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When you donate items to a local food pantry. . .
. . . do you donate the cheapest items you can find, or do you give some healthier and/or organic items?
I was shopping yesterday for our church. Every year, at this time, we donate to the local food pantry. I found some items that I would normally buy (organic pasta sauce, whole wheat pasta) on sale and decided I would buy and donate.
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Re: When you donate items to a local food pantry. . .
My DH and I's law firms always do food-drives. I tend to buy things that aren't typically bought (I.e. I stay away from pasta, macaroni, etc). I try to buy canned vegetables, ketchup, olive oil (especially when it is on sale!), flour/pancake mix, etc.
But, my view is, anything is generous to those in need, so good for you
We buy every week for our local food pantry (our church collects and donates). Our store always has sales and we set our own dollar limit per week. We try to buy different things but still easy to eat like canned veggies, soup, cereal, as well as the traditional pasta and sauce.
Since we set a dollar limit for ourselves we try to maximize what we buy, hence sticking with sales. We're lucky that our store brand is awesome and usually has quite a lot to choose from in terms of sales.
I buy the same stuff we buy for ourselves, but I don't buy very fancy stuff for us anyway. I do try to make a point of donating complete combinations (as best I can to be shelf stable) like pasta, sauce, and canned veggies; Peanut butter, jelly and bread. Or things that don't need extra ingredients. I think it makes it a tiny bit easier on who gets it.
To add to what a pp said about donating items that are needed - check out the pantry's website (if they have one) for a list of items they need. It varies widely. We also get fruit (canned or the individual packs).
Most pantries desperately need things like diapers and formula, so consider that as well (although it's pricey).
This is good to know! I will add a few of these things to my bag!
Yeah, I bought those individual packs too. I did buy some formula that I had use some coupons for and gave them my leftover boxes of diapers that DD grew out of already. I try to buy those types of things no one else buys as well. I just wasn't sure if people sent organic stuff to their local pantries or not.
Dup Post!
Dup post!
i buy and donate what i'd like to eat (non-perishable of course). since whole wheat pasta is perishable they probably wont take it.
I'm assuming you mean a pantry where families/people get bags of food to take home & not a place that serves as a soup kitchen? (if it is a soup kitchen, definitely need to find out what they need/want, as the random small quantity items are not going to work for them & just take up space).
For a food pantry I usually try to give proteins like PP said and things that are liked by many, some people will not really know what to do with certain ingredients. Like pp said, usually there is a resource that will tell you about most needed items. I also give soup that have a combo of protein, veggie, carb b/c I figure it is easy to prepare and provides a variety of types of food. I wouldn't necessarily get the kind I buy if I can buy something else that is on sale for a great deal and would mean I could give 5 cans to one can of the other.
Can I put in a vote for "donate money - not food!" It is terribly ineffecient for people to give to food to food pantries. Charities have much greater buying and bargaining power than individual consumers.
It's a good lesson for the kids and nice to give boy scouts something to so, but it's just such a waste of resources.
great point.
This may, in fact, be true but I don't know if I agree. Every week our church, and I'm sure many other churches, collects food from parishioners. Someone drops it off and also spends time at the pantry donating time, services, etc. We always collect a good amount of food each week according to our deacon.
However, if the church suggested people go online to donate, write a check, etc. I wonder how many people would actually do it. And it would take away from the time others donate at the actual food pantry. I know, for us, it's easy to grab a few extra things each week when we're at the supermarket, but writing a check and then mailing it or going online to donate would just get pushed to the bottom of the to-do list.