I volunteer at a food bank, and the company that sends us our food decides what we get. Last Tuesday they sent so much produce we could not fit it all into fridges. We were trying to give away cases of the food on Wednesday, but people were turning it down because they had no place to store a case of tomatoes, or cauliflower. This was what we had left after last Wednesday’s morning give away. Not pictured the 5000lbs of watermelons, the 2500lbs of onions (those will last a lot longer).
The company that supplies us wants to move from sending shipments every other week, to once a month. This would cause even more no produce loss.
It is so frustrating to have all this food for it to go bad. Even if we got the same volume of produce, but there was variation in what it is we could give it away easier.
Edit: I posted this in a comment.
Because of bureaucracy we have to request this. If it is found out we are giving away the food to unapproved recipients we can lose all of our funding. If we give to unapproved recipients and they in turn give us prepared food to give out, that is okay.
Word got out that we were loading up my pickup with food and taking it to the homeless camps. I did get a number of them to start coming to the bank to get food. But it was easier when I could take stuff to them.
We are not allowed to simply give it out to anyone. This is not like a church pantry where all of the food is donated by the community and’s parishioners. There is government funding, as well as private businesses, which I am guessing get their money back from the government for funding this. If we could simply give it to anyone we would not be in this situation.
pickle pickle pickle!
2% salted water brine, spices, glass weights to maintain under water in not-too-tight closed jars with co2 escape. keep at room temperature, and here you go!
The jars likely cost more than the volume of produce it could store.
Also - have to arrange logistics for labor, supplies, and a kitchen to do the boiling in. Now that you are making a cooked food product, your kitchen also likely needs a license.
And insurance in case your rushed pickling operation creates any jars that go foul and anyone gets sick.
Also – ew. Not even the destitute want pickled cauliflower.
I was nodding along until
Not even the destitute want pickled cauliflower.
It’s great!
Yep food pantries will repackage food but rarely process or cook it because that’s a whole different animal.
But, many food pantries I’ve worked with had ways to offload large amounts of things creatively, it’s how I got the best pear gelato I’ve ever had in my life.
Use 20L food safe buckets.
Seldom have I seen a better example of why universal basic income is so preferable to food banks.
Please explain how that would solve the issue of people not wanting to eat their vegetables.
OP (this dickhead):
Have you considered giving it away to your neighbors?
OOP:
If we could simply give it to anyone we would not be in this situation
They can’t give it away. There are unfortunately rules. If they were caught doing so, they would no longer be giving it out to anyone. This is, again, why basic income would be better than food banks.
Not to mention the fact that plenty of people aren’t starving today, but will be starving in the next week or two, after this very perishable food is spoiled.
Why are you like this? Are you having fun mocking the impoverished?
Are you dense? The OP said they tried giving it away but nobody wanted it. I guess people must not really be starving that badly if storing it is their main concern. UBI isn’t going to solve that because if people won’t even take it for free they sure as hell aren’t going to pay for it.
i cast ten thousand watermelons falling on top of you
Yay, free watermelons!
People shouldn’t downvote you, it’s an educational experience.
Edit: Nah, fuck this guy.
People should be able to buy what they need, not be at the whims of what a capitalist entity dumps in a food bank.
Not everyone has the ability to store, prepare or even cook vegetables. Due to lack of utensils, food storage or even something to heat with. For many, vegetables would just be a liability and force you to choose between other necessities as you battle limited carrying capacity.
the downvotes are part of the education
You know, you’re right.
Especially after the guy doubled and tripled down on his stupid comments.
Something something beggars can’t be choosers.
Cooking cauliflower isn’t rocket science. All you need is a pot and some water, and maybe a bit of salt. You can even eat it with your hands if you lack utensils. It’s also good raw with some ranch dressing. You’re making it sound a lot more complicated than it really is.
It’s not cooking some cauliflower, it’s cooking a shit ton of cauliflower. And storing it before and after cooking. Some places you only buy a couple days worth of food because you have a tiny place. And that’s actually housed people, if you’re unhoused you can’t store shit.
Have you considered giving it away to your neighbors? That’s what I would do if I was given more cauliflower than I know what to do with. Consider that not everyone even has the means to make it to the food bank.
And what if I don’t end up using the whole box if it’s going to rot away at the food bank anyways? I’d take the whole box if need be, and I’d eat as much as I physically can and try to give away the rest before it spoils. Literally all I’m hearing in this thread is “I don’t want to eat cauliflower because chicken wings taste better”.
“What’s that? You’re tired and just want some food? Fuck you here 3 boxes of cauliflower, now you have to distribute it too. Live in a sketchy neighborhood? Sounds like a you problem fuck you. Took the bus in? Fuck you you have to lug it on the bus and distribute it. Can’t eat it? Fuck you now you have rotting food in your apartment that you have to clean out. What you don’t want it? You fucks just want chicken wings fuck you. Beggars can’t be choosers, so fuck you.”
