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Post by jenjie on Dec 12, 2016 18:42:14 GMT
This is interesting. What do you think? Any peas who work with food banks or otherwise providing food want to chime in? vancouversun.com/storyline/for-the-love-of-god-stop-donating-canned-goods-to-the-food-bankIt’s one of Canada’s most cherished holiday practices, and it may also be unwittingly robbing resources from some of Canada’s most important charities. You’ve seen it at the office. You’ve seen it at the library. You’ve seen it at your kids’ Christmas recital. You’ve seen it championed by police, firefighters and municipal officials. I’m talking, of course, about donating canned goods to holiday food drives. Now don’t get me wrong. Donating to charity is a good thing, particularly during the holidays, when many charities budget for yuletide donations. But, the simple rules of economics are begging you: Give money to food banks, rather than food. Canned goods have a particularly low rate of charitable return. They’re heavy, they’re awkward and they can be extremely difficult to fit into a family’s meal plan. Worst of all, the average consumer is buying those canned goods at four to five times the rock-bottom bulk price that can be obtained by the food bank itself. That $1 you spent on tuna could have purchased $4 worth of tuna if put in the hands of a non-profit employee whose only job is to buy food as cheaply as possible. The savvy buyers at the Calgary Food Bank, for instance, promise they can stretch $1 into $5. Probably the worst tragedy of the inefficient food drive is holiday events and theatre performances where organizers ask for canned food donations in lieu of selling tickets. The better option, of course, is to keep selling tickets and donate the box office take to the food bank. By not doing this, these well-meaning organizers are effectively surrendering vast amounts of critically needed grocery money in exchange for heavy cardboard boxes filled with god knows what. And then there’s the logistical nightmare when these boxes show up at the food bank’s loading dock. Put yourself in the place of a food bank that has just accepted an anarchic 40-pound box of random food from an office fundraiser. It’s got pie filling, Kraft Dinner, beans, pumpkin and chick peas. All those food items need to be sorted, stored, inventoried and then shoehorned into the food bank’s distribution schedule. It’s bad form to have low-income families eat nothing but creamed corn until the stocks run dry, so some items move faster than others. Consider the herculean plight of the food bank warehouse manager, and it’s easy to imagine how a particularly unhelpful box of food could end up doing nothing but wasting a bunch of people’s time before it ends up shunted into a dumpster. All this has been known for years, and yet the practice continues. There are a few reasons for this. First, charities are extremely leery about telling people how to donate. Nothing alienates a good samaritan faster than watching them pull up in a cube van of donated food, only to suggest that “maybe next time they just cut a cheque.” When charities get picky, it’s human for would-be donors to think they don’t really need the help that bad. Second, people don’t trust charities. Charities have particularly fragile brands, and it only takes one or two charitable scandals showing up in someone’s Facebook feed for them to start casting aspersions on our nation’s non-profits. So, by donating a flat of condensed milk instead of $30, donors feel they are insulating themselves against any unseemly corruption. This was something seen during the Fort McMurray fires. Many Albertans, leery of seeing monetary donations vanish down some kind of bureaucratic black hole, insisted instead on donating mountains of diapers and toiletries that got wasted. And last, something that is probably the most uncomfortable fact about all this: It doesn’t feel as good to donate money. As much as we like to pretend that charitable giving is a selfless act, a lot of it is driven by the human need to feel special and magnanimous. And as donations go, it’s much more satisfying to donate a minivan filled with Ragu than to send a $100 e-transfer. Charities know this, and it’s another reason why they are so hesitant to pooh-pooh canned food drives, despite the extra logistical cost. Non-profits know that people get a buzz from loudly dropping $6 worth of cans into an office hamper, and they’re happy to channel that urge towards something good. They also know it’s a tougher sell to convince schools and offices to merely pass the hat for the hungry, rather than big photo-worthy gestures like building towers of creamed corn. So, if you feel your coworkers or students need something spherical and tactile in order to fire their benevolent instincts, then by all means hold a food drive, and remind people to stick to the always-needed staples like peanut butter and canned fish. But if you’re a pragmatist just looking to vanquish as much poverty as possible with your disposable income, suck it up, key in your credit card number and enter the glorious world of anonymous, non-glamourous philanthropy. That empty food hamper at your office needn’t be a mark of shame, but a badge of honour.
