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Post by myshelly on Dec 12, 2016 20:11:39 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? Because there has to be some sort of infrastructure to sort and distribute donations of material items. Without money there is no infrastructure.
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anniebeth24
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Jun 26, 2014 14:12:17 GMT
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Post by anniebeth24 on Dec 12, 2016 20:15:08 GMT
I volunteer at my local community-based food pantry.
We are able to purchase food items via "Feeding America" at something like 16 cents per pound. They offer lots of snack items from companies like Kraft/Nabisco who are always coming out with new varieties and have excess inventory. They also offer plentiful amounts of certain varieties of cereal/pasta/rice/juice/crackers, but they are often the same, month after month.
We also take donations from canned food drives, including the one held by the U.S. post office. Yes, there's way too much cranberry sauce and not enough hearty soups/stews/canned meat. There's often expired stuff that makes me shake my head. It definitely is a pain to sort through it all and get it on our shelves, trying to figure out which category fits certain items.
HOWEVER, our "shoppers" LOVE the variety of items that are brought in by local food drives. It gives them great joy to find something different on the shelf - a certain variety of soup, a special ethnic item, or superhero-themed fruit snacks.
Our families are already hurting when they walk in the door. If the variety provided by these food drives can help to lift their spirits, I'm happy to sort it. Go ahead and keep on giving.
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Post by happymom on Dec 12, 2016 20:26:15 GMT
It's also about building good habits. So the kids that do the food drive through student council, youth group or NHS might grow to donate cash or even stock dividends.
There is something about physically doing that work during a collection that is memorable and rewarding.
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Post by melanell on Dec 12, 2016 20:44:07 GMT
Thanks for sharing. I can definitely see what they are saying. I do think, though, that this sometimes may depend on the food bank. One of our local ones depends only on donations. They have a Facebook page and they constantly update as to which food types they are in the most need of. The food bank our church donates to also lets the church know, week to week, what to ask us to bring in. Each week we are reminded of what we can bring the following week. One week it's cereal, another week meats, one week flours or sugar, etc. We are asked to bring in just that item. I think you also have to figure in human emotion. For the same reason that many people feel more comfortable giving a $10 gift than giving a gift of $10 is what makes a family more likely to donate 6 cans of food rather than $3.00. They feel good bringing in 6 cans. They may feel a little bad if the only cash they have available is 3 bucks. Plus, yes, there are the skeptics, those who wonder if all of their $20 donation will go to food, so they opt to just bring only food instead. And there are those who really aren't doing that well themselves, who perhaps cannot afford to give money, but happen to have 3 cans of soup that they found out they didn't like only after they bought 4 cans on sale, kwim? They are donating the only thing they can. As for my family, we keep a box in the pantry that we fill up with sale items this time of year when we are being asked for food donations over & over. There are killer deals to be had if you're willing to cut some coupons and work some sale magic during the time around Thanksgiving especially. Many times the food I'm putting in the box cost me mere cents, or was even free. In those cases the food really is less expensive for me than the food pantry. And no, it's not just creamed corn. I promise. In our case, if someone asked for cash, we would donate that. We just don't see it happen very often. There is one holiday event that I can think of where they do ask for food, but they do also ask for cash, pointing out they they can and do buy in bulk. So when we attend that event we bring some of the free or very inexpensive foods we've collected, plus an envelope with a cash donation. The kids enjoy bringing the food, and DH & I know we're also giving them the cash that they can do more good with. Save
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Post by flanz on Dec 12, 2016 20:53:48 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.This is the "selfish" part of giving, feeling good about the donation. If you really want to help, you think about how to do the most good with the funds you have available!
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Post by cmpeter on Dec 12, 2016 20:59:30 GMT
I volunteer at a local food bank. We pack up boxes of assorted canned goods and it can be challenging to come up with a good assortment of canned or boxed items. You want to make sure there are fruits, veggies, carbs and protein depending on what's been collected. Cash makes it possible for our food bank to purchase the right ratio of the types of foods needed for a pantry box. They also have the buying power and connections to feed a family of four for $.67. I can't buy enough canned goods to come close to that price.
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Post by flanz on Dec 12, 2016 21:00:14 GMT
I think the article is spot on!
If you are someone who wants to help feed the hungry, the BEST thing you can do is a little homework to find out how to maximize the impact of the dollars you are personally willing to part with toward that goal. Don't let the "guilt" of saying no to someone asking for a donation in person sway your decision. If you can buy a case of cereal at the supermarket, for example, and give it to your local food panty, OR you can write a check for the same amount to the food pantry organization and they can leverage it into two or three or five or ten cases of cereal, OR use it to buy other more needed items at a great price, DO THAT instead!
