seems to dump A LOT of foods, including the organic produce and ready-to-go meals in a daily basis.
They don’t seem to donate them to the shelters and places such as The Hope Cottage and The Salvation Army.
Is that true?
Anyone works there?
Some insiders insight?
I’m curious, how can this happen when so many go hungry in a daily basis!
Thank you in advance
—Your Trash Could Feed The Hungry!
This article appears in Oct 15-21, 2009.
They throw them out because they are past due or reached their shelf life. If they donate it and people got sick or food poisoning, they would be responsible.
Oh and BTW, this is done by all grocery stores and restaurants.
Yep, I wondered the same thing until I realized that by the time Metro Food Bank got to our store (this was years ago), the food we were chucking would not be ideal for anyone.
Same reasons Tim Hortons and every other food serving/selling place doesn’t do it. Liability. It sucks, but it’s a lawyer’s world.
That particular chain gets all its marching orders from Ontario. They generally ignore the fact that different stores have better selling products, and the warehouse is screwed(ex. stuff dated shows up the day before, it’ll send out way more of something or replace things if it’s trying to clear out stock). They’ll tell other stores to break up surplus stock and dump it on other stores in the area, then tell the receiving stores they can’t put it out because it’s not in the lineup.
There’s also retarded stuff like not being able to stack meat cases more than three trays deep and expecting the usually single employees around at night to be able to refill them, along with dealing with customers, wrapping, etc.
They have one heeeelllll of a lot of money getting flushed down the drain, and shrink from markdowns is unbelievable.
Why don’t they give it away? Legal issues. Although I think they’d probably rather chuck it than miss a 2 second chance to sell it when it gets marked down in the morning.
From some of the stuff I’ve seen coming through my cash when I worked there with the 50% off tags, I’m pretty sure the crap they chuck is inedible. They don’t throw away stuff unless they absolutely have to. If there’s anyway they can sell it they will.
I was told that for every dollar this chain takes in, they only make one cent in profit…not sure I believe that little bit of corporate propaganda, but the aim is to make money. The CEO with a “happy” name clearly doesn’t have enough money as it is.
I know for a fact they give some day-old food (birthday cakes, produce, etc.) to the Parker Street Food & Furniture Bank.
It’s not necessarily the supermarkets’ unwillingness to donate, OP. Many of the shelters, food banks, etc are short on resources and manpower, meaning they don’t have the volunteers or vehicles to go and pick up food donations from locations around the city with any sort of regularity. I know of a few places that used to set aside leftovers/expired goods for pick-up by a shelter, but the shelter staff wasn’t able to come by often enough to make it practical for the establishments to do so, and they stopped setting things aside.
If it’s something you’re passionate about, OP, why not volunteer your time or vehicle, or try to organize a group that does pick-ups? I bet you’d be surprised how many restaurants, hotels, and stores would be willing to donate if it could be done in a consistent and organized fashion.
Yup. Can’t beat turning your trash into good PR, especially if it doesn’t cost the company anything.
I eat mostly vegan and packaged vegan foods cost a lot of money. However, whenever I come across some expired ones, I would go up to the managers and ask them if I can have them discounted. They said thank you for pointing out the expired ones, we are throwing them out for legal reasons. This happens all the time with the
Citnalta Erotsrepus . No idea regarding the other grocery stores.
Based on their answers, I have also told them that I could give them my e-mail address and phone number and that I would be willing to sign waivers and pick up expired or almost expired foods and drinks. They said there is no way they would let me do that!
Sometimes these stores will get their money back from the manufacturer if the product is damaged or old. That’s why a lot won’t give discounts on such products. And this store in particular can be an asshole regarding customer service and it’s not on the part of the front line employees — it’s higher up management that determines most policies.
I once heard a story about a potato farmer who planted a certain field specifically for food bank donation. He harvested that field and drove a truck full of potatoes down to the local food bank. They REFUSED to accept his donation because it’s not enough that he bought and planted the seeds, not enough that he nurtured them while they grew, it’s not enough that he used his own equipment and resources to pull them out of the ground and transport the potatoes to the food bank, not enough the food was only hours old and wholesome; no, the farmer was required to go a step further and bag the potatoes before that food was good enough to be distributed to the hungry. His very large fresh potato donation was refused by a division Food Banks Canada.
