FOOD BANKS - Page 6

Mominohio · ‎08-08-2010

@dex wrote:
My friends husband who is a Mason bought a bunch of turkeys and all of the fixings to donate to people who expressed a need.He paid for and delivered the baskets himself.He said he didn't get much thanks and one woman told him she prefers butterball turkeys.My friend said she would be cooking the same turkey....good deeds seem to be taken for granted and he isn't sure if he will do it again next year.

This is more common than many know. Of course there are many many grateful people, but I'm amazed after all the years I worked for non profits, just how picky and ungrateful a portion of the 'needy' can be.

It starts with the fact that many who are pegged as 'needy' are indeed not. They make decisions everyday that put them in the situations they are in, and they have a sense of entitlement to certain standards they expect from other 'gifts'.

One of the agencies I worked for did a Christmas drive where families in need were featured in the local paper, and donations were collected specific to their needs. Most of these families indeed had many hardships and challenges. There was one guy though, that once we had collected the donations for his family, refused most of it and picked and chose what he wanted. The rest was simply not good enough (for someone who had basically nothing) and he actually told us so.

I'm sorry your friend's husband went to the effort to help people that obviously don't deserve what he did for them. I hope he was able to find at least some people that made his sacrifice worth his while.

@dex

Mominohio · ‎08-08-2010

@Noel7 wrote:
How do we require personal responsibility from children or those who are incapacitated or the mentally challenged or mentally ill?

Are people tested before they are allowed to get something to eat?

It would make Ayn Rand very happy.

No place I've ever worked had childre walk in and shop a food pantry. It is adults that are to be providing for those children. And there is nothing at all wrong with my (and others) choosing agencies or charities that have some kind of screening/limits/ verification of need etc. in order to truly protect the children, the mentally challenged, the incapacitated, or mentally ill.

To carte blanche give to anyone who walks in the door does a disservice to those who donate, to those in real need and to the organization. It lessens the effectiveness of the work being done. Being a patsy, either as an individual, in the scope of a business or a charity doesn't make one's work ordained or righteous or effective. It simply makes some people feel better.

Noel7 · ‎03-09-2010

@Mominohio wrote:
@Noel7 wrote:
How do we require personal responsibility from children or those who are incapacitated or the mentally challenged or mentally ill?

Are people tested before they are allowed to get something to eat?

It would make Ayn Rand very happy.

No place I've ever worked had childre walk in and shop a food pantry. It is adults that are to be providing for those children. And there is nothing at all wrong with my (and others) choosing agencies or charities that have some kind of screening/limits/ verification of need etc. in order to truly protect the children, the mentally challenged, the incapacitated, or mentally ill.

To carte blanche give to anyone who walks in the door does a disservice to those who donate, to those in real need and to the organization. It lessens the effectiveness of the work being done. Being a patsy, either as an individual, in the scope of a business or a charity doesn't make one's work ordained or righteous or effective. It simply makes some people feel better.

****************************

Parents come in with children in tow, it happens often. On what basis do you decide they are not worthy? Even someone wearing a nice dress bought years ago could be going without now. What's the test? A bank account statement?

I'd really like to know how you determine if someone is mentally ill or not. Your testing could save a lot of time for therapists.

Noel7 · ‎03-09-2010

Just for the sake of interest, years ago both the UK and America struggled with the idea of The Worthy Poor. A lot of time and effort was spent determining who was worthy and who was not.

Poorhouses were built and had terrible treatment, especially for the Irish even when they were starving.

They finally decided to just try to help everyone who said they needed help.

dex · ‎03-09-2010

@Mominohio You reminded me of a time in Canada when my husband was a young police officer so we didn't have much money in those days either.We picked a family to sponsor from the giving tree and proceeded as a group to buy their entire Christmas....fresh tree,turkey and all needed for dinner,extra food to fill their pantry and gifts for the children and their parents.We went to deliver the huge load and the family wasn't home.The neighbor came over and told us they were building a new house and we could find them there and he could give us the address.I didn't do the giving tree for a few years after that because we just felt so let down and didn't experience any joy for our efforts.

Mominohio · ‎08-08-2010

@Noel7 wrote:
@Mominohio wrote:
@Noel7 wrote:
How do we require personal responsibility from children or those who are incapacitated or the mentally challenged or mentally ill?

Are people tested before they are allowed to get something to eat?

It would make Ayn Rand very happy.

No place I've ever worked had childre walk in and shop a food pantry. It is adults that are to be providing for those children. And there is nothing at all wrong with my (and others) choosing agencies or charities that have some kind of screening/limits/ verification of need etc. in order to truly protect the children, the mentally challenged, the incapacitated, or mentally ill.

To carte blanche give to anyone who walks in the door does a disservice to those who donate, to those in real need and to the organization. It lessens the effectiveness of the work being done. Being a patsy, either as an individual, in the scope of a business or a charity doesn't make one's work ordained or righteous or effective. It simply makes some people feel better.
****************************

Parents come in with children in tow, it happens often. On what basis do you decide they are not worthy? Even someone wearing a nice dress bought years ago could be going without now. What's the test? A bank account statement?

I'd really like to know how you determine if someone is mentally ill or not. Your testing could save a lot of time for therapists.

Many agencies have criteria and screening processes to try and cut down on the fraud and waste of resources (proof of residence in the city/county etc. ID registration to limit the number of times in a certain period they can be served etc). If you don't want to be part of an organization that is doing the best of it's ability to make sure they aren't scammed or abused you may participate there and be happy doing so. I choose not to, because it really isn't in there to 'help' it's there to make itself and it's members feel good about what they do, not fix the problems of the truly needy.

Wayne-QVC · ‎06-14-2015

Moved:

This post has been removed by QVC because it's political

DiAnne · ‎09-22-2010

@151949 wrote:
@DiAnne wrote:
@dex wrote:
I have heard that cans that have been expired for a short time are fine as long as they aren't damaged or bulging. At one time there was no expiration date on cans but since that has been done I read that a lot of food that is still good is being tossed.i also read that the date is more for the manufacturer and that it is a best by but not toss out date.

@dex
I work in a large food bank. We keep cans of food expired up to one year. If it is more than a year expired we toss it. The only exception to this is baby food which we toss if it is expired.
This is against the law where I live - no expired food at all can be given out. We set it aside and a lady from the community takes it and feeds it to her pigs. We are regularly inspected by the county and the state to be sure we are totally with in the rules. We mark the expiration dates on every single item that comes in to our foodbank and it is placed on the shelves so that the oldest is used first so it doesn't expire.
It's appaling how many people donate food that is years old to the poor.

@151949

That is a shame because it wastes a lot of food. The thought of the people that run the food bank (and the state as we are inspected also) is the quality of the canned food may not be as good but it is not dangerous to eat. When we are sorting food we have found items over 10 years old and bulging cans that were scary.

dex · ‎03-09-2010

I would just like to say thank you to everyone who is so generous with their time and money to help out whenever there is a need.I don't think there is another country as passionate about helping others as the USA.

cherry · ‎03-09-2010

We feed everyone no questions asked. When Christ commissioned the disciples to feed His lambs, he didn't apply restrictions to anyone

It a cheater gets fed, they must answer for it, not us. I would hate to turn a hungry person away, because I think I know all the answers, to helping the poor