This is a tiny part of a larger conversation on Effective Altruism. A great book to learn about the subject is Doing Good Better, by Will MacCaskill of Oxford University. Will is under 30 and has been studying this subject in depth for several years now. I'm proud to say that our dd and her partner are currently working in this field. We are learning so much about our giving habits and how to make better decisions from them!
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Post by kellybelly77 on Dec 12, 2016 21:06:20 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. My sister volunteers once a week at a food bank near her home. Every week she goes for 5 hours, one day a week. her only job is to sort through canned goods to make sure they aren't expired. She tells me that a ton of food they get is expired which they then can't use. So it gets thrown out. She said it seems like most of the donations are just people cleaning out their pantry rather than folks actually wanting to help.
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Post by verdepea on Dec 12, 2016 21:10:38 GMT
Our local foodbank a grocery store who donate all types of grocery items. Volunteers scan those items in just like a register and gives them a sheet for credit, they then sort the items and package them up. They then distribute this food to outreach programs and church pantries. I like taking my children to volunteer. I think it's an important learning opportunity. It also gives the grocery store and easy way to handle items no longer shelf worthy. So it's a good partnership. The HFB also has a soup kitchen.
BTW all the bakery items are separated out and smashed into a truck literally, and a chicken farmer buys them and feeds the chickens all hostess goodies and such. Before this arrangement, the foodbank used to pay for trash pick up.
It may not work for some places, but ours is one of the most efficient in the country. I don't write off food drive donations. I think it depends on your area FB.
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Post by Sam on Dec 12, 2016 21:20:00 GMT
If money goes further, just stick a donation box at the end of the checkout - I think the thought behind canned goods is that it has a long shelf life but, hey, if the charity decides it's not good enough, I'll stop donating items. You just can't do right for doing wrong - charities need to be specific in what they ask so that anyone who chooses to donate can be steered in the right direction! I've never (over here) seen anything given guidance in the direction of 'we can provide more if you do XYZ'.
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MerryMom
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Post by MerryMom on Dec 12, 2016 21:27:52 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. I agree. At our work, they just finished up a holiday canned food drive and someone put in 18 boxes of flan. Oh and jars of specialty salsa from some food basket they received.
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MerryMom
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Post by MerryMom on Dec 12, 2016 21:28:32 GMT
I agree to check with local food banks as to their preference.
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quiltz
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Post by quiltz on Dec 12, 2016 21:33:55 GMT
If I am going to donate money to the food bank, I would make sure that it would be over $20.00, so that I would get a receipt for income tax purposes.
I have volunteered for several organizations & if you are going to donate cash/money, choose 1 or 2, as there is a bit of paper work to do the tax receipts.
Why should the store claim the cash donations when you can do good & claim the donation for yourself. No, it isn't as "powerful" as bringing in a lot of food, but the $$ are put to good use.
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Deleted
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Jun 2, 2024 13:56:38 GMT
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Post by Deleted on Dec 12, 2016 21:36:47 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.This is the "selfish" part of giving, feeling good about the donation. If you really want to help, you think about how to do the most good with the funds you have available! Honestly I don't see it as "selfish" if it is truly giving. It may be "selfish" as to what is chosen to be given but would the organization rather have that donation or none at all? While many do give heedlessly to needs, many do try to do the most good that they can but still feel good about how they do it. That doesn't always mean giving $s. Honestly I'm probably not going to give you $20, but will buy food, coats, gloves, etc, and make blankets and buy toys.....
Personally I don't ever like when people tell me how to spend my money. Are there charities that I give cash donations to? Yes.... but very rarely if I can give tangible items.
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mallie
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Post by mallie on Dec 12, 2016 21:45:05 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. I have worked with food banks for years and a significant amount of donated goods are expired, damaged, or of very poor quality. The worst experience ever was when a large Christian denomination asked its members statewide to donate OTC medications and toiletries. Over 75% of donations were expired, half empty or damaged. And it cost the food bank because every item had to be examined, then 75% destroyed. It was not a win. It was also discouraging to realize what Christians thought the poor deserved -- opened, expired medications and half-used tubes of toothpaste.
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Post by leftturnonly on Dec 12, 2016 21:51:26 GMT
Interesting OP, jenjie. IDK. Canned food drives have always made me uncertain for the reasons you posted. Who eats some of those things? At the same time, I heard the presentation of a local charity and how he could purchase so much more for the same amount people would give so to give him money for the charity. I gave him some really good-condition children's books. (It was a shelter for women and children.) A blink of an eye later, this same guy was in the news for stealing all this money from this same shelter. He didn't steal the donated food, so donating hard food items was the only way these families actually got food.
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Post by hop2 on Dec 12, 2016 21:56:31 GMT
I don't know, I've worked at our food bank local to only my town. We ASKED for donations. Accepted them and stocked the shelves with them, and clients took them home and presumably used them as they returned for more the next week.