I’ll tell you a story about the Salvation Army. Newly divorced and now homeless guy has been hungry for 8 days and has been sleeping in his car. He’s never asked for help before but this guy is a low as low gets. He finally reaches out to the Salvation Army. He needed a shower and a meal. They invite him in for a chat and while he’s not looking they call the police because, just look at this guy, he MUST be a criminal or a drug addict and deserves prison not help! He didn’t get a shower and he didn’t get a meal. Instead, he got a cop in his face! It was discovered he was neither a drug addict nor a criminal and the Salvation Army would say ‘no harm no foul’. Wrong again! They’ll never see a fucking dime from me. Since when does the Salvation Army serve only the pretty people? Fuck them! One bad apple does plenty of harm. tsk tsk tsk
Beware, our Charitable Act says only 20% of funds collected for the purposes of charity must actually go to fund the charity. It seems like a lot…. 80 percent of every donated dollar is subject to legal profiteering. Some organizations are better than others. Food Banks Canada goes to great lengths to keep overhead and (necessary) executive salaries at a minimum making good use of (accepted) donations but others… just be careful… they’re actually greedy marketing companies getting rich off charity (keeping in mind 20% WILL go to the charity).
Kay, I find most of this very hard to swallow. First, the food bank bags its own potatoes (it breaks up the individual bags). Second, the food bank has volunteers who go to farmers’ fields to harvest. Third, I have never seen or heard of anyone being turned away or turned in based on their appearance.
The grocery stores DO give to the food bank if someone can pick it up (not to mention the boxes setup in the front of the stores specifically for the food bank).
The only problems I have heard in regard to the food banks is that sometimes the food is bad (people will clean out their food cupboards and donate food that is several years old). And sometimes, a family doesn’t actually get any food (just some junk) as the outlet is running low. But, the family cannot go to another outlet as they have to use the one in their area and regardless of whether they actually get food or a bag of chips, it counts as a visit.
As far as donating bulk amounts of food goes, insurance companies demand that food being claimed must be destroyed (same with farmers’ claims).
HKM, the potato farmer was dealing with a food bank in small-town Ontario. True story, as far as I know. My Great Uncle told me about it. The farmer was a friend of his. Food Banks Canada provides the mandate but each food bank operates independently. Feed Nova Scotia attempts to provide central processing and a repository in an effort to address the needs of the entire local population as would be appropriate for large city food banks.
And you’re right. Salvation Army is not mandated to call police based on a person’s appearance. In fact, they’re not mandated to “police” in any way but this is a true story. I got this one from the horse’s mouth. He was a very credible source in describing his story of recovery from homelessness and that was just the beginning of this man’s story, the Salvation Army part just a tiny, insignificant detail to him. He wasn’t turned away. He was invited to stay AFTER police interrogated him. Real trusting, helpful and kind sorta folk, huh? I’d be inclined to call police seeing this guy go for days without shaving or washing but I’m not the “Salvation” Army either.
Feed NS provides food for all of NS, btw. That’s why they changed their name from the Metro Food Bank to Feed NS — so they would attract more donations from the rest of the province.
I remember my dad telling me a story about the Salvation army that one of his uncles told him. During WWII they were in Britain and the SA was there providing meals for 5 cents I think. This soldier who looked like he was sick didn’t have the 5 cents and they refused to give him any food (and 5 cents wasn’t THAT much in the 1940s). Someone ended up giving him the 5 cents but he refused to take it and went hungry (pride, I guess). That’s pretty shitty thing for a charitable organization to do, I gotta say.
However, I have seen the other side and know people who got a lot of support from the SA…so I think it all comes down to individuals within the organizations. But, it *is* hard to get over a “scandal” if you’re a charity…just look at the United Way: I’m pretty sure they had people pilfering donations a while back if I recall correctly, because I still hear of people who think the UW sucks. *shrug*