When you donate food or money for food to a cause what do you expect from the donation? Do you believe it will be packaged up and delivered to the intended recipient within a reasonable amount of time? Or do you think it will be stored for months, perhaps years before being given?
This spring M witnessed the delivery of a shipment of donated food. If I remember correctly, she said the delivery date was supposed to be in November but it was delivered many months later. Many of the items were well past their expiration dates. The semi-perishables had not been packed securely and were infested with maggots and rat feces, among other vermin. Much of the food was not usable. Was the woman unpacking it angry? No. She was grateful for whatever they could use. Was M angry? Very.
Where was the snafu? Who knows? Who cares? Obviously the shipper didn't. And people have been known to donate food long past the dates on the packages. Why? What is charitable about giving something that is useless and perhaps harmful? When your local food bank or the post office collects food, do you go thru your pantry and pull all the old cans to donate? Or do you check to see what is needed and pick up those items on your next shopping trip? Think about it.
Whether the food was individually collected or purchased with donated money or part of a government program, it was not properly handled. Somebody didn't care. That somebody was probably wasicu. Makes me embarrassed, angry, sick.
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1 comment:
I volunteer in a food pantry. Some of the stuff that people fob off on the pantry just makes me mad. Lots of times people mean well. They clean out Mom's pantry and donate the stuff, only it's stuff that expired 8 years ago and we just have to toss it. And then there's the jars of cocktail onions and pickled artichoke hearts, "gourmet" pancake syrup made from berries you never heard of, cases of Mountain Dew, etc.
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