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craftykitten
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Posts: 4,304
Jun 26, 2014 7:39:32 GMT
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Post by craftykitten on Dec 12, 2016 18:46:04 GMT
Someone posted this on FB. Here in the UK, locally to me - our foodbank does not have any bulk purchasing power. They absolutely rely on what people donate, and they have a specific list of items that they require. Our foodbank is very well regulated, provides excellent support to people, and their food parcels are well balanced.
Yes, money is probably the most helpful thing because they can use that for their running costs or for items that people haven't donated - like sanitary items. But sometimes it is easier to pick up a few extra cans when you're doing your shopping.
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Post by ntsf on Dec 12, 2016 18:47:33 GMT
I actually think this is right.. money goes farther.. particularly locally, our food bank buys seconds produce.. and puts it out into the food pantries.
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Post by Linda on Dec 12, 2016 18:49:15 GMT
I think it may depend on the food bank -a small church food pantry may well prefer canned goods or packaged food but a big food bank that can purchase in bulk quite probably is happier with monetary donations that they can leverage into the most bang for the buck.
But if the choice is between canned goods and no donation at all - I'm sure they would still prefer the canned goods.
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Post by karinms on Dec 12, 2016 18:51:09 GMT
I read this on FB this weekend and it was very timely as I had just watched a news series last week where a member of the news team took part in a challenge based on what a single person would get from the food bank in one week. I have to say I will be finding out where I can give cash and making it a habit to donate on a regular basis. The woman who did the challenge was given the most pitiful pile of non name brand products and a few apples and 6 eggs to last the week. There was no dairy of any kind and I have no idea how anyone could eat kraft dinner without butter or milk. If giving money means fresh food and dairy products as well as a better selection of food I'm all in!
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breetheflea
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Jul 20, 2014 21:57:23 GMT
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Post by breetheflea on Dec 12, 2016 18:52:56 GMT
Our county does a giant food donation drive every December. They even give out bags (in the mailbox) to put the canned food in. Maybe they should hand out donation envelopes instead...
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desertgirl
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Jun 26, 2014 15:58:05 GMT
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Post by desertgirl on Dec 12, 2016 18:53:20 GMT
We have a good friend who runs a small food bank. All of what you posted has been lamented by him when we are together, especially around the holidays. Schools/PTA's are the worst...kids in school like to SEE the items pile up in contests run in classrooms, one room against another or one grade against another. They don't see money in a check so the processed foods pile up.
You should hear what he gets. Expired sweetened condensed milk. Pistachio pudding.
A good book to read is Toxic Charity by Robert Lupton.
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Post by lucyg on Dec 12, 2016 18:53:48 GMT
We are able to donate to our small, local food bank through our water bill. So I donate a few bucks a month that way. I'm sort of erratic about donating actual food, but now I can feel a little better about it. Thanks, I think.
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Post by jenjie on Dec 12, 2016 18:54:36 GMT
Our county does a giant food donation drive every December. They even give out bags (in the mailbox) to put the canned food in. Maybe they should hand out donation envelopes instead... Right? Around me, everybody collects canned goods.
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Post by jenjie on Dec 12, 2016 18:55:30 GMT
We have a good friend who runs a small food bank. All of what you posted has been lamented by him when we are together, especially around the holidays. Schools/PTA's are the worst...kids in school like to SEE the items pile up in contests run in classrooms, one room against another or one grade against another. They don't see money in a check so the processed foods pile up. You should hear what he gets. Expired sweetened condensed milk. Pistachio pudding. A good book to read is Toxic Charity by Robert Lupton. That's too bad.
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Post by peasapie on Dec 12, 2016 18:55:42 GMT
I think this is on point. People would like to have the opportunity to choose the things they eat, rather than eating cans of what someone else donated. Not that it isn't appreciated -- it just isn't as useful for people in need.
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sweetpeasmom
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Jun 27, 2014 14:04:01 GMT
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Post by sweetpeasmom on Dec 12, 2016 18:57:06 GMT
While our previous church was able to shop in bulk and did great with coupons for mostly cereal, they relied almost 97% on food donations. So I think it really depends on that the food bank itself.
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Post by jemali on Dec 12, 2016 18:59:50 GMT
I have heard too that some people donate expired food and then the charity has to throw it away.