Until this reply I thought you were blissfully unaware. Now I know you’re a prick.
“Oh boy, I can’t take these free cauliflowers because I live in a sketchy neighborhood where people are just going to steal it.”
Said no one, ever.
Wow you didn’t use a single brain cell considering that from any other perspective than your own with that comment.
Just wanted to confirm that, cause that is the vibe you seem to have purposely put out there.
I might be privileged enough to be able to afford to buy whatever food I want at the moment, but you can bet your ass that if I was broke and forced to go to the food bank, I’d be stoked AF to get a whole box of cauliflower for free, and I’d be eating it for breakfast, lunch, and dinner.
You’d be lucky to even have a gas stove, let alone a tent and blanket to sleep in.
Give me some ranch dressing and I’ll eat a whole head of cauliflower raw. And the rest I’ll use to throw at your idiot visage.
Sounds like you’ve had a nice, pampered life, princess.
Sounds like you just don’t want to eat your veggies, princess.
I like making stew. Great way to make something tasty with the veggies you have that are getting ready to go bad. In my apartment. Where I have a stove, a refrigerator, and a place to hang out while I cook. Being homeless (I’m no stranger), you gonna carry a fucking head if cabbage in your backpack? Fuck no. Protein, sugar, can’t expire, doesn’t need heat to eat it. That’s what you want. You suck, bro. Keep thinking these bums are just too snobby for the food we’re all so considerate to give away. Hey, maybe we can skip the part where they carry rotting veggies in their backpack in 100 degree whether, and just feed them compost? You’re moralizing the actions of victims of systemic abuse while your morality ain’t fucking nothin to snuff at. Justify anything you believe. I’ll fucking wait.
Not everyone who goes to the food bank is homeless. Plenty of people these days can’t afford grocery store prices and have families to feed, and cauliflower is a healthy and nutritious vegetable that’s full of vitamins. But nooo, apparently it’s too much of a hassle to cook it.
You’ve just added like 10kg of carrying requirements to someone who likely has all their worldly possessions on their back.
And that’s not even counting being forced to use gas for food instead of saving it for warmth on a freezing cold night.
deleted by creator
I am working at an Amazon company’s warehouse that specifically stores food items.
The amount of shit we throw in trash just because “packaging is slightly off” makes me angry and just one day of bad management spoils enough food to feed entire family.
There is no air conditioning or fridge. It’s summer in Texas so if we delay a single day, half the items go bad. There are dairy products here. (And people in border of heatstroke but that’s another topic.)
That’s fucking crazy and frankly also what I expected/why I would never order perishables from Amazon. Of fucking course they neither store it properly nor even keep the facility cool.
Usual trick I would think of is to make a simple veggie broth and freeze it after reduction. Tomatoes and cauliflower stems should be good for that and watermelon same but juicing it and freezing it.
At least it stores better and longer and reducing the air and space it takes up reduces it as well once it’s just a liquid. Freezing in baking pans helps it go quicker to even though it is more smaller batches.Not being funny, but what the fuck is a homeless person going to do with a raw cauliflower?
I often see carrier bags of dry pasta, tinned tomatoes and stuff just dumped at the roadside, because the person they’d given it to has no way of doing anything with it. Apparently they’re supposed to give only food they can prepare, but that clearly doesn’t always happen.
Food waste is part of the system. It’s fine. It’s what stops a shortage from becoming a famine.
Not everyone who comes through the food bank is homeless.
I’m unsure I get your point, how does waste prevent a shortage from becoming a famine ?
Also, both raw cauliflower and tinned tomatoes can be eaten almost as is.
how does waste prevent a shortage from becoming a famine ?
Making the expected production a higher number than the expected need will give the headroom necessary to deal with a shortage without people starving.
If you’re aiming to produce food for a population of 100,000, but have the capacity to make food for 200,000, then you can afford to waste half of your food without starvation. You can also accommodate a 50% drop in production without starvation.
So that buffer is expected waste, but it’s also starvation resistance.
That potential waste of food can be transported to another group of people
I work for a produce delivery company as a courier and yeah fresh produce is ass for storage and transit. I’m legit thinking about jury rigging a small air conditioner into the back of my truck for summer cooling.
Have you seen if there’s any way for your foodbank to do canning?
American Charity*
*Terms and conditions apply
For the company it is a tax write off and getting rid of their surplus. They don’t care what happens next.
America has always been a place where transactions matter more than people. At least, it has been that way ever since European discovery. Native Americans were nowhere near this inhumane
The victims of the Aztecs would beg to differ. Lots of people were fed to the sun god, to quench its thirst for blood, all to delay Armageddon. Like any other continent, Native America had genocidal maniacs and the Five Nations that resembled a federation. Good and Evil has no homeland, just the feelings that grow inside of people.