Monetary donations are frequently turned into supermarket gift cards to cover perishable items. Breads were donated free from a local warehouse store. At holiday time turkeys were also donated by a business. But the canned goods were always used. Soaps,toothpaste and laundry items are always in the we desperately need list.
With the exception of the silly people whom donated Passover goods AFTER Passover those got thrown out about a week later.
Perhaps because we are a small food pantry we don't have the funds to get lots of canned goods st wholesale prices??? Also we do not have the fridge or freezer space to store perishables so our director tries very hard to get grocery cards for the most needy clients.
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Post by myshelly on Dec 12, 2016 22:31:05 GMT
This is the "selfish" part of giving, feeling good about the donation. If you really want to help, you think about how to do the most good with the funds you have available! Honestly I don't see it as "selfish" if it is truly giving. It may be "selfish" as to what is chosen to be given but would the organization rather have that donation or none at all? While many do give heedlessly to needs, many do try to do the most good that they can but still feel good about how they do it. That doesn't always mean giving $s. Honestly I'm probably not going to give you $20, but will buy food, coats, gloves, etc, and make blankets and buy toys.....
Personally I don't ever like when people tell me how to spend my money. Are there charities that I give cash donations to? Yes.... but very rarely if I can give tangible items.
A lot of people feel like this and it is a HUGE problem for charitable organizations to overcome. Money will always do the most good, but it is the last thing people want to give. So frustrating.
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Post by Yoki on Dec 12, 2016 23:09:04 GMT
I've volunteered at my local food bank, which is big - it distributes food to many services/charities across several counties. My job was sorting donations collected after big canned food drives. You would not believe the stuff people donate. Several years expired food, bulging cans, visibly leaking cans that are growing mold, glass jars that have broken in the bag & are a huge health hazard when you're sorting through thousands of bags. It's gross.
The need for protein that is easy to open & can be eaten without cooking is huge, yet those items cost more & don't get donated as often as the creamed corn that was on sale for 10/$1.00. And many food insecure/homeless/working poor don't have the basic kitchen tools or other ingredients to make something like a box of mac & cheese.
Our food bank strongly encourages money because they can turn $1 into $5 with their buying power. There are also times when corporate sponsors match donations (most recently Giving Tuesday) where $1 becomes $10 and that's how I've chosen to support our food bank.
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Post by flanz on Dec 12, 2016 23:12:38 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. I have worked with food banks for years and a significant amount of donated goods are expired, damaged, or of very poor quality. The worst experience ever was when a large Christian denomination asked its members statewide to donate OTC medications and toiletries. Over 75% of donations were expired, half empty or damaged. And it cost the food bank because every item had to be examined, then 75% destroyed. It was not a win. It was also discouraging to realize what Christians thought the poor deserved -- opened, expired medications and half-used tubes of toothpaste. disgusting behaviour
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craftykitten
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Post by craftykitten on Dec 12, 2016 23:22:24 GMT
I think if charities want people to donate money, they have to look at who they are asking for donations and how. Surely it is easier/better to get people to either sign up to regular donations (maybe donating through payslips) or doing bigger 'fundraising' activities and perhaps working with businesses for bigger one off cash sums.
If they are asking individuals for donations, it is easier to get items out of their shopping than it is to get money out of their wallet. I went shopping g today and times are tight for us, but I added a few things to.my basket and left them in the Food Bank collection point by the door. I probably wouldn't give £5 because that feels like a big chunk out of my budget right now but it is easier to me to just add it in with the shopping,
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Post by melanell on Dec 12, 2016 23:39:44 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.This is the "selfish" part of giving, feeling good about the donation. If you really want to help, you think about how to do the most good with the funds you have available! I agree, but unfortunately, that may be the only way to get donations in some cases. In others cases, however, I hope that once people get into a habit of giving, they can then learn better ways and alter the way that they donate. Save
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Post by ktdoesntscrap on Dec 12, 2016 23:44:14 GMT
My pet peeve related to food pantry donations. The grocery stores that have a display of food at the checkout and ask you to purchase it to donate. For example, a bulk carton of juice boxes, or a carton of soups. Wouldn't it be nice if they were not asking you to purchase the case at full retail, but instead offered it at closer to cost if it is donated there? Or at least have the item be something that was on sale that same week. Then the pantry would receive a rotating variety of items, and at a better dollar to benefit rate. That said, I am not against ANY way that people choose to contribute to hunger issues. It is my pet peeve too. So the store gets a profit from the sale, and then turns around and says.. we donated XXX amount of food to the food pantry.. uh.. no you didn't!! I always donate directly to the charity, unless it is a group, like my daughter's school doing the fund raising. So sorry William Sonoma, I am not going to fund your St. Jude's donation. If the store said they would match it, or take the profits from the items sold and donate the cash I would be happy to contribute.. but that is not what I see happening. I may sound like a scrooge but I do donate generously both time and money to a number of charities!