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Post by epeanymous on Dec 12, 2016 19:00:27 GMT
I would contact whatever food bank or food charity you are donating to and ask them what they would prefer. I am guessing 90%+ will prefer money, because even if they pay the same $$ for items (which they may not, as they may be able to buy in bulk), they can diversify what is in the food bank in ways that are useful and tailored to the communities they serve. If you have a food bank in a community that primarily serves immigrant Asian families, e.g., the kinds of food that you have hanging around your pantry or that you may pick out may not be as useful as what the food bank knows will be used. Food banks also often have a good sense of the cooking resources that the communities they serve may have -- if you serve a community that has a lot of people who do not have kitchens, e.g., you are going to stock different things than you might in a community where people generally have access to cooking equipment.
I think we've had the discussions here about item donation in general -- I think people really enjoy the tangible feel of buying things or clearing things out from their homes and turning them over, but almost always, the best charitable donation is cash.
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Post by Meri-Lyn on Dec 12, 2016 19:02:02 GMT
We did a sort at a local food bank for a charity day at work one year, and I have to agree. It seems to be to some people, food donations = let's get rid of the junk in our pantries. Expired cans by the hundreds. One thing I saw a lot of (and we were doing this in the spring, so I'm thinking April? or June?), was tons of "unwanted" things from old Christmas gift baskets. Like Harry and David jelly or something. Or 200 bottles of Ranch dressing (because Ken's is always BOGO at Publix.) Which isn't very useful when you have nothing to use the dressing on. They would have 100 cans of corn or peas, but almost nothing else. One thing they requested a lot of (because it's easy to tote around) was Peanut Butter, but I didn't see much of that.
So, yeah, I do think a cash donation is better put to use in some instances like this.
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Post by compwalla on Dec 12, 2016 19:02:53 GMT
We have a good friend who runs a small food bank. All of what you posted has been lamented by him when we are together, especially around the holidays. Schools/PTA's are the worst...kids in school like to SEE the items pile up in contests run in classrooms, one room against another or one grade against another. They don't see money in a check so the processed foods pile up. You should hear what he gets. Expired sweetened condensed milk. Pistachio pudding. A good book to read is Toxic Charity by Robert Lupton. We got around that partly by using thermometer charts for every class. We had lockboxes for money donations and updated the thermometer charts for every class nightly. So much easier than sorting and toting canned and boxed foods. At the end, the food bank got a big check. Win win win.
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Post by anniefb on Dec 12, 2016 19:04:42 GMT
It depends on the food bank. Here most of them want and ask for food goods to be donated.
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Post by bc2ca on Dec 12, 2016 19:08:33 GMT
Great article - thanks for sharing!
I do know I've heard this message before and honestly can't remember the last time I saw a canned goods drive around here other than one by the post office in the summer. We are more likely to see unwrapped toy drives and coats/scarf/gloves/socks drives.
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Kerri W
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Posts: 3,770
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Jun 25, 2014 20:31:44 GMT
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Post by Kerri W on Dec 12, 2016 19:09:03 GMT
We have a good friend who runs a small food bank. All of what you posted has been lamented by him when we are together, especially around the holidays. Schools/PTA's are the worst...kids in school like to SEE the items pile up in contests run in classrooms, one room against another or one grade against another. They don't see money in a check so the processed foods pile up. You should hear what he gets. Expired sweetened condensed milk. Pistachio pudding. A good book to read is Toxic Charity by Robert Lupton. Exactly that. I am on the board of our Backpack Kids program. We can buy food for literally pennies on the dollar. Money goes so much farther for us than a can of green beans. And yes, sometimes we get just plain nasty stuff donated. We take many things into account. Often times, kids are making this food themselves. While beans may be a decent nutritional choice...not many kids can handle cooking dry beans. We have been told by our partners who are going into the homes that items like can openers are not found in these homes so we try to get pull top cans. We have a significant number of homeless teens. They don't need canned food, they need protein bars. That said--no donation is bad and we are very appreciative. If it is not expired we will find a use for it. SaveSave
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Post by Basket1lady on Dec 12, 2016 19:20:57 GMT
I think it may depend on the food bank -a small church food pantry may well prefer canned goods or packaged food but a big food bank that can purchase in bulk quite probably is happier with monetary donations that they can leverage into the most bang for the buck. But if the choice is between canned goods and no donation at all - I'm sure they would still prefer the canned goods. This. We donate to our food pantry at church. They get donations from grocery stores, Panara bread (we freeze it until Saturday pick up), KFC, etc. Then they ask for canned vegetables, spaghetti sauce, rice, peanut butter, mac and cheese, cereal, toilet paper, toiletries... The food panty will gladly take money, but will take what is donated as well. But come on, people. You know a food pantry can't distribute expired food!
