DH is using community pantry for free food

[cookingaroast]

There is a community pantry in our village, with the purpose being to cut food waste. I completely support cutting down on food waste, and the food provided is all from supermarkets who would otherwise throw the food out. My issue is more I'm a bit uncomfortable with us taking the food.
We are both in the tech industry and both fall into the higher tax bracket for our salaries, more than capable of paying for food ourselves.

I've said to DH I don't think we should be utilising this resource and leave the food for others who need it more than us but he loves the bargains (free food) he gets from it. He genuinely wants to show off the stuff he's picked up whenever he goes - which is usually once a week.

I guess I feel a bit uncomfortable that this free food could be a lifeline to people. I do like charity shopping and getting a bargain but I don't feel as bad, as I'm paying what they decide they feel it's worth and the money is going to charity. This is completely free and run by volunteers.

For me it would depend on what he takes. If it things like extra fruit and vegetables that would spoil then I think that ok (as long as he donates as well) but if it's things that are more for the needy such as tinned food, cereal and pasta ect) then that's not ok.

No, I meant the food bank in your local area. From what you describe (queueing, no pre-packed boxes, conveyor belt) I can understand why those in need do not use it.
Trussell Trust food banks are not like that at all.

Most of the hubs people are describing would not allow a client to prepare a number of full family meals 1) because they rarely have that sort of selection and 2) they limit was individuals can take.

What you run sound laudable, but it's really not the food hub/pantries that most people are thinking about, and certainly not what OP's husband is visiting.

It is a Trussell.

Although my only experience is of that one food bank. So unlike the hubs and network of which I have extensive and high level knowledge, I can't make any comments on food banks other than knowing the one in our area is barely fit for purpose. Maybe others are far better.

To say I hear horror stories would be over dramatic, but I continually hear how undignified people feel and they have to be pretty rock bottom and desperate for food to undergo how humiliating the process is there. I've not been as a client, but have driven past and seen the queue which is visible from the heavily trafficked road. That's the first thing I'd change. Just queue at the back of the building instead of about 30 cars a minute. That's a lot of people who are local to you likely to drive past. There's no privacy and it's a private and personal matter in my opinion.

I have read what you wrote.

You have explained your specific hub is primarily about reducing food poverty not food waste. When someone else who works for a different branch of the same charity has said theirs is about waste you’ve said they have misunderstood as they don’t see what goes on behind the scenes. When other people have suggested your hub might be a different thing you’ve refuted it (unless their hub is a small stand in a hall). You’ve flat out stated you publish it’s about food waste but you don’t really mean it. If I believe everything you have written is correct then we’ve been doing a load to help a local food pantry (particularly my OH) and encouraging our friends to pick stuff up there and help reduce food waste but by doing so we are operating against their real aims. In my shoes might you also be a bit more inclined to think you are misrepresenting things on an anonymous forum than to think the people we know at the pantry have lied to our faces repeatedly about how it works? Honestly if you just said they are all different and mine works like this I’d think nothing of it but you’ve been super insistent they all work like yours and then the stuff about you have to say x to get a grant just sounds dodgy as anything as if that’s true then aren’t you getting restricted donations in and using them for something else and if so isn’t that against charity commission rules?

You are determined to take this aggressive black and white narrative, regardless of what's actually written. Only you know why, because the other posters aren't struggling to interpret what we are saying to each other.

If they are a registered charity though, it could get them into hot water. You have to be clear about your aims, which are usually in the charity objects and articles, and you have to ensure that everyone is working to, and not outside of, those aims.

Yes, I think the teeny hubs that are more like home growers just dropping off three little bags of excess tomatoes from their greenhouse are a different ball game. Free honesty boxes, essentially. These typically aren't where you'll find the essential need users the bigger hubs are critically supporting.

The proper full scale hubs, you can indeed make a meal. Sometimes a bit of a odd meal, but a meal. Sometimes a magnificent one. We always have veg and potatoes. And we have the ambient stuff too. Limited protein. Usually soups and bread.

From what OP wrote, I would think she means her husband is taking items from a larger scale operation. He is unlikely to be crowing about his bargains if it's a carrier bag of runner beans from Jim 3 doors down. Could be wrong.

