Community larder - would you use one

[Moana987]

If you didn't need to for financial reasons?

Within a 15 minute drive I have 3 Community larders where you just go and help yourself. Sometimes they have some decent stuff in and other times its just stale bread left.

I use them now and again, when passing I may have a look but financially I dont need to use them so I feel guilty sometimes encase others need the food.

They are not food banks. They are to stop food that's perfectly fine going to waste.

Would you use one?

I can't tell you how many times I've had a call late at night from a retailer or distributor - would we like 300 Asian ready meals, now, tonight? How about a pallet of dipping sauces from a major fast food place, because they are "limited edition" and the campaign has now ended? Or beautiful legs of lamb and veg that a food stylist (yes, really) has prepared and shot for a new advert, which is now done? Planning / logistics is a huge part of the issue on both sides ime.

Virtually everything our community organisation gives away, is perishable fruit and veg. It's all very well saying that supermarkets should plan better, but customer demand is unpredictable, and largely depends on the weather. Supermarkets and farmers can't react to a heatwave or a week of cold and rainy weather in July, overnight.

As for supermarkets getting something out of giving away surplus, that can only be good, as it means they won't throw it into landfill. I don't think there's a need to be cynical about it.

The stupidest one was a professional team building company who had run a session with a huge finance company, with staff making and packaging up cooking kits for the less fortunate. Brilliant, but they hadn't found any less fortunate to actually give it to, and hadn't really thought about food hygiene when chopping up and bagging veg etc. Finance Co had paid Team Building Co north of £3k for their lovely time helping the less fortunate. Most of the fresh stuff had to be binned, though the packs of noodles, coconut milk etc were fine to use.

The food that my organisation gets is from two supermarkets. One half a mile away, one two miles away. So the fossil fuel thing is meaningless. Me driving to the pantry for my volunteer shift probably uses more petrol.

I used to, and paid forward. But now I have an allotment, I take surplus there.

Shops get to a point where they need to close for the day so they can't keep attempting to sell everything. Even if they reduced it to nothing to give away for free they can't stay open incase people turn up.
Also big supermarkets tend to be on the edges of towns that most people have to drive to but community fridges are often in places like a community centre which are walking distances from peoples homes.

This, and inevitably sometimes the perishable stock ordered won't match what people have happened to come through the door wanting that day. Supermarkets do a lot of work to try and minimise how often this happens, but there are always going to be some curveballs. And fuck ups too. It's not 100% predictable.

Even giving perishable things away for free doesn't mean enough people will inevitably take them before shops have to get rid. Especially as people tend now to have some idea that disposing of things is a potential cost to them. Most of us get less in the way of free waste collection than we did 20, 30, 40 years ago.

None of which is to say that supermarkets don't benefit from the PR, of course.

Oh yes the turkeys after Christmas is always a funny one. But most of time it’s seasonal or loads of beer gone off fruits / veg and bread oh so much bread. Baguettes and batons bane of my life. Only so many garlic pizza sticks even the children want.

and as you say seasonal so once hallowed has been the spooky foods come though even though it’s still the same item just shaped like a ghost.