- Share This Post
- Pin It
- 0
-
Sparkle (0)
The U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Economic Research Service (USDA) reported on November 19, 2009 that 49 million Americans, including nearly 17 million children, are food insecure, according to their 2009 report on Household Food Insecurity.
We're coming up on the holiday season, the time of year when most of us probably do all of our charitable giving. In November, food donations are especially frequent as we all prepare to sit around our own tables and give thanks for plenty.
Recently, I spent the day (along with all my co-workers) volunteering at Harvesters, one of our nation's largest food banks. My main job was to sort those very food donations that each of you generously provides. I learned quite a bit from the experience, so I wanted to pass along some of those observations about the food donation process.
What is a food bank or network versus a food pantry?
A food bank is a large warehouse facility that has tremendous purchasing power, then in turn, fills the shelves of local food pantries and organizations at little to no cost. Food banks handle donations from individuals as well as corporate and manufacturer donations, makes bulk purchases direct from manufacturers. Food banks also handle fresh bread and produce donations, many of which can move those donations quick enough to be able to leverage most of these perishable items in a day. It's a pretty amazing operation. Food networks are the combined power of food banks working as a group.
How many people require food assistance?
For my local food bank, Harvesters, in the 26 counties they serve, they feed over SIXTY THOUSAND people per week. This 60K people includes 550 nonprofit agencies; such as emergency food pantries, soup kitchens, homeless shelters, children’s homes, homes for the mentally disabled and shelters for battered persons. With the economic challenges, the demand has risen by 40 percent and continues to increase.
National Food Network, Feeding America, provides food to more than 25 million low-income people facing hunger in the United States, including more than 9 million children nearly 3 million seniors.
What happens to my food donations?
Once the donations are gathered, they go into large bins on a sorting floor. Volunteers and staff sort each and every item by hand into different food categories such as beverages, vegetables, meats and proteins, baking goods, and even baby items. Here is a behind-the-scenes look that might help you understand the donation process and maximize your gifts.
Glass containers
Each item that comes in a glass container has to be individually washed and placed in a separate bin to avoid risk of injury or breakage. Hint: Avoid donating glass containers.
Canned Goods
Canned good are inspected for dents and damage. Some damage is unavoidable just in handling, but each dented can has to be reviewed and determined to be safe or not based on the condition of the can, size and location of the dent. When in doubt, it gets tossed. Hint: Avoid donating dented goods.
Similar Items
Once sorted, similar items, 24 different cans of green beans for example, must all be re-packaged as a group, even if they are not the same brand. This allows the items to be shipped to the agencies that need them in bulk quantities. Hint: The easiest donations for sorting and volunteer time are items purchased at a big box store like Costco and left in their bulk packaging.
Unique Items and Ethnic Foods
Even with additional time to sort these items, they have great value. Ethnic foods are very welcome, especially for food recipients of that culture. Unique items also help add variety and even premium quality to the food mix. I was pretty happy to see a lot of great organic items and a good mix of ethnic ingredients. Hint: It's a great idea to be inclusive of culture and quality food options with donations.
Save the Date
To keep the sorting a bit interesting, we all were on the lookout for the most obscure items. We were also advised to look for any kind of label that we knew was dated. Canned good items must be within a few years of expiration date. Preferably, they should not be expired. We found such exotics as a 1970s can of smoked oysters (that would be, like, lethal to eat!), a vintage box of gelatin, a glass jar of Borscht so old it was brown, and
