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Post by Moose on Mar 20, 2013 17:52:00 GMT
Was a bit shocked to learn that this town now has a food bank, which will doubtless be under more pressure once the bedroom tax really starts to bite in May. One thing that does not make sense to me tho is why all those supermarkets which throw out hundreds of pounds worth of perfectly good food a day do not give that food to the bank. No-one else is going to use it and it saves waste. A lot of people are genuinely going to be in need from this summer on (I am not going to use the foodbank myself just for the record as am not a 'vulnerable' person and i think it's best kept for those, but still..)
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Post by Kye on Mar 20, 2013 18:00:37 GMT
Here, there's always a question of insurance. If anyone got sick eating the food given by the store, the store might get sued, and they wouldn't want that.
On the other hand, some stores do unofficially give food away but they don't advertise it.
There's a lot of poverty in the area where I live. We have a small food bank at my church, but the main effort is to empower people rather than just to make them dependent on handouts.
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Post by tangent on Mar 20, 2013 18:34:36 GMT
We have a small food bank at our church and there is a homeless centre four miles away, in Stockport which we support with basic essentials (tins of food, coffee and tea).
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Post by Moose on Mar 20, 2013 18:59:33 GMT
There should be something that could be worked out re the sickness thing. My mum did actually used to collect fresh discarded food from a supermarket - not one of the big ones - to be given out to the poor. I don't think anyone had to sign anyhting but I know that she was not allowed to hand out anything containing shellfish.
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Post by Kye on Mar 20, 2013 19:27:39 GMT
You'd think it would be a simple thing, but it isn't. At least not here. Maybe we're more litigious (although not as much as they are in the States...)
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Post by Moose on Mar 20, 2013 19:32:40 GMT
I remember Christmas before last seeing the women in Tesco bakery throwing fresh loaves into bin bags and hearing one of them say 'we're throwing them away before they even make it to the shelves' with obvious disapproval. It just seemed terrible.
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Post by Kye on Mar 20, 2013 19:39:21 GMT
It's really not fair.
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Post by Mari on Mar 20, 2013 20:55:02 GMT
It also happened at the rich parties I waitressed at. There would be so much good food left over and all of it would be thrown away. It's ridiculous that it can't go to a shelter for a nice evening meal or something. I know that if we have a meal at church or school and food is left over, it is brought to the food bank or shelter, depending on whether it is perishable or not.
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Post by Moose on Mar 20, 2013 21:14:35 GMT
Yes it's terrible. I am not suggesting giving the shelters or food banks stale or gone off food obviously - the people who are forced to use such places have the right not to get food poisoning, same as the rest of us. But a huge amount of the stuff that goes into bins would still be perfectly edible for a good 24 hours .. meat and fresh bread and veg etc.
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Post by Kye on Mar 20, 2013 21:27:00 GMT
There is a problem with distribution. By the time the perishable stuff gets to the people, it's not in great shape.
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Post by Mari on Mar 20, 2013 21:30:13 GMT
Which is a problem that probably can and should be solved. I'm sure a lot of company lunches leftovers etc. would be donated.
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Post by Moose on Mar 20, 2013 21:47:57 GMT
yeah .. in somewhere like London for instance I don't see why it would take so long to get leftover supermarket food to the people who needed it .. it could be there within a cpl hours surely?
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Post by Kye on Mar 21, 2013 2:03:24 GMT
Who's going to bring it? Where are the people? What if they're not home? If the supermarket closes at 11pm, will the people be receiving food after midnight? There are a lot of details that need to be worked out.
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Post by Moose on Mar 21, 2013 15:31:44 GMT
Volunteers? Or how about people who would otherwise have gone to prison, but can have the option of doing community work of this sort?
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Post by tangent on Mar 21, 2013 15:38:12 GMT
There is no way people doing community work would agree to deliver food at 11pm. Nor would you find volunteers willing to supervise them.
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Post by Moose on Mar 21, 2013 15:39:43 GMT
well alright then deliver it the next morning. It would still be fine .. stuff like bread or fruit and veg, anyway
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Post by raspberrybullets on Mar 21, 2013 15:43:17 GMT
All the food in our company canteen is thrown away every day. The staff aren't even allowed to take any home. Not sure what the policy behind that is. But apparently most food waste is from people who order food and don't eat all of it rather than from suprlass stock. Apparently kitchen are pretty good at calculating what they need and don't want extra because it will cost them money. So it's people ordering too much, or too large portion sizes.
