Please do not turn this into a thread about where to donate / whether to donate at all 
I was wondering what you thought about the quality of food that should be donated to food bank type charities
Last night on my way home, I stopped by the grocery store to pick up some essentials, they have their food drive on - you can donate cash when you pay, put items into a bin the fire dept leave there or they have $5, $10 and $20 ready made bags on a display you can pick up and put in the bin. The bags. This particular store have a few versions of their own brands, a company that makes food for them (higher end products) then the store brand and a white label / no name / no frills brand
The ready made donation bags were made up of these white label products in large brown paper bags, one of the bags was ripped and someone from work (not quite a coworker, she works for someone else in the same building but I say hi in the halls etc) was shopping at the same time and I seen her looking in the bag. She asked me if I was buying one and I explained that we usually donate right to a charity as their buying power is better than stores with their profits on top (and they generally dont put extras in the bag because customers would buy them for their own use).
She was donating but went around the store to buy the products but was looking in the bag to see what was in it because she wanted to buy the same stuff because obviously that was what they needed (it was spaghetti, pasta sauce, canned meats and veggies etc) because there is no way she would demean someone by making them eat the white label brand.
She completely disagreed with me that some of the white label brand is just as good with less designed packaging (I buy some of the white label products myself because I prefer them), and I am of the mind that I could spend $17 on the stuff for one family she bought or three of their bags of the same products for $15 or the $20 bag for a family that included cereal etc and could feed them for longer than 2 nights - as far as I am concerned, these people (for the most part at least, there will always be people who take advantage) are in need of help and therefore whatever helps them most (ie feeding them longer / feeding more people) for what I can afford is more important than the look of the packaging - as long as the food is in date / safe for consumption etc.
I was wondering what you thought about the quality of food that should be donated to food bank type charitiesLast night on my way home, I stopped by the grocery store to pick up some essentials, they have their food drive on - you can donate cash when you pay, put items into a bin the fire dept leave there or they have $5, $10 and $20 ready made bags on a display you can pick up and put in the bin. The bags. This particular store have a few versions of their own brands, a company that makes food for them (higher end products) then the store brand and a white label / no name / no frills brand
The ready made donation bags were made up of these white label products in large brown paper bags, one of the bags was ripped and someone from work (not quite a coworker, she works for someone else in the same building but I say hi in the halls etc) was shopping at the same time and I seen her looking in the bag. She asked me if I was buying one and I explained that we usually donate right to a charity as their buying power is better than stores with their profits on top (and they generally dont put extras in the bag because customers would buy them for their own use).
She was donating but went around the store to buy the products but was looking in the bag to see what was in it because she wanted to buy the same stuff because obviously that was what they needed (it was spaghetti, pasta sauce, canned meats and veggies etc) because there is no way she would demean someone by making them eat the white label brand.
She completely disagreed with me that some of the white label brand is just as good with less designed packaging (I buy some of the white label products myself because I prefer them), and I am of the mind that I could spend $17 on the stuff for one family she bought or three of their bags of the same products for $15 or the $20 bag for a family that included cereal etc and could feed them for longer than 2 nights - as far as I am concerned, these people (for the most part at least, there will always be people who take advantage) are in need of help and therefore whatever helps them most (ie feeding them longer / feeding more people) for what I can afford is more important than the look of the packaging - as long as the food is in date / safe for consumption etc.
(just a thought I'm pondering)
About the only thing I am brand loyal to is Dawn dish washing detergent and Uncle Ben's rice 
