Helping the Hungry during the Holidays (restaurants, frozen, coffee, meals)
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Watching TV lately I see mile long traffic lanes lined up for food distribution.
Here is a link for those who don't know where to access food distributions in each state. This may help people in need and take part of the burden off those volunteers who work in some of these efforts, while in other places volunteers wish they had more people showing up to make use of the foods they have to distribute.
Please see that anyone you know that's in need, your Clergy, and City Mayor & Counsel are made aware of this link. I've seen reports in Agricultural journals that indicate that 30% of the foods in grocery stores and even in our homes goes to waste. And 40% of the fruit supply also goes to waste. Hopefully more of it will find it's way to food recycling centers.
Have a blessed Thanksgiving and Holiday Season everyone !
Watching TV lately I see mile long traffic lanes lined up for food distribution.
Here is a link for those who don't know where to access food distributions in each state. This may help people in need and take part of the burden off those volunteers who work in some of these efforts, while in other places volunteers wish they had more people showing up to make use of the foods they have to distribute.
Please see that anyone you know that's in need, your Clergy, and City Mayor & Counsel are made aware of this link. I've seen reports in Agricultural journals that indicate that 30% of the foods in grocery stores and even in our homes goes to waste. And 40% of the fruit supply also goes to waste. Hopefully more of it will find it's way to food recycling centers.
Have a blessed Thanksgiving and Holiday Season everyone !
In the past, I've supported City Harvest, an organization that takes food from supermarkets and restaurants in NYC at the end of the day and redistributes it to pantries and other outlets throughout the city. Donations go toward maintaining trucks and paying truck drivers to do the pickups and deliveries. Cuts down on food waste, gets fresh food to those who need it, and creates jobs. Win-win. Some restaurants even post notices that their food is given to City Harvest at the end of the day.
Of course, it's more feasible to carry out this type of operation in a place like NYC, but mini versions of it could likely be done in other places.
We have a state food bank here and there is a drop-off point in each county. They also do mobile events and collect through the supermarkets who run promotions. They will also provide a list of the most needed items at various times and the supermarkets will sell a bag of just those items at discount for you to donate. It's a giving place. Fruit would be hard since they food bank here will only accept shelf stable items. If they seek produce, they work with local farms.
I got in the habit years ago of going through my cabinets every holiday season to find things that I had bought and not used to donate. Now if I buy the wrong thing, or variety, I set it aside rather than return it and will occasionally pick up things that turn up on the need list often when I see them on sale. This year my husband panic bought all kinds of things like powdered milk and coffee, etc., and I donated those as well.
Nothing personal, Mighty Queen, but when City Harvest first came into existence, they donated cases and cases of microwave browning sauce to some soup kitchen and got a nice tax credit for it, and I have never liked them since.
We have a state food bank here and there is a drop-off point in each county. They also do mobile events and collect through the supermarkets who run promotions. They will also provide a list of the most needed items at various times and the supermarkets will sell a bag of just those items at discount for you to donate. It's a giving place. Fruit would be hard since they food bank here will only accept shelf stable items. If they seek produce, they work with local farms.
I got in the habit years ago of going through my cabinets every holiday season to find things that I had bought and not used to donate. Now if I buy the wrong thing, or variety, I set it aside rather than return it and will occasionally pick up things that turn up on the need list often when I see them on sale. This year my husband panic bought all kinds of things like powdered milk and coffee, etc., and I donated those as well.
Nothing personal, Mighty Queen, but when City Harvest first came into existence, they donated cases and cases of microwave browning sauce to some soup kitchen and got a nice tax credit for it, and I have never liked them since.
Interesting and kind of weird. Not sure how a charity gets a tax credit, but I am not up on how that works. It is the concept I like of rescuing and redistributing food. I just hate the idea that so much is thrown away, and City Harvest seems to have a solution.
We and other members of our church donate Thanksgiving food items (turkeys, hams, pumpkin pies, stuffing, mashed potatoes, canned green beans, yams, etc.) to our church, who has a program which delivers Thanksgiving meals to local families in need, during the holidays. It’s a way to give back to our community.
I work for a charity. This week we were a few hundred short of the turkeys needed to provide a Thanksgiving meal for families who had signed up for one, and sent out social media posts. We ended up with many more turkeys than were needed ( so they will stay frozen until Christmas). It's wonderful to live in an area that supports our requests for help.
Please remember that there are people who are hungry all year 'round, not just at the holidays.
And that your dollar will go further if you donate money to your food pantries-- who A. probably have resources to get food at a discount from what you'd pay at retail and B. know what they need, what their clients can/will use, etc.
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