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Post by compwalla on Dec 12, 2016 19:27:56 GMT
It depends on the food bank. Here most of them want and ask for food goods to be donated. And they may be asking for that because they know it's that or they get nothing. You can ask them what they really prefer and I'd bet a small cash donation to a food bank they say money.
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Post by annabella on Dec 12, 2016 19:34:06 GMT
We have a good friend who runs a small food bank. All of what you posted has been lamented by him when we are together, especially around the holidays. Schools/PTA's are the worst...kids in school like to SEE the items pile up in contests run in classrooms, one room against another or one grade against another. They don't see money in a check so the processed foods pile up. You should hear what he gets. Expired sweetened condensed milk. Pistachio pudding. A good book to read is Toxic Charity by Robert Lupton. So what is the happy medium, what does he want? I would assume not every food bank has the volunteers to go out and buy the food. It's the person donating who is spending their own money, $1 cans they would pay for themselves anyway, so why the concern about saving money. Do Thanksgiving canned food drives specially ask for just the fixing that would appear on the table? That books looks interesting.
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Post by crimsoncat05 on Dec 12, 2016 19:36:23 GMT
I think it may depend on the food bank -a small church food pantry may well prefer canned goods or packaged food but a big food bank that can purchase in bulk quite probably is happier with monetary donations that they can leverage into the most bang for the buck. But if the choice is between canned goods and no donation at all - I'm sure they would still prefer the canned goods. ^^^ my mom worked with their local church food bank for many years... she handled the paperwork that they needed to get the grants for food- perishable, meat / produce, etc.- and have it delivered based on the amount of need in the community.
So (I think) any of them, no matter whether it's 'just' a church food pantry or a larger community one- should (maybe) be able to get grants / money from state agencies, if they fill out the correct paperwork, or if they affiliated themselves with an agency in a larger metropolitan area.
While I personally DID take advantage of the 'food for fines' promotion at the library to take care of my library fines, lol, I totally understand why a food bank would rather have cash they could make go farther and for more useful things.
eta: the workers for the food pantry were the ones who kept track of what they had, what they needed, and 'ordered' it, working with the local grocery store and the food charities in the larger city about 50 miles away.
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pudgygroundhog
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Post by pudgygroundhog on Dec 12, 2016 19:39:54 GMT
Good article. One thing that resonated with me was that people sometimes prefer to give actual goods than money - and I'm guilty of that too. I make monetary donations, but admit I also like the feeling of giving something more concrete. Mostly when it's something my daughter and I are doing together. Especially when younger I felt it made more of an impact on her if we went to the store together and shopped for the food pantry then just giving money. But I never give expired goods and I try to be thoughtful about what we choose for the food pantry (especially if they provide a list of the most wanted items).
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Post by ktdoesntscrap on Dec 12, 2016 19:46:14 GMT
I think it may depend on the food bank -a small church food pantry may well prefer canned goods or packaged food but a big food bank that can purchase in bulk quite probably is happier with monetary donations that they can leverage into the most bang for the buck. But if the choice is between canned goods and no donation at all - I'm sure they would still prefer the canned goods. I have a good friend who was asked about this on FB. She works for a large food bank here. We live in one of the most food insecure places in the US. Her response was similar to Linda's. 1.Give canned goods to the local pantries, at churches and schools. 2. Give money to large food pantries like Manna. ( volunteer at Manna-- they really need people to take the bulk food and make it into family portions) 3. Donate cans rather than nothing at all. She also said, We can feed a family of four for a dollar, can you do that? I know a lot of families here really depend on school and church food banks... so donate generously to them.
