DH is using community pantry for free food

@SumUp is that really true.
Londis etc are franchises but their suppliers are sometimes (partly?) owned by the big supermarkets.
For example a couple of my local Budgens and Londis sell the Jacks branded foods which is owned and made by Tesco.

Ours is entirely run by volunteers. It's food that cannot be given out by food banks which (quite rightly) have strict guidelines on food safety. They do not have the resources to manage any sort of referral system, the aim is to distribute fresh food that is just about to go past it's best by date.

Food that is heading for landfill is not suitable for food banks, which package their boxes in advance with non-perishable items.

They rely on donations to keep the operation going so I think those who can should give a donation in return for a bag of bread, vegetables, frozen goods.

The volunteers ensure that individuals don't strip the van - you can only take one frozen item for example.

I use Olio too. The app says it is solely to prevent waste, and anyone is free to collect free food on it no matter what their circumstances. Many users comment that they do actually use it to save money, or even to feed themselves when they have none. It also has sections for re-homing unwanted items. I have helped others out on the app by offering free delivery for those in need, but this falls outside the app itself's remit. Different initiatives have different aims.

It's disgusting how much is wasted. I've managed to do 8 jars of pickled eggs in time for christmas (normally about 3.50 a shop bought jar) for the grand sum of about a £2.....asda selling off dozens of eggs for 18p a pack...most outlay was the pickling vinegar!

Yes, that's like our local community pantry too.
It's not like the food banks which are different

No, my local one repeatedly says on its own website that it is for everyone and it about cutting waste.

And they limit what you can take. It is 5 items at my local one. No one is walking out with bag loads

Me too if DH was in there rummaging about - be equivalent of a tap water no pudding starter date ewwww
although I would hands down do it myself now I understand it’s a waste saving initiative.
sooo sexist I know

Not.rtft but from your post it's to stop food waste. Not a food bank which is something completely different. Therefore YABU

I have some insider knowledge. It is another strategy by the major supermarkets to damage their competitors. Namely Independents, Londis, Spar, and Coop.

The major supermarkets love community pantries because not only does it save them the landfill charges that they would otherwise incur throwing the food away, they can flood them with surplus stock. The village shop or convenience store then struggles to make enough sales to survive. Even if your local shop prices items fairly, it’s hard for them to compete with food that is given away for free.

Think about it - if it was purely about reducing waste and keeping food miles down, it would be more efficient for the supermarket to give it away to shoppers in store. But they won’t do this because they don’t want shoppers to take free items in place of paid ones. They would rather unpaid volunteers took it away and their competitors took the hit.

Another thing that major supermarkets do when a competitor plans to open a new store is to submit detailed but spurious objections to the planning application as close as possible to the closing date. This doesn’t usually result in planning permission being turned down ultimately, but store openings have been delayed by as long as 18 months using these tactics, hitting competitor profits.

That’s a long way of saying that if I were him I would want nothing to do with it!

That would give me the ick

There’s a zero waste thing nearby that’s for anyone and everyone and they actively promote it for anyone as there is so much food

I don’t think people get how much food is wasted. Attached some pics (when they load)
70 bags of free food which would have been wasted
4 trays donated to hospital of sandwiches and snacks
eggs that would have been binned

I’m torn because it’s not exactly a food bank so he has every right to access it. He’s been getting excited to go and whilst I agree with your points - I’d sit him down and tell him that he can continue to do it but he also needs to give back. So maybe alternate, one week he can access this and the week after he is to volunteer or if you don’t have the time, make a donation each month to a charity. Then he can still have the enjoyment and you’re kind of replacing the funds in a cause that matters

I was determined he was in the wrong when I opened the thread but after reading it I've decided I don't hate him even though I wanted to.

Our one get Frozen KFC chicken in huge bags 🤣

Are you donating to your local food bank?

He isn’t doing anything wrong. It’s a community pantry. That said, I wouldn’t take food from it, knowing there are people that need it more, unless there was a specific shout out because they’d been donated 5000 apples or whatever.

To be fair if it’s like our village one , often stuff goes in the bin because it goes unpicked . I sometimes leave eggs when my hens are laying to many and people don’t use it much , which is a pity as it has so much good stuff .

Our one literally gets van loads from Aldi, Sainsburys, Tesco and about once a week from M&S.
Everything, even things like frozen foods and Flowers..
Hundreds of cakes/ bakery items (literally) from Lidl

At the end, the volunteers take left over veg to the farms for the amimals cause there is so much
It most certainly is not a food bank

There to combat food waste so it doesn’t go in to landfill. The families in need get first priority, but there is always so much surplus.

A lot still ends up in landfill though.

Completely free after 9.30 if it has ‘CS’ on the yellow sticker
tonight’s haul totalled 47 quid.

We used to have something like this where we lived, it’s open to everyone and there was so much food waste they were glad of people taking things. I think it’s fine aslong as he isn’t taking an excessive amount, that’s the purpose of it.

Weird - I'd think that the word "community" specifically implies that it is open to all (or at least everybody in the area nearby, as it might mean "local community"). If it was a pantry only for low-income households, wouldn't it be the "low-income pantry" - or indeed, "food bank".

It sounds similar to the app Olio which is a community initiative to stop food waste. I used to volunteer and pick up food from Tesco then give it out to those who wanted to come and collect it from me. The supermarkets always give priority of collection slots to food banks but most of the time they can’t collect the items as they are perishable and need to be given out by midnight.

It’s good that your husband is stopping food waste. I wish more people wasted less.

I think if anyone had concerns that they might be taking food away from people who genuinely NEED it, then just go half an hour before closing time. (Staff might get pissed off at a last minute rush though)
If the genuine in need haven't taken it by then then, it's going in the bin anyway.
The last time I saw a community pantry in my area it wasn't free but reduced.
I'll be on the lookout now because I'm all for saving money and against perfectly good food ending up in a bin

@Mondaytuesdayhappydays is it only women who can buy food?