DH is using community pantry for free food

If he was running in every day to get stuff as soon as it was delivered I'd see it as an issue, but once a week to take some stuff that's going to be thrown out end of that day or maybe the following day is just what it's designed for.

Why are you fine with half the food getting discarded rather than taking it it to eat, we are a high income household so can afford food but I hate food waste so I would take the food and eat it rather than it go into the bin. I particularly hate meat waste an animal has died the least we can do is eat it not put it in the bin.

He’s thinking of the environment! Food pantry’s like this are there to reduce the amount of food clogging up land fill. There are no other reasons. They aren’t to help the poor people. They’re nothing to do with income. I know because my friend runs one - she’s passionate about food waste - and is forever cycling around town trying to offload stuff to us that are left over at the pantry at the end of the day. Household income over £250k. She doesn’t care. No one else will take it. We take it to make her happy and stick it in the freezer if we don’t need it immediately. It’s mainly M&S bakery produce and stuff from allotments / fruit trees.

Again, it is a community pantry, not a food bank.
Community pantries exist to prevent food waste. I am going to check out my local one next week. On the front page of their website, it says at least 3 times that it is for everyone, and their aim is to prevent food going to landfill.

Food banks don't tend to have out of date/reduced stuff. People in poverty should have the dignity of getting food that is not out of date.

@Okiedokie123 is not just about giving those who need a "helping hand".
It's about not wasting food.
For example if a local cake shop had a power cut and couldn't open the shop they will be stuck with piles of donuts and cupcakes etc they didn't sell.
Community fridges are for situations like that.
A message will be send out on local social media that "Mary's Cake Shop has 300 cakes that need gone today. They will be available at Blah Community Pantry from 5pm. Come get your free cakes"
Anyone.... literally anyone can go get the free cake if they want it.

We have one in a local small town, one of the most deprived towns in the U.K. The staff there emphasise it's for everyone, and were encouraging me to take things as people don't do that enough and then they end up with expired food.

However, I would also be dismayed at the glee your husband is showing as someone on the higher tax bracket. Yes, I appreciate that it's not a food back, but I think it's distasteful for him to be going there so often.

And another fact is that the yellow stickers are limited. So logically, if a wealthy person buys up the yellow sticker items, then someone else who needs it might miss out.

People on higher incomes should not buy yellow stickered food now?

That’s a bit like turning up to a soup kitchen that’s meant to be for the homeless / truly impoverished.

FFS, it is nothing like going to a soup kitchen. Why are people so hard of thinking? Is "reducing food waste" such a hard concept to grasp?

I would also, but they have nothing like that, where I live, unfortunately.

no not all of them are aimed at people who are struggling.

It’s nothing like turning up at a soup kitchen

Only if the soup kitchen is advertised as being open to anyone to reduce food waste!

Some of these reactions are unbelievable. This is not a food bank its to stop food going to waste.
I go to my local one, I'm not financially well off but am OK for grocery shopping. They make it clear it is for anyone who wishes to take some food and we have a coffee and a natter after.

There is no problem with your husband making use of the food pantry.

If it’s to stop food waste I assume it’s fresh food and had to be eaten that day. If no one takes it it goes in the bin,

Agreed, I hate saving waste too, what gives me the horn is seeing good food go to landfill.

That’s a bit like turning up to a soup kitchen that’s meant to be for the homeless / truly impoverished.
He sounds all out for himself and sod anyone else. Reminds me of that CEO who was caught on camera snatching a cap from a kid at the US open. Me me me.
He should be ashamed of himself.

no, our community pantry is definitely there to avoid food waste and anyone can go and help themselves. its all perishables.

And it also shows him to be in my mind someone who would never think of another and always assume he was high handedly right. Not really thoughtful or aware is he?
But as long as he's happy doing what he's doing in his little world........

We quite often get messages on community Facebook pages asking people to come and get the food as they have surplus and need it to be taken otherwise it will end up in the bin.

So the pantry is there to stop food waste and you know half of it is usually wasted and yet you leave it? And you think you’re doing a good thing?

It’s true that a community pantry is different to a food bank. But both are still aimed at those who need a bit of a helping hand

No.

It's about using up stuff which would otherwise go in the bin.

Yeah I thought it was a food bank. It’s not as bad as I thought, still not sexy obvs

You actually like food waste, to the point where others should spend money on it?
How very weird.

Your DH isn't doing anything wrong.
He wouldn't be seen as a CF here.

A friend volunteers at one and while I've never been to one myself we have various 'community fridges' in our area where surplus foods/drink that is on/past it's sell by date gets taken/delivered to.

Some charge a small fee, others don't.

They are ran totally separate from food banks in the area where only those that are given vouchers can go, still plenty of surplus food to go round.

Each and every member of the local communities are welcome to go to these 'community fridges', infact it's encouraged and advertised weekly on local FB groups as the surplus of food is quite extent in these areas and no one wants it to go into land fill.

@MumoftwoNCYellow sticker food is not food reduced for people on low incomes. It’s to try and get rid of it to reduce waste. YABU to deliberately not buy it and buy full price stuff if you could have used the reduced stuff. We have a massive problem with food waste in this country. You are directly contributing to that by not using the older but perfectly useable produce first. If it going to be no good by the time you needed it for sure by the newer.

It is irrelevant if someone on a lower income comes later and misses out. It is luck of the draw with yellow sticker stuff. Most of it still gets thrown out anyway.