 🙂 God is Good.
In my hometown, there is actually a Jewish food pantry supplied by just about everybody. Who they serve, that I’m not sure given the location.
The welfare programs were never meant to be a complete fulfillment of need – just a help to that need. $200 a month for a single adult is not going to feed a single adult well but I fed 2 adults (myself and husband) on less than $100 just over 15 years ago with no help from gov or private charity and prices haven’t gone up that much. Wasn’t organic or high quality but it can be done. $200 from gov as help and some from one’s own pocket, spent judiciously, will keep a person fed and full as they go through a hard time.
We still run a Very tight food budget and eat very simply. We eat out 2-3x a year, period. Getting any packaged food from the store is a “treat” as it is more expensive than buying ingredients. We garden as a way to “earn”/work for food in our spare time. $30 of seeds and lots of work yields Very good returns on food throughout the summer and into the winter if you also dehydrate and can. (those things cost money too – which is why the dehydrator was a birthday present and the canning equipment several Christmas’s, several different years, presents – that way we had presents and celebrated but also added things to our family that we really needed). We often don’t even plant the full seed packet so even the seeds don’t cost us from year to year. + learn to save seeds so we now have tons of squash seeds for example. Never have to buy them again and have some to share at seeds banks/exchanges.
We saved and invested in a costco membership. Buy very carefully there (so many temptations!) and truly save money. We buy organic meat…haven’t had anything but ground beef in years but at least its organic and grass finished. 1x purchase of the membership and from then forward it has paid for itself every year by our rebate check.
And yet we absolutely support many give aways as well as gov programs. It is the vetting and the requirements that need fixing as well as the moral/ethical character of many in our nation. The view of taking part in these programs needs to change. Both my husband and I grew up in circumstances in which our families took part in gov programs for several years through the exact types of circumstances that the vast majority of conservatives agree are appropriate use of these programs. both were short term while the providers were working and going to college with small dependent children and very poor circumstances. Both ended participation in gov programs as quickly as possible going on to become homeowner in one case and in both cases to become professionals and independent of gov assistance.
Most communities have more than 1 org that is a “food bank”/food pantry. We have several in a county of less than 50K. They don’t all go by that name but there are various churches and non profits give food via various programs throughout the year. In our county, there are churches & no profits that do this. Look for food banks, food pantries, after school snack programs (we give to a program that gives children snack bars, protein bars, fresh fruit and canned “meals” like chili w/meat). We have local church that gives away boxes of food 1x -2x a month. And Many churches give food baskets at both Thanksgiving and Christmas.
There is too much abuse in Every single give away program. There is also a great need for these programs + an even greater need to educate the people out of their current lifestyle, skill sets and perspective/thought process that too often keeps them dependent and in need.
The saddest part is the children of these perpetually in need families & those families in temporary need (and this can happen despite seeming to make all the right choices – can happen to the best of families) who won’t get help.
Hard subject and a tender subject for me (obvious) as I have experienced using gov services temporarily, being poor without using gov services and seeing gov services abused…and yet, people are genuinely hungry.
Important to balance charity with welfare and welfare with temporary help and yet remember the elderly, handicapped and just low IQ who will always be poor and unable to provide…and filter out the abusers/lazy/cheaters.
Was easier to strike the right balance when it was all handled locally & before “discrimination” could be yelled with lawsuits to follow so easily and based on unfounded nonsense.
Something else to remember at Thanksgiving:
Thanksgiving is as much about civics/history as it is about food and as much if not more about family, friends, togetherness as it is about the first two. Lastly, the Purpose of Thanksgiving is to Worship God and to be Thankful to Him, remembering our civic/historical ancestors in the 17th century as well as over the last 170 yrs as it became an official US AND Civic holiday.
There are many, too many, who have sufficient food, even holiday food (even if it is not a lavish spread – many can buy ground turkey if not a whole bird, something we have done, potatoes, corn, cranberry sauce and pumpkin pie – doesn’t have to be expensive or even that much more than a normal day’s cost of food when on a tight budget) but do not have family and friends with whom to celebrate.
Yes, remember the hungry at the holidays is More than fitting and appropriate, but also remember the lonely. Some families/people might not seem lonely but might not have extended family or very many friends. Even nuclear families are sometimes lonely for other families and friends outside of their own little family. Think of including them if you know of any families/empty nesters/singles/elderly. Feed their souls by sharing your happy family life, sharing your time, sharing your holiday. I bet most will offer to bring food so the hospitality might not cost you out of pocket!
This is true for Thanksgiving and Christmas Eve and Christmas. Or even just Sunday dinner after church. Feeding the body and soul.
I sometimes think we would be surprised to find out how many in our churches, neighborhood, communities, clubs, offices, etc., don’t have close friends/family on some holidays.
Thank you for this post, DP. I didn’t know that grocery stores donated to food banks, and I’m glad to find that out.
Meals on Wheels opened my eyes to the elderly who need help. Thanks for alerting us to Feeding America, too.
It is very difficult to pass up people with signs on street corners, but I have read so many stories about scammers. When I donate, I want it to be to someone truly in need. It’s easy to become jaded, but you are right: there are many who really need help.
My mother did meals on wheels years ago. This archdiocese also has a casserole program with a facility downtown that gives hot meals to the homeless who are mostly mentally ill. I think it’s 99 parishes that participate. For YEARS, we made a pan of spaghetti once a month for the effort. The woman who spearheaded it was a wife of a General Dynamics executive.
Believe it or not, there’s a huge system that has nothing to do with the government when it comes to hunger relief.
Now that I think about it with fresh foods…the local Feeding America affiliate got a semi full of fresh eggs one time. Talk about SCORE!
Actually, the food bank I worked for started out negotiating with produce brokers on what we call “Produce Row” which is the rail depot where fruits and veggies are offloaded. Whatever was still good and they couldn’t sell, was donated. This was decades ago, before the USDA got all hyper about stuff that probably is not a real problem.
I haven’t been down there in years, like since I lost my first baby tooth on the parking lot. I had forgotten about that.