DH is using community pantry for free food

News to me. Great they're doing this. Better than it going in the bin

I always look out for reduced meat.
I picked up a half price shoulder of lamb in Lidl recently. I was well chuffed! It is in my freezer now and will be used at xmas. I love lamb but it is so expensive.

Yeah I'm not well off by any means so I buy reduced food and freeze it. More money to pay for the heating bill this winter

I am confused. Tesco giving stuff away for free is literally the same as a community fridge.

It's a new thing some Tesco's are doing apparently.

We run a community grocery from our church which is aimed at both cutting food waste and supporting families who need it. However it is for anyone to use.
We spend about £2,000 a month from church funds to supply fresh fruit and vegetables to supplement donations of other stock from supermarkets but there needs to be a good footfall through the shop otherwise these would go off.
The only way to have a varied selection of good quality food is for everyone in the community to use it if they want to.
At ours people pay a yearly membership and then a small amount every time they shop so it’s not free however many shoppers and supporters will pay extra to allow someone who can’t afford even a small amount to get their shopping for nothing.
There are sometimes free things to be had but that is generally when we’ve had a large donation which would go off before it can be sold.
We welcome everyone in - the more the merrier in my view

Same principle, and no, if you’re there and will eat it, you should buy it rather than leave it for a hypothetical less well-off person to come along later.

On your last bit, no. If some one needs it, it would have been sold already.
Shops want to reduce waste. They are not charities.

It’s to cut food waste, it’s not a food bank. We use one and they have tons of food from supermarkets that will be thrown away in a few hours, so the volunteers are always urging us to take more than we need.

Make regular donations to a food bank if you want to balance it out. But don’t feel guilty for taking from this kind of initiative.

@PyongyangKipperbang apologies I think I misunderstood what you were meaning and I got all confused 🙂
But this thread shows that people are unaware of what the community pantry concept is and if there's one throwing food away is it because they aren't advertising the fact that anyone and everyone can use it.

They give it away or sell it reduced price? I've never seen it for free.

He definitely shouldn’t start donating food to it! That is spectacularly missing the point. But if there is an opportunity to donate financially to keep it open, that would be appropriate. It’s completely fine to take the food, though, so long as you actually eat it. That is the point.

Tesco Express shops give food about to go out of date away after 9.30 ( yellow sticker marked CS) often salads and sandwiches but also veg packs, fruit, ready meals, kievs, finest mash and yogurts

I go up most nights and get the lot
no one else can be arsed it’s seems , staff aren’t allowed to take it and if not it goes into the bin apparently.

sometimes the haul adds up to 65/70 quid ( admittedly this is due to repacked sarnies being 4 quid etc.

I have no issue doing this despite being relatively comfortably off

the community pantry thing I don’t get tho
humiliating for him , icky for you and not really on the spirit of the project no?

I've never heard of this.
But is it in any way similar to shopping late at night and buying reduced food in the 'whoopsie/yellow sticker' section in supermarkets?
I can afford to buy food at full price but I'd rather spend less and save some money.

I'm just wondering now. Given that I can afford to pay full price, should I stop buying the reduced price food because I'm taking it away from others who can't afford to pay full price?

I've not rtft but the one on the next village to us had to close because it wasn't being used enough. It is there for everyone.

That said if I were your husband I would probably wait until later in the day and let those who genuinely need it get first pick. I have a couple of friends who volunteer at them who say it isn't used enough too.
The purpose is to stop waste, not the same as a food bank.

Community pantries/community fridges are NOT food banks. They are eco projects to avoid food surplus ( generally fruit, veg, bread and 'use by' chilled products going to waste.

I volunteer at one and it's open to all. We are aware of some families in particular need, and do keep some of the food back for them so that the early birds don't end up with all the good stuff. We also have a maximum weight allowance, so no-one can go off with a big bag load.

There is nothing vile about anyone coming along to our community fridge to help prevent this food ending up in landfill.

They are. Is worth seeing if there is one local to you. There probably will be.

Again, answering questions no one asked.

The facts you state are not in question. Obviously its easier with a car and harder without one. Obviously if they moved that might exclude some but then extend it to others. I didnt say anything about cars or indeed moving premises.

So what is your point?

My point was that a pantry that regularly throws food away because no one locally needs it is a waste of time money and food (rent will usually have to be paid). But closing that one and diverting the donations to another pantry further away but still in the same town, that has a lot of users would mean that more people who can access it and need help would therefore mean a) far less food waste and b) more people who need it can get help.

I have never heard of a community food waste pantry but it sounds like a good idea.

We have a local surplus food club, it's a totally different set-up from the food banks, its sole purpose is to try to reduce food waste & there are no restrictions on who uses it other than you sign up for just one visit per week.
I've lived way out in the boondocks & know that rural poverty is real so understand why you may be getting the ick, but if the scheme is about preventing food waste, it's not restricted to eg; people on benefits, he isn't going in there & clearing the shelves of the good stuff, & doesn't waste his purchases, it seems OK.

My partner also gets free food most weeks from community food hall which is open to everyone and is for the sole purpose of cutting food waste. However he also volunteers for them driving to the supermarkets, collecting and delivering the food to the halls. Maybe your partner can help out and volunteer to do this once a week?

I fully support any effort to cut food waste. If the pantry is genuinely open to all and marketed as a kind of eco shop then it's fine for your husband to pick up stuff from there. HOWEVER, in my opinion, morally he should be donating a significant chunk of savings he's making to a foodbank or other charity to support people who are struggling to feed themselves. That way, everyone benefits: food waste is cut, a foodbank/other charity that helps people struggling with paying for food gets extra cash/donations, and your husband can save a few quid here and there.

There is. My local one limits you to 5 items.

There should be a limit on how much people take especially if there are large numbers to cater for.

There’s one near us for food waste. I use it all the time. Often they can’t get rid of all the bread and it has to go to the farm for the pigs, or worse, go in the bin. They want it gone and have specifically said it is not a good bank. On paper my family is doing great but the treats we get from the food stall (stuff from Gail’s or Lidl that would otherwise go in the bin) has really saved my budget and helped me use the money on better, healthier things for my family. I think it’s fine.