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Post by deafpea on Dec 12, 2016 19:46:44 GMT
Thanks for sharing. This is in the same vein as another article I read some time ago--maybe I even found it here?--that basically said the same thing about donations in general. I think it may have been around the time of the big fires in Canada near Fort (name?). Anyway, a Red Cross spokesperson was saying that what is really needed is money because it's small and easier to handle, and goes much farther, and can buy what is appropriate. The article mentioned the logistics of receiving, inventorying, storing and distributing items. I especially remember mention of a huge shipment of bottled water that was purchased and sent somewhere (can't remember where). Someone paid a LOT of money to buy bottled water and ship it, and even though it was a LOT of water, it was actually only enough to meet the needs of the people it was being sent to for 1 day. The RC spokesperson said if that money had been donated as cash, it could have been used to buy water filters that would have met the needs of those people for many days. I also remember the article saying how the RC was responding to an earthquake in Honduras (I think) and people were donating thick winter coats, which they had absolutely no use for, and was totally inappropriate for the climate.
I am a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints (LDS) and I donate my unwanted and unneeded clothing to the Deseret Industries (the LDS Church's version of Goodwill). I try to make sure what I donate is in good enough shape to wear because the DI stores the Church runs provides a place for lower income families to shop. It is also my understanding that when large scale disasters strike (natural, war, etc.), the Church will assess what is needed, gather items from the DIs and ship them over. The Church's humanitarian services arm is really well run and I am confident that what I donate is put to good use.
Anyone involved in charity work? What are some good ones to donate to that don't use excessive amounts of donated money to run the organization? I think that's probably one reason why people might be leery of donating cash--I've heard some charities use most of the donated money on administrative costs so only a very small percentage of any donated dollar actually goes to help people in need.
Thanks for sharing the article. Good food for thought.
Merilee
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Deleted
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May 19, 2024 10:23:58 GMT
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Post by Deleted on Dec 12, 2016 19:47:30 GMT
I agree with talking to your local food bank. What's good for one may not be good for all. That said, I prefer to give tangible items if I can. And I was one who helped sort many days after Katrina a lot of donations coming in from churches in the Houston area. No one at the food bank had time to go buy food -- it was all about get the donations in and out as soon as possible to help.
I have to agree with the statement that it bothers me when charities that give out toys, food, etc specify that they want money instead. Honestly I like shopping for donations and to just hand over a check loses some of my personal joy that I get. I am much more likely to give an item than money to most charities. Bought a bathrobe for a homeless kid's mom this weekend, for example ( (others are handling food and kid gifts). Gave 10 cases of soup last SuperBowl, etc.
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Post by Lexica on Dec 12, 2016 19:58:55 GMT
One of the companies I used to work for had a food drive every Christmas, but instead of telling us to just bring in any canned goods, each department was given a list of required food items to finish out a holiday dinner. The company provided each family with a fresh turkey and employees provided the boxes of items to round out the meal.
We were given nice sturdy boxes that each department was to fill as many as possible. The most generous department received a special thank you gift from the company. It was usually movie tickets or those holiday baskets with cookies, popcorn, etc. in them. It was a very generous thing for the company to do and I really respected their efforts.
I know it was a lot of fun for the departments to stack their donation boxes in the hallway of their department to kind of show off how well they were doing. I guess giving the agencies cash would have been better, but we sure enjoyed making up the dinner boxes. It was more hands-on and personal. And since we were working from the list, each box had only the requested, approved items instead of weird foods.
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Post by scrapsuzy on Dec 12, 2016 20:06:21 GMT
This was something seen during the Fort McMurray fires. Many Albertans, leery of seeing monetary donations vanish down some kind of bureaucratic black hole, insisted instead on donating mountains of diapers and toiletries that got wasted. Why on earth would diapers and toiletries get wasted? They don't expire. There's a huge need. What the heck?
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Post by myshelly on Dec 12, 2016 20:10:37 GMT
I served on the board of our local homeless shelter for four years.
I can absolutely, 100% say that a cash donation goes so much further and does so much more good than any other type of donation.
We had an over abundance of canned foods. We couldn't use them all before they expired and canned goods have a long shelf life. We frequently gave them away to other charities and even ended up trashing them.
Coat drives are lovely, but without cash for employees, electricity, and water the shelter can't clean, process, and distribute the coats. Same for blankets. We often accepted those donations with a smile and then turned around and took them to goodwill.
It's frustrating how difficult it is to get people to give cash instead of other things.
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