Food pantry doesn't want my donation

[*rebecca*]

That's great!!!

[PraiseAdonai]

Also

[PraiseAdonai]

Also try your local public school district nurses.

The nurses are so helpful. In my district they collect anything and everything and have there own pantry in the school nurses office. ANYONE can come and help themselves. Call and ask.

[tessa67]

Please contact your local women's shelter about the baby food. I take all DD's clothing, portacrib, etc to ours and they are so grateful. Some women and children arrived there with nothing but the clothes on their back, fleeing an abusive situation.

You may not be able to take them directly to the shelter as the location is often kept private, but there should be a drop off place.

[cdarrow26]

About 60% of the people that go to the food bank are "regulars," i.e. at least once a month. These people hop from agency to agency and "get what they can." It's a way of life to them. They choose not to work, but "work" the system. They get their welfare or "disability" checks each month and about 60% don't use the money in a constructive way. An example of this: We just had a large "bust" in our area where a convenient store was giving a low percentage of cash in exchange for food stamps/ebt monies. I believe they had illegally redeemed $150,000+ over the last few years.

My point is, food banks have procedures in place for a reason. It has nothing to do with you, nor is it put in place to belittle anyone. The people they deal with everyday are usually not "just happy to get something" kind of person. There are, however, those that hate the thought of taking a hand-out, yet are in a place where they have no choice. These are the people that would be happy with anything.

In regards to both groups of people, most food banks are going to do their best to let their clients keep the little bit of dignity they have left.

I work in the social work field and see this all the time. Most people who get food stamps have more than enough to feed their family for the month, but choose to spend them on high priced items, don't even look for what is on sale, a good buy, or heaven forbid, use a coupon to make their food stamps stretch even further. It seems that too many people have come to rely on pantries to get them through instead of taking any responsibility for their choices. On the other hand, I do understand that many of these people do not have transportation and often have to buy food in small quantaties at local "grocery" and convenience stores that charge 3 times what something would cost at a regular grocery/Walmart. There are alot of contributing factors, but I see the abuse of the system all the time...I've worked with people that get $600, $700 a month in food stamps using pantries every month and figuring out how often they can go where. It is a lifestyle...The Salvation Army has a daily bread line and I have seen people leave with 3 and 4 large garbage bags full of stuff and drive away in a new Honda SUV...it is stuff like that that keeps me from doing a general donation. I would rather donate items personally to someone I know that is in need.