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  #16   ^
Old Wed, Apr-18-18, 17:13
Emmie618 Emmie618 is offline
New Member
Posts: 11
 
Plan: Protein Power
Stats: 340/144/145 Female 62 inches
BF:
Progress:
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It seems to me that many of the recipients who depend on the various food panties (my town as several church-related ones as well as secular ones) would feel deprived if their children could not have cookies and brownies in the name of 'we care about your health.' Many of these families cannot afford to provide their children with things other children have, so limiting their food to what we consider 'healthy' would further penalize these people trying to survive with minimal resources.

I am totally in favor of healthy eating--but it should be the choice of the individual. In my own church's food pantry, people are not 'assigned' food but are free to make their choice from what's available. To fail to have SAD food available and restrict their choices to our opinion of what they should eat would be, in my opinion, both patronizing and uncharitable.
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  #17   ^
Old Thu, Apr-19-18, 06:37
cotonpal's Avatar
cotonpal cotonpal is online now
Senior Member
Posts: 5,283
 
Plan: very low carb real food
Stats: 245/125/135 Female 62
BF:
Progress: 109%
Location: Vermont
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This article appeared in my local paper this morning. It seems relevant to the issue being discussed. I have seen people lined up for the van.

http://www.reformer.com/stories/rai...ievango,537482?
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  #18   ^
Old Thu, Apr-19-18, 07:09
LebenRedux LebenRedux is offline
Senior Member
Posts: 106
 
Plan: Dr. Westman
Stats: 242/225/150 Female 5' 5.5"
BF:39%/39%/24%
Progress: 18%
Location: Knoxville, TN (USA)
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Great ideas, SilverEm, Bonnie & Meme! Here's to the horses who choose to plant the seeds, eat the roasts, and drink the water we lead them to, however rare they are.
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  #19   ^
Old Thu, Apr-19-18, 07:20
LebenRedux LebenRedux is offline
Senior Member
Posts: 106
 
Plan: Dr. Westman
Stats: 242/225/150 Female 5' 5.5"
BF:39%/39%/24%
Progress: 18%
Location: Knoxville, TN (USA)
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Emmie618
It seems to me that many of the recipients who depend on the various food panties (my town as several church-related ones as well as secular ones) would feel deprived if their children could not have cookies and brownies in the name of 'we care about your health.' Many of these families cannot afford to provide their children with things other children have, so limiting their food to what we consider 'healthy' would further penalize these people trying to survive with minimal resources.

I am totally in favor of healthy eating--but it should be the choice of the individual. In my own church's food pantry, people are not 'assigned' food but are free to make their choice from what's available. To fail to have SAD food available and restrict their choices to our opinion of what they should eat would be, in my opinion, both patronizing and uncharitable.


I completely agree that an occasional treat isn't at all out of line (for anyone)but one of the real joys of life. And I did not mean for the charitable organization to assume the role of food-police. I only hope they can achieve a healthier BALANCE in the items they provide, instead of 90% refined carbs that are useless for growing bodies...
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  #20   ^
Old Thu, Apr-19-18, 08:06
Bonnie OFS Bonnie OFS is offline
Senior Member
Posts: 2,573
 
Plan: Dr. Bernstein
Stats: 188/150/135 Female 5 ft 4 inches
BF:
Progress: 72%
Location: NE WA
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Quote:
Originally Posted by LebenRedux
I only hope they can achieve a healthier BALANCE in the items they provide, instead of 90% refined carbs that are useless for growing bodies...


Being a recipient of "free" food, I can agree. But also want to say I wish there were an different ways to help the poor. We accept the food not because we'll go hungry without it, but because it frees up cash for other things, like gas for the the car, electricity, cat food, snow plowing in the winter, etc.

In our rural area we have a program called Rural Resources that helps a lot - especially senior citizens. They help pay propane & electric bills, give vouchers for the farmer's market and low cost meals at a few restaurants.

Food stamps are more helpful than the food handouts - I can choose healthy food. But the government thinks those of us who receive the benefit are chiselers - the amount we get keeps going down.
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  #21   ^
Old Thu, Apr-19-18, 12:29
NEMarvin's Avatar
NEMarvin NEMarvin is offline
Boldly going...
Posts: 837
 
Plan: keto
Stats: 410/298.6/225 Male 74 inches
BF:40/35%/17%
Progress: 60%
Location: Lincoln, NE
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We won't solve this problem until we solve the problem in our entire culture. Crappy food is cheap, Healthy food is costly. A church I belonged to would specifically ask for donations of canned meats like canned ham, fish, chicken, etc., but those were rarities. Because I can go buy 6 packages of ramen for a dollar and drop them into the food bank bin, or I can spend $6 to buy one canned ham. What am I likely to do?