You’re unestimating the scale of present day US atrocities
I wonder if your food bank can set up some kind of relationship with farms in your region. Those farms may be open to taking lots of spoiled produce as animal feed and compost material. In exchange they might share their crops with you.
My workplace used to donate all its leftover food to a local meal service charity, daily. But they refused to take fresh fruits and vegetables because they just spoil too fast. It was sad because those are the foods people need the most but they are logistically very difficult to deliver, as you are witnessing.
it would be kinda cool if food panties could also pickle + can things
Is that beet… No Mike, it’s cucumber!
Mmm pantie pickle
🤤
food panties
grins in dog
Tomatoes, dont need any cooling, storing them in the fridge does prolongs their live but they taste like shit afterwards.
Greetings from a German Italian who cries often when people put tomatoes in fridges.
As an Italian American I would have so much fun jarring all those tomatoes into sauce.
Just waiting a couple more weeks for my step-dad to harvest all his tomatoes so the fun can begin.
The ones I took home on Wednesday were moldy and a mess Friday evening when I got home from work.
You can freeze them if you plan on cooking with them. I ended up with an obscene amount of tomatoes one year that were amazingly tasty and I was so sad that I couldn’t process them before they went bad. My aunt told me to freeze them - it was perfect! They also make for great weapons when frozen, and when you thaw them the skins come right off!
Don’t they get their taste back when they reach room temperature again?
Afaik they don’t. Something about storing them at low temp changes the thickness of the skin. At least that’s what I’ve been told working on produce.
Also: Where is this? It’s a small world, some Lemming might pick up a cauliflower or two.
Rural nm
For the tomatoes you might see if there’s canning groups on Facebook for your area? It takes a metric fuck-ton of tomatoes to make a can of sauce so they’d likely be able to use quite a bit of them.
I think the bigger problem is that there are at least 50 trays of tomatoes there and it’ll take a bunch of kitchen space and time to process all of them, all of which has to be done on next-to-no notice. It’ll also take a lot of time and supplies to can them all - though at least whatever they have the time and space to process will be shelf-stable in the end.
The real question is who the fuck is this “company” that is supplying them with far more stock than they could possibly handle, and why the fuck are those incompetent morons handling so much produce at all?
What the food bank can manage would be known. All “excess” should be handled by the supplying company, instead of making their oversupply the problem of volunteers to manage and dispose of.
I’d be willing to bet the profits of the supplier, or lack of funding to distribute the stock over a larger area, are the reason for this entire situation.
Having volunteered at a church’s food distribution for over 25 years, I can say that some food banks are pretty special with how they do things. We purchase food from a large food bank for distribution once a month. If the food bank has a lot of produce or something they haven’t been able to move, sometimes they’ll throw a pallet or two extra on the trailer when we pick it up, so that they can get rid of it. When we get the trailer, sometimes it’s just a surprise what we end up with.
In general, we have some people that come that have extended families or neighbors that they give some of the surplus to. Then there’s the church that were hosted at. There’s some things that they’re able to keep for the next day to offer to the parishioners. Beyond that, there’s the occasional phone call to other churches to see if anybody could use it. In the end, the pastor knows a pig farmer where if we have a surplus of a surplus, some stuff will go to.
I think the “hit up local churches” suggestion from another commenter would help with that, since (larger) churches often have decent kitchens that are less likely to be getting used on a weekday.
Facebook canning groups are a great idea, as someone else mentioned. Them little old ladies can do pretty amazing things on short notice. Can I suggest hitting up local churches? The methodists, Episcopal and baptists are all particularly fond of doing drives and such, and may be able to do an impromptu canning drive for y’all
Where in North Madagascar?
Madagascar is pretty big.
North side of Main Street
How rural? I found a Sikh temple north of Santa Fe that could maybe use it for their langar.
I take it “nm” stands for New Mexico. What’s the weather like there? Sun-drying might be an option, at least dried tomatoes are something people buy.
My first thought for some reason was “northern Manitoba” lol
I was thinking North Macedonia or something, but then I remembered that the post referenced pounds
I think your server might contain a hint as to why…
Not that you’re necessarily Canadian or in Canada, but you probably get more Canadian-centric posts on your local feed.
Oh yeah no it’s a big, fat hint haha
If you’re nearish ABQ, I’ve got a pickup I’m happy to help transport with. I unfortunately don’t think I’m in the list of approved people, otherwise I’d be more than happy to take as many of those tomatoes as I could. Unfortunately I can’t get my kid to eat cauliflower to save their life, so I have limited uses for that.
Outside abq? If it’s near abq I’ll come get it
Messaged you
Seems kinda wasteful
This is what we have been telling the company that sends us food, stop sending huge shipments of fresh produce.
Contract mutual aid orgs they well come get it
At the food bank where my mother works, she finds pig farmers are a good source to get rid of almost gone food. While it’s not solving the feeding people part, it does help with disposal. Good luck, hopefully you can pickle some of it too.