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Post by tangent on Mar 21, 2013 15:46:40 GMT
No, if the sell by date says Saturday, it has to be delivered on Saturday otherwise there is a risk of the food going bad. OK, maybe the supermarket could allow delivery by 12 noon the following day but it has got to be delivered twice, once to the distribution centre and then to the individual, all before 12 noon.
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Post by Moose on Mar 21, 2013 16:13:41 GMT
well maybe the inividuals could go to the distribution centre
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Post by tangent on Mar 21, 2013 16:42:54 GMT
By 12 noon? No, they wouldn't do that. Alternatively, the charity receiving the food could turn it into a stew or something. That would work at a homeless centre such as the Wellspring in Stockport. It would need the centre to agree to cook the food any time the following day, which is not unreasonable.
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Post by Kye on Mar 21, 2013 17:29:05 GMT
All I'm saying is that it's more complicated than it appears on the surface. It can be done, but it takes a very dedicated organizer with lots of good contacts to make it happen.
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Post by Moose on Mar 21, 2013 17:37:33 GMT
Yes. But it's worth doing. Even if SOME food got given away, things like fruit and veg or bread which can safely be eaten a day or two after its date. I am not proposing giving people food poisoning obviously but eating potatoes or bread that are two days old is not gonna hurt anyone and I'd happily do it. Other products I know you have to be more careful with.
Or hell, the supermarkets could just put it out in a great skip every day and people could help themselves. Why on earth not?
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Post by Kye on Mar 21, 2013 17:50:13 GMT
Because they'd think people wouldn't buy the stuff --just wait until it's being given away for free. (Which might happen...)
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Post by Moose on Mar 21, 2013 18:04:03 GMT
I suppose. Sigh. Still there must be a compromise somewhere.
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Post by Kye on Mar 21, 2013 18:14:14 GMT
I'm part of the food security network in my area and they really have a lot of good programmes to empower people who use the food banks: community kitchens, education, social outreach. It's pretty cool. Here's a link to one of the better organization in our area: www.depotndg.org/en/
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Post by Karen on Mar 21, 2013 23:37:55 GMT
And here's one of our local organizations that does it really well:http://www.philabundance.org/. Local restaurants and markets donate food to them on a regular basis: www.philabundance.org/programs-2/grocers-against-hunger/Grocery stores throughout the Delaware Valley are uniting to fight hunger. Grocers Against Hunger is a strategic initiative that enables Philabundance to increase our emergency food distribution by collecting food from participating grocers that would otherwise be thrown away. Because of strict guidelines, stores often need to discard items even though they are nutritious and completely safe to eat. Philabundance works with participating stores to procure these otherwise expensive and difficult to obtain items such as meat, dairy, produce and baked goods— enabling low-income residents throughout the Delaware Valley to prepare well-balanced nutritious meals for themselves and their families.The program also exemplifies green business practices by redistributing fresh products that would unnecessarily become waste. Philabundance follows all necessary food safety guidelines, transports product via our fleet of refrigerated trucks and inspects donated product at pick-up and distribution points.
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Post by Kye on Mar 22, 2013 1:06:19 GMT
That sounds great!
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Post by tangent on Mar 22, 2013 4:14:51 GMT
That's really good.
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Post by Deleted on Apr 7, 2013 9:08:07 GMT
That sounds great. In Germany, food will be thrown away in the supermarkets also because it doesn't look nice, the apples that have a brown spot, even though that could be cut out and the rest of the apple would be fine.
Some people do something which is called "containering". They go to the big rubbish containers behind the supermarkets when it's dark and search through them and take the food out which is still good. Most of them wouldn't even need to do that, they do it because they don't want it to be thrown away. Some people can live on doing that, and quite well. But it is illegal and some supermarkets will even pour paint or other nasty things over the food to spoil it.
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Post by Karen on Apr 8, 2013 14:16:01 GMT
Here that's called "dumpster diving".
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