One church I've been a part of had garden plots, and volunteers prepared, tended and harvested and all of the produce went to the pantry. Another option for you.
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  #22   ^
Old Thu, Apr-19-18, 20:30
M Levac M Levac is offline
Senior Member
Posts: 6,498
 
Plan: VLC, mostly meat
Stats: 202/200/165 Male 5' 7"
BF:
Progress: 5%
Location: Montreal, Quebec, Canada
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From personal experience, when you're hungry, you just wanna eat, all other considerations go out the door. Is it good for me, is it actually food, is it gonna make me fat and sick? Don't care, I'm hungry, I wanna eat. The more hungry we are, the lower our standards get.

Also from personal experience, food quality varies according to immediacy. For example, where a hot meal is served, it tends to include more perishables like fresh meat and bread. Where a food bag is given, it tends to include more preserves like canned meat and biscuits. Fresh food has a shorter shelf life than preserves. It's just logistics.

Meat is always more nutritious than any other food, regardless of whether it's fresh or not. So, for somebody who gives food, if he wants to give the most nutritious preserves, he should prefer canned meat rather than biscuits. It may sound like I'm pushing my own personal preference here but it's just a matter of fact of nutrition, not preference. Also, since it's very obvious that the bulk of food given is mostly carbs, giving canned meat (or fresh meat for soup kitchens) just makes sense for somebody who wants to do the most good.

An anecdote. A while ago, we had an after-game dinner at the golf club. It was prepared by a caterer, it came in large aluminium platters. Pasta and meat and a few other things. The meat platter (there was only one, duh) went in the first few minutes, there was still two platters of pasta left at the end. When food is free and when there's a choice, people will choose the best first. Pasta, everybody can make it at home, who the hell wants to eat that when there's meat at a free dinner after a game?
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  #23   ^
Old Thu, Apr-19-18, 21:11
Bonnie OFS Bonnie OFS is offline
Senior Member
Posts: 2,573
 
Plan: Dr. Bernstein
Stats: 188/150/135 Female 5 ft 4 inches
BF:
Progress: 72%
Location: NE WA
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Quote:
Originally Posted by M Levac
Pasta, everybody can make it at home, who the hell wants to eat that when there's meat at a free dinner after a game?


Husband used to work at a retreat center & we lived on the grounds (miserable year). Meals were served buffet style & there were 2 meats at dinner - beef & chicken. The people were supposed to take just 1 meat, but many people would take a full serving of each. The cook grumbled & complained about it every weekend. Besides not knowing for sure how much food to make, it must have cut into the profits, too.

Since I hung out in the kitchen I saw how the food was prepared - I would have gone for both the meats & left the overcooked canned vegetables.
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  #24   ^
Old Tue, Jan-08-19, 19:19
CityGirl8 CityGirl8 is offline
Senior Member
Posts: 856
 
Plan: Protein Power, IF
Stats: 238/204/145 Female 5'8"
BF:53.75%/46.6%/25%
Progress: 37%
Location: PNW
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I know this is an old post, but if you're still looking for suggestions...

Rather than trying to remove options such as the cookies, etc., maybe there's something you can do to help increase availability of other items. As a couple of people have pointed out, it can be challenging for food pantries to get and make fresh fruit and veg available before it spoils.

For a number of years in my area a couple of people organized a seasonal weekly fresh fruit and veg pick-up from local churches and delivered it to our local food bank. People would bring in their contributions like the extras from their CSA boxes or the abundance of zucchini from their own gardens, etc. and leave the donations in the lobbies of their churches. Then a couple people from the organization would drive around to all the churches and do a quiet grab as services were going on. Someone I knew had been one of the founders and she said it was her way of living out her faith on Sunday mornings, since she wasn't much of a pew sitter. :-) For a long time the whole operation was just two women and a mini-van.

PS--Many people who come to the food pantry may also get food stamps, and what you see them choosing at the pantry may not be all of their groceries. They may use their food stamps for more fresh items like fruit, veg, milk, etc. that isn't available at the pantry.
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  #25   ^
Old Tue, Jan-08-19, 20:17
tess9132 tess9132 is offline
Senior Member
Posts: 873
 
Plan: general lc
Stats: 214/146/130 Female 5'4"
BF:
Progress: 81%
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Quote:
For a number of years in my area a couple of people organized a seasonal weekly fresh fruit and veg pick-up from local churches and delivered it to our local food bank.
I'm very much a carnivore so I personally don't worry about the lack of fruits and vegetables in poor people's lives and I sincerely hope they're returning the favor by not worrying about the lack of them in mine.

