DH is using community pantry for free food

The bottom line is that unless specified otherwise, they are available to everyone because the aim is preventing food waste.

It isn't selfish or awful or vile or any other name OP's husband has been called to use something as intended.

Not all community tables or fridges have food which is "nearly expired". Mine certainly doesn't. The only stuff that has to be used quickly is fruit veg and bread Everything else is frozen at the centre or it's tins and packets that aren't short dated

And for people stating that some people aren't reading the thread properly - the OP didn't say what her husband was taking, how much and what products.

The bottom line is for me if you are poor and using one of these tables - you need the food more than someone on 70k plus a year. The table I use has been a lifeline for me. I don't run in the door after I go going look - bargains. It helps me save money that I need for other things.

Oh and by the way. For people shouting about landfill. Loads of things end up in landfill. Clothes. All sorts of stuff. If someone really wants to be eco then they need to think about extending that to other aspects of their life. Like not buying fast fashion or not flying long haul.

Taking from a community table once a week really doesn't help much re stuff being thrown in landfill sites. I buy second hand clothes and I have done for almost twenty years. Anything that no longer fits me gets donated back to charity. There's more to being eco minded than taking food from Olio or a community pantry or table

Yes, preventing nearly expired food from going to landfill is awful.

What is "truly awful" is people who don't read past the OP.

No, that is truly awful

It was fresh veg and people were either saying they did not eat that or ylthat they didn’t know how to cook it.

Wealth or poverty is all in the mind. Imo.

We have this in our village. They go around preschools, school and churches to ask if we know
who would need food and have a number to ring if you are struggling and they put bits aside for you. The rest is for anyone, they get loads of cakes from the coop, I sometimes take a bakewell tart if they have one and I'm not struggling. I know this because I work in the preschool and we have some families who get a good few bags of shopping each week because they need it. They don't need 27 loaves of bread and 42 packets of custard dougnuts, or 20 sticks of celery so the rest gets put on a table and anyone regardless of finances is enouraged to take some. I expect your village has the same so wouldn't worry too much, I'm sure they help people who are struggling too.

It's hilarious, I have only read a few pages and got the jist of it 🤣 😂

.... AND can't get a job due to any number of reasons ( rampant discrimination of every kind ; being over 45 , no transport to distant warehouses , 500 applications by internet for each bottom-rung supermarket post ,area of high unemployment , mild disabilities ........... etc . . . . . . . . etc . . . . . ..

More bang your head against the wall in frustration at people who don't read the thread 😂😂😂

This is quite incredible : you probably have a household income of $95 000 + , yet I see so many people on 7 - 15 000 who can't afford food/heating ... it beggars belief that the rich are SO COMPLETELY OUT OF TOUCH and up their own !

🙄

Cancel the cheque?

What a despicable person he is.

Absolutely.
I didn't even realise we had a food pantry near us but after reading this thread, it turns out we do. They are open to everyone specifically to reduce waste. Which has to be a good thing surely.

@Roobarbtwo thinking about it the one by my mum calls itself a "Community Fridge" rather than "Pantry" because it is literally fresh stuff that needs gone asap.
Which sounds similar to the one the OP describes.

@Roobarbtwo yes they will massively vary depending on where they are.
The one you describe sounds very different to the one I know of in my mums town (unsold boxes from the local Hello Fresh distribution centre) and sounds different to the one the OP describes.
I apologise for generalising because I know these schemes will vary and are not all the same.
The point is the one the OP describes - it's sounds like her husband is doing exactly what it's intended for and he is doing nothing wrong.

Again - a generalisation. The community table I use used to get donations from Tesco and Marks and Spencer. They now get their frozen food from Fare Share which they either give away or sell on for a very small donation and the pantry allows someone to pick up six items for three pounds. Tins. Packets. Cereals. Some pantries buy long life food for a reason

The pantry I use also provides holiday clubs for kids during the school holidays where they get a meal and activities. A lunch club where people can get soup and a toastie low cost. They do family meals too. They know the area and most of the work they do is to try and help people who are struggling. It's not means tested as I said before so in theory you could get some people using it who don't need the service. But there are people who use it who are on low incomes.

And if as you say - all the food was simply left over doughnuts - do you honestly think someone on a high salary is going to be excited coming home every week with a packet of doughnuts that are going to go out of date the next day? I wouldn't actively go out of my way if I was on a high income to go to a community pantry for a pack of doughnuts

The food isn't all rubbish that's going to go out of date at every community pantry - some of these organisations are trying to make a difference to people's lives

Maybe he could volunteer and help, rather than take, take, take.

Tomato soup is only 63p at tesco or Aldi. Waitrose is expensive. Of course anyone can shop there, but it's not going to be people with real budget constraints.

Waitrose have an essentials range. A tin of Waitrose essentials tomato soup is 70p. Why shouldn't people in poverty go to Waitrose? When people are poor - it makes sense to shop around.

I used to shop at Morrison because their yellow stickers in my area used to be excellent. I shop more at Aldi and Lidl now because they aren't so good these days

It's disgraceful for someone afluent to take resources that will otherwise be taken by a less afluent family

But again, how do you manage that? Should the OP's husband stand outside the pantry - which might be the size of a garden shed with no volunteers/staff - asking people "Are you poor?" or maybe "What's your salary?" or "how much is in your bank account - show me on your app?"

I used to run a weekly subject-interest group at a local community centre on the same day as the Community Pantry was held on the premises.The centre leaders actively encouraged me to use the pantry before going home despite my misgivings.They said that the more people who registered to use it,the more muscle it gave them to purchase stock and offer a wider choice on top of whatever had been donated.It's used by the whole community,especially students during term time as the centre is in the middle of a high student HMO area.The one stipulation to using our centre is that you must have a link to the centre (eg attend an activity) or live in the neighbourhood to use it.

It's disgraceful for someone afluent to take resources that will otherwise be taken by a less afluent family. However, it is not disgraceful if there's actually no one else of any afluence level who wants it, and it is otherwise going to go to waste.

How much effort does your DH put in to publicising and helping other people to access the community pantry? Could he volunteer to help administer it, or publish news about it in local facebook groups, or give people a lift if they can't physically get to it and need it?

I ask this because my dad is in a similar kind of situation where he sometimes does bring home a free bargain from the community pantry - but as he's one of the most active volunteers helping to keep it going, and he collects the food from the supermarkets and puts loads of effort into helping the people who need it to access it - he knows that he is only bringing home things that honestly no one else wants or needs because he's made every effort to distribute it elsewhere and it's got to the point where if someone doesn't eat it, it's going to actually be unusable and go to waste

This thread just goes to prove how may utterly stupid people there are on here. It’s honestly terrifying that an 800 post thread can make the same point over and over, and so many posters are so determined to miss it.