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Post by melanell on Dec 12, 2016 23:44:58 GMT
Why on earth would diapers and toiletries get wasted? They don't expire. There's a huge need. What the heck? Because there has to be some sort of infrastructure to sort and distribute donations of material items. Without money there is no infrastructure. This problem occurs often in terms of highly publicized disasters. Enormous amounts of donations pour in, and there have to be enormous amounts of space available to store them, sort them, and then make them available to those in need. Plus, you need people to haul , sort, and distribute them, AND the time to do all of that. Save
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rickmer
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Post by rickmer on Dec 12, 2016 23:47:32 GMT
my kids are in grade school so we get lots of requests for food drives. while cans are important and i usually include a couple cans of tuna...our food bank requests cereal, peanut butter, dry pasta, jars/cans of pasta sauce, rice, baby formula, etc. while highlighting cash donations are important as well.
i dislike the currently very common practice of asking me if i want to add $2 to my grocery/hardware/whatever store bill for one charity or another. i would totally do that, if they said "and the company will match the donation".
but the skeptic in me just thinks "ugh, now x corporation gets to make a big donation in *their* name, possibly including some corresponding tax break. great." and admittedly, doesn't make me feel very charitable.
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Post by GamGam on Dec 12, 2016 23:51:22 GMT
DH volunteers at a large Fish Hospitality Pantry where bulk buying enables the Pantry to feed a family of 4 for 3 days for $5.00. The director of this Pantry is a member of our Church, and his salary is paid by our Church, and this ministry has grown in scope and effectiveness during the past 20 years. So, yes, the better way to give is with dollars to those feeding programs that are able to buy in bulk, store great quantities of food, and feed untold numbers of hungry people.
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RosieKat
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Post by RosieKat on Dec 13, 2016 0:37:39 GMT
You should hear what he gets. Expired sweetened condensed milk. Pistachio pudding. I can top that. We also collect toiletries at the one I work with. This past summer (yes, 2016) we received some medication that expired in 1999. What I always say to people is to see what the particular food bank wants, and bring that. For example, you sometimes see those articles encouraging donations of spices and quinoa and more "interesting" stuff. Well, if you donate that to "my" food bank pantry, it is wasted. We are very small, with extremely limited space. We have to stick with the basics. However, if you are working with one of the larger area ones, it's entirely possible that those things are welcome. I strongly urge people not to get creative - for example, you may think "Oh, a box of brownie mix would be a nice treat!" But most of the customers of my pantry are homeless, and don't have a place to make brownies, or to keep the eggs and oil needed to make them. Yes, money is ideal from our point of view, but we have discovered that we receive more donations when we ask for the food as opposed to money. Hands-on time with that food seems to help people internalize that this is real, and going to real people. Yes, the time and energy to sort donations is a pain in the butt, but we can often recruit high school kids in need of volunteer hours. We won't reject anything unless it's unsafe (open packages, expired food, etc., and yes we do get all of that). However, we really don't need the glass jar of bacon jam. We need the plastic jar of spaghetti sauce and the cans of fruit.
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RosieKat
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Post by RosieKat on Dec 13, 2016 0:39:17 GMT
Why on earth would diapers and toiletries get wasted? They don't expire. There's a huge need. What the heck? Because there has to be some sort of infrastructure to sort and distribute donations of material items. Without money there is no infrastructure. And there may simply be no place to store them, either. That's a very real problem people don't consider. (It's a common problem in these disaster situations, where people want to send clothes and household goods...but when buildings are destroyed, there's nowhere to keep massive quantities of this stuff.) ETA - sorry, melanell, I didn't see you'd already posted this same thing!
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Post by kamper on Dec 13, 2016 0:43:38 GMT
The charity I volunteered for preferred money. Occasionally, they would hold drives for specific items (PB in February = Spread the Love).
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Post by myboysnme on Dec 13, 2016 0:51:58 GMT
At my church we have a food pantry and we always were asked to remember those without when we grocery shopped and get extra to bring for the food pantry. Then the pastor put up a donation box for cash, and it really bothered me because I felt like it let people off the hook when it came to doing something really thoughtful to provide for the poor or needy.
My son has a role play hobby and about 2 or 3 times a year they have food drives where those who participate get extra game abilities, etc. If they just paid money for it fewer people would participate because even those without money who play often bring a can or box of a nonperishable.
But I do agree the cash can go so much further. I think that it is better when someone offers a discount admission in exchange for a canned good it makes more sense to just take that $1 discount and instead put it directly toward a cash donation.
I've decided there is room for both. Give cash if you have cash but if not, giving goods is better than doing nothing.
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