That said, I have long been involved with food pantry collections and distribution through both my local parish and the Boy Scouts. I have found that people will donate three different types of things: 1) Whatever is in their pantry that they don't mind getting rid of and 2) Whatever was on sale when the conscious decision to donate was made and 3) Whatever it is you ask for. Obviously, the most powerful thing we can control is what we ask for. Typically announcements are placed in church bulletins, on local patch websites, or, like the Boy Scouts do, with individual requests placed on doorknobs.

That's why whenever I'm running a collection I mention that there is a specific or critical need for canned meats and personal care products (i.e. toilet paper, shampoo, deodorant, etc.) Both the canned meat and personal hygiene products are always the first things grabbed from food pantries' shelves. Those items disappear well before the pasta and other junk food. If you ever work at a local food pantry, you get to know the regular donors - it is worth mentioning the items that are needed most to these good folks as they in turn will keep a keen eye out for the 74 cent shampoo and the dollar cans of chicken.
Quote:
maybe there's something you can do to help increase the availability of other items

Our parish has recently started participating in collecting the leftover fast food from our local Wawas (like 7/11's, only better). And yes, there are usually plenty of soft pretzels in our daily hauls (we are in Philly after all), BUT there are also plenty of hot dogs and bacon egg and cheese sandwiches, etc. This is fresh food that will be thrown away if somebody doesn't come pick it up. If you have Wawas in your area and you're interested in getting some protein items to local food pantries try contacting the national office as I believe Wawa is open to all of its stores participating. https://www.thewawafoundation.org/o...ion-connection/

Edited to Add: The food from the Wawas comes frozen so you'd need to donate it to pantries that have freezer space available.

Last edited by tess9132 : Tue, Jan-08-19 at 20:26.
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  #26   ^
Old Tue, Jan-08-19, 22:55
jschwab jschwab is offline
Senior Member
Posts: 6,378
 
Plan: Atkins72/Paleo/NoGrain/IF
Stats: 285/220/200 Female 5 feet 5.5 inches
BF:
Progress: 76%
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Quote:
Originally Posted by tess9132
our local Wawas (like 7/11's, only better).


This made me laugh . Do you get the salad fixings from Wawa at all? Thank you for what you do.
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  #27   ^
Old Wed, Jan-09-19, 02:55
Ambulo's Avatar
Ambulo Ambulo is offline
Senior Member
Posts: 3,171
 
Plan: LerC, TRE, IF
Stats: 150/120/120 Female 64 inches
BF:
Progress: 100%
Location: the North, England
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In the UK we have food banks, and they will not accept fresh food, at least not from individuals. I always buy Princes tinned stewed steak from the cheaper supermarkets and take it to the more expensive stores who have the donation bins.
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  #28   ^
Old Wed, Jan-09-19, 08:47
tess9132 tess9132 is offline
Senior Member
Posts: 873
 
Plan: general lc
Stats: 214/146/130 Female 5'4"
BF:
Progress: 81%
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Quote:
This made me laugh
Me too. I purposely didn't put the smiley face and I was wondering if people would know I was joking. Kind of.

Quote:
Do you get the salad fixings from Wawa at all?
We don't get any of the Hoagie fixings. Do you mean like the prepackaged cole slaw, hard boiled eggs, and fresh made salads? We don't. I think though that less of those items go to waste because they generally have a shelf life of a few days. The stuff we get is what sits under the heat lamps. Leftovers from the heat lamps have to be removed from the racks by 4 am every day. The employees just sweep it all into empty milk crates and then put the crates in the freezer for us. Typically, each Wawa has 3 to five full milk crates for donation, so that is a lot of food, the majority of which has a decent amount of protein in it.

Quote:
In the UK we have food banks, and they will not accept fresh food, at least not from individuals.
Here in the US they will, at least in Pennsylvania, but it will depend upon a pantry's storage capacity - i.e. many small food banks do not have refrigerators/freezers, although the larger ones (at least by us) do. Soup kitchens, however, are usually happy to take any leftover fresh food and there are usually several of them in every city.
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  #29   ^
Old Wed, Jan-09-19, 10:36
Nancy LC's Avatar
Nancy LC Nancy LC is offline
Experimenter
Posts: 25,843
 
Plan: DDF
Stats: 202/185.4/179 Female 67
BF:
Progress: 72%
Location: San Diego, CA
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I think there's a lot of folks that probably think poor people deserve poor food and that they're lucky to get anything.

A time or two I've been asked by homeless people to buy them something junky in a 7/11. I refuse and buy them peanuts or something high in protein, low in carbs.
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  #30   ^
Old Wed, Jan-09-19, 11:01
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Meme#1 Meme#1 is offline
Senior Member
Posts: 12,456
 
Plan: Atkins DANDR
Stats: 210/194/160 Female 5'4"
BF:
Progress: 32%
Location: Texas
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I once offered a guy begging in the fast food drive-through food, not money and he declined and only wanted some money! I said no, I don't give money but will give him food....he walked away!
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