I have no idea what you think is so clear to everyone but me. It is a pretty straightforward question to answer of do you actually know all hubs operate like yours or do you just mean the one you work at does? I don’t think our local one operates like the one you volunteer at or intends to but then I’ve already seen you insist someone else who has said the same they are wrong. I’d actually like to know as if you are right then I’ll be honest I don’t think I my OH would want any involvement in it anymore. He’d be embarrassed and annoyed to have been actively encouraged to get people to use a service to reduce food waste when they actually were not really welcome. If it’s true people volunteering at your charity don’t know what’s going on behind the scenes and are giving out the wrong message because they didn’t realise you were saying one thing and meaning something completely different that really is a pretty shitty way to treat people giving up their time to try and help.

Are you sure it's Trussell Trust? It doesn't sound like it's being run properly and you should inform someone.

Yes I’d asked that to the poster insisting they say food waste reduction but mean food poverty really. I also thought you had to be super careful, particularly with restricted funds. I think OH has helped our local one with finding applications before and honestly reading this makes me question if it’s such a great idea for him to do in future as he’s an accountant and misrepresenting something he completes on their behalf would likely not be good from a professional ethics standpoint either. It’s not my area of expertise by any stretch as I do management accounting but I have a vague recollection from long ago exams. It’s very much his area as he does books professionally for and audits a lot of mid sized charities.

I have genuinely considered this. But Trussell are giants. And everyone donates to them because they are the food bank. I don't think it would make the slightest difference if I said something, probably just give them something to be cross about and make it known locally.

i think it’s your imagination or wishful thinking

Ah, so if you can't understand something very clearly written down, or it doesn't suit your narrative, you tell people they must be imagining it.

Helpful to know.

I don’t donate to Trussell, I lose trust when orgs get too big. Luckily we have somewhere very local to donate to, I can see their work every time I drive past.

well there was a large number of people telling you that (a) their locations are run in a different way than you describe, with genuine goals to reduce food waste, and (b) what you describe might be breaching the charity commission rules, but you keep insisting that they are wrong and you are the only one knowing THE TRUTH, that the stated goals are not the same as actual goals.
sounds like you are just ignoring what doesn’t suit your narrative

Exactly this. It’s a blatant example of the privileged taking from those with far less, and it’s shameful. Your DH isn’t “clever” for gaming the system — he’s exploiting a service meant for people who are struggling to get by. With his income, he should be funding the Community Pantry, not raiding it. What makes it even more appalling is how many others here seem eager to do the same and twist it into something virtuous to excuse their greed.

I wish more people thought like you.

Our food bank is open a frankly pathetic 2hrs a week, but takes in 85% of all donations in the area. The other 15% is split between three other places. Mine, open every day. Another close by, open 4 hours a day, 4 times a week. And another place, which does not a lot to be honest.

Mine, and the 4 days a week place support treble the people, per week, that the food bank does. And yet we get just over 5% of donations a week each. Trussell supports a third of the people on 85%. Drives me and the other charity crazy. But you can't be bad mouthing the food bank, which is all it would look like if either she or I tried to take those figures anywhere.

Unless he is the manager of a supermarket or restaurant or food distribution centre how would he fund it exactly?
The donations are unsold fresh goods (or sometimes a persons excess home grown veg/fruit).

We have one in our town too. I originally thought it was like a food bank, but it's not, it's to prevent food waste and anyone can use them.

Oh, I didn't realise that the OP's husband was coming to the food pantry at the end of the day to get the leftovers before they went into the bin!
That's okay then.

No, that’s literally what the pantry is: food that will be thrown out if no one takesit quickly. That’s the whole point of it, whatever time of day you turn up.

IT IS NOT A FOOD BANK.

I would suggest to him that the household makes donations to the food banks commensurate with the value of what he is taking from the community pantry. If you don't need it, it seems a reasonable compromise and is a win-win for both the community pantry (saving food from landfill) and the food bank (being provided with more shelf-stable food).

That's the whole point - ALL the food is donated left overs/unsolds.

It's not really mixed though, is it? Anyone here who has, or volunteers in, a local community pantry/fridge, has made it clear that he's doing nothing wrong. The only people thinking he's doing something wrong are those who seem not to understand the purpose of the pantries.
But yes, our fridge has a donation pot for anyone in a position to pay something towards what they collect, and it helps keep the place going. So if they have one I suggest he puts a pound or two in.