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I volunteer at a food shelf, and we can definitely have an over-abundance of certain foods at certain times, like bread products or produce. The excess doesn't get wasted, though, as we have a farmer who picks up the leftovers. So it's not necessarily "taking it out of the mouths of hungry people."
Its a combination of things, we still have last of people that went through the lean times from Great Depression and WWII. Though getting few in number. The post war years werent that abundant for many. More of those still around. So for them food, any edible food, is not something to waste.
Seriously hard to understand food banks having trouble getting rid of produce. If I were in need and going to food bank, tell them to keep the popular generic mac and cheese and Hostess HoHo's, both with little nutrition. I will take the raw produce nobody else wants. But be aware lot of people growing up poor in 21st century are pretty clueless cooking with staples and basically only know heat and serve in microwave. They have been trained in many ways to eat prepared fast food and ready to eat sugary starchy stuff from store. And some dont have a functional kitchen, though if I live somewhere I can have an outdoor camp fire, I can cook with that just fine. Not convenient to do daily, but works. Most urban/suburban people cant unless its socially acceptable like a patio grill. I could live with that.
Its true anybody tossing edible food has never truly been hungry. Very marginal food tastes better than nothing. Though I remember back in days of govt commodities, neighbor gave me some dry pinto beans, said his family didnt like them or time it took to cook them. Those had to be absolutely ancient. Still hard after 3 hour cooking on stove top. I didnt have a pressure cooker at the time so tossed them. So yea if that was example of govt commodities handed out I wouldnt been very impressed either. Sure they werent all like that, but after one bad experience, most people dont bend over and ask for another.
Seriously hard to understand food banks having trouble getting rid of produce. If I were in need and going to food bank, tell them to keep the popular generic mac and cheese and Hostess HoHo's, both with little nutrition. I will take the raw produce nobody else wants.
This summer I donated my extra garden tomatoes weekly to the local food pantry (overplanted due to covid haha) and they were always very happy to get them. Not all food pantries can deal with fresh food due to lack of storage but I found out their hand-out day and delivered the day of or a day before because they put individual amounts in a baggie.
Most food pantries get cheap and expired or close to expired food as donations, not much canned meat for example. So they need to move stuff out and hate to throw it away as much as we do.
Another pantry tried to give me near expired bread when I dropped canned goods, I declined because we rarely eat bread and are picky about food due to allergies. They are good people trying to help.
Its a combination of things, we still have last of people that went through the lean times from Great Depression and WWII. Though getting few in number. The post war years werent that abundant for many. More of those still around. So for them food, any edible food, is not something to waste.
Seriously hard to understand food banks having trouble getting rid of produce. If I were in need and going to food bank, tell them to keep the popular generic mac and cheese and Hostess HoHo's, both with little nutrition. I will take the raw produce nobody else wants. But be aware lot of people growing up poor in 21st century are pretty clueless cooking with staples and basically only know heat and serve in microwave. They have been trained in many ways to eat prepared fast food and ready to eat sugary starchy stuff from store. And some dont have a functional kitchen, though if I live somewhere I can have an outdoor camp fire, I can cook with that just fine. Not convenient to do daily, but works. Most urban/suburban people cant unless its socially acceptable like a patio grill. I could live with that.
Its true anybody tossing edible food has never truly been hungry. Very marginal food tastes better than nothing. Though I remember back in days of govt commodities, neighbor gave me some dry pinto beans, said his family didnt like them or time it took to cook them. Those had to be absolutely ancient. Still hard after 3 hour cooking on stove top. I didnt have a pressure cooker at the time so tossed them. So yea if that was example of govt commodities handed out I wouldnt been very impressed either. Sure they werent all like that, but after one bad experience, most people dont bend over and ask for another.
3 hours to cook pinto beans on the stove is not enough time
I do mine in the crock pot. Now if I ever make them on my gas stove, I will bring them to a boil and then turn it off for about a half hour, turn it back on til boiling again, then off etc. . Takes a while, but since i have nothing else to do - I don't have the stove heating up the kitchen all day. And they come out great. But crockpot is the best.
This summer I donated my extra garden tomatoes weekly to the local food pantry (overplanted due to covid haha) and they were always very happy to get them. Not all food pantries can deal with fresh food due to lack of storage but I found out their hand-out day and delivered the day of or a day before because they put individual amounts in a baggie.
Most food pantries get cheap and expired or close to expired food as donations, not much canned meat for example. So they need to move stuff out and hate to throw it away as much as we do.
Another pantry tried to give me near expired bread when I dropped canned goods, I declined because we rarely eat bread and are picky about food due to allergies. They are good people trying to help.
We have on ministry that sets up a table every day to give out breads etc
I also dropped off squash, cucumbers and zucchini there during the summer.
My tomatoes bombed this summer so didn't have extra.
It's not what I 'think,' it's what I see. My eyes aren't lying.
And most (not all) of them are only 'less fortunate' because of the poor life choices they have made.
The food should be going to the people who truly need it. Obviously some of the homeless don't need it if they're throwing it all over the streets.
I am of the mind that people should be fed even if they made "poor life choices". It's not about them. It's about what kind of people we are that we have so much food that we throw it away every day by the tons but would withhold it from someone else because we don't approve of their choices or judge them for their mistakes.
That sucks that the homeless are throwing away food that was given to them, but your supermarket and your favorite restaurants do the same thing every single day.
3 hours to cook pinto beans on the stove is not enough time
I do mine in the crock pot. Now if I ever make them on my gas stove, I will bring them to a boil and then turn it off for about a half hour, turn it back on til boiling again, then off etc. . Takes a while, but since i have nothing else to do - I don't have the stove heating up the kitchen all day. And they come out great. But crockpot is the best.
LOL, used to cook them lot in years past. At most an hour and half on stovetop at steady simmer. When they are soft, they are edible. 3hr should turned them into pure mush, they were still HARD. In pressure cooker take around 45minutes. Crockpot IMHO gives stuff bit of an off taste, much prefer pressure cooker. But sure everybody has their preferences. And to be fair probably pretty easy to get a used crockpot cheap in thrift store and not as big of a learning curve as pressure cooker.
If you want quick cooking times, the smaller beans cook much faster. OLD beans take much longer cooking times than fresh crop. These IMHO were ancient, probably left over from WWII or something in some govt warehouse.
And no I didnt try soaking them over night. That would probably made them cook closer to normal. Though as old and petrified as they must have been, not sure how easily they would soak up water.
Expecting poor people to cook something in excess of 3hr seems well beyond reasonable. Now personally I highly recommend thrift store stove top pressure cooker. But again there is a learning curve if you didnt grow up around one and doubt most younger people have any experience except maybe with the instapot electronic kind. Not as high pressure or as quick cooking times. And lot more fragile.
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