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.

I love a bargain but I think where food is concerned I wouldn’t have the nerve to pick up massively reduced items if I didn’t actually need to. I hope he makes full use of his haul
and doesn’t end up throwing any of it away.

Why not suggest he joins the volunteers then he can pick up even more bargains at the end of the day? Or is he not that committed to saving food waste?

I dont buy reduced items if I can afford full price

Batshit.

A pantry won't ban him for helping reduce food waste. They aren't food banks!!

I run a service like this one and I think it’s quite a subtle thing – we market ourselves as being about alleviating food waste and being open to the community, but in practice the crux of our work is around avoiding food poverty, and a lot of the wording we use is to minimise stigma. In my case I think we get the balance right – the people who use our service are those who need it, and we have a handle on how much we bring in every week so that food waste is minimised – but I think it is really on a case by case basis. If I were in the OP’s shoes, or her husband’s, I would be trying to step back and look quite carefully at the service to understand if it was really open to all, or if there are certain members of the community they are trying to prioritise.

I agree with this! If I have throw meat or fish out, I give it to the dog, even if I have to cook it first. I hate the idea of something dying only to go in the bin!

I dont think the OPs husband is doing anything wrong at all.

Good for him. Initiatives like this end up closing if people don’t use them. It’s good to cut down on waste. He’s going once a week at the end of the day so no excess use is happening.

Also people who avoid yellow stickers in supermarkets to give poor people the chance to buy them seem crazy to me. You get all kinds of items reduced, like the finest range etc. You think poor people are going to buy the fancy stuff because it’s a £1 off?

I think people really don’t get it. So as someone whose OH does some volunteer work for both a local food bank and a local community pantry (& a bike recycle place & play streets actually) the two both have very different aims and generally offer very different items.

At our local food bank people come with a referral and it’s all about supporting those who are struggling. Users get a bag with a fixed set of food and toiletries based on household size. The items are not identical but food it mainly tinned/packaged dry goods, skewed towards things you don’t need to cook or can make up with hot water/cook in a microwave and any fresh food they buy from donations, with as long a shelf life as possible. On top of their bag people are welcome to supplement by helping themselves to some items that are close to their due date. The food bank don’t give away things past their best before dates.

Community Pantry people just turn up and it’s all about reducing food waste. In ours over 50% of the product is supermarket bakery food on or after its best before date. The remainder is mainly fruit, veg & flowers. They do have eggs, a small amount of dried goods and some toiletries/cleaning stuff. Everything is priced with the fresh food being very cheap (typically 10-50p for everything) where the longer life food and toiletries are often priced around the supermarket value range cost but are typically branded. They also break up large packs of loo roll/washing powder and similar and sell at cost, which allows someone struggling or just someone in a small household to pick up a small quantity of product with the usual bulk buy discounts.

We buy most of our bread there. I get a couple of loaves most weeks for toast and then if we want tortillas to make our own chips I usually have some from the pantry in the freezer. If people don’t use the food it gets thrown away and it can even end up costing the charity money if they can’t fit it all in their usual bins. People leaving it all for someone in need are not being that kind or helpful really.

The one nearest to us is not for poor people, it’s for anyone who wants it.

This
If it's a food bank, I'd say no as people who are struggling for food are in need of them.
A community food pantry that's about cutting waste though? Surely that's for everyone?! Better people use it than waste food and have it thrown away.

He's not doing anything wrong.
We have one in our town. Even with a big queue of people there's loads of stuff that doesn't get taken.
It's all things past sell by dates so its the last chance for it to go.
If he's steamrolling people out the way that's different.

It' not a food bank! It's a pantry set up to prevent unnecessary food wastage.
Their purposes are completely different.

But that’s not the point, surely? It’s not a food bank. In France, it’s now the law that supermarket excess/waste MUST be donated to community banks or food banks.

There’s one local to us which sadly has to close because it’s become too huge for the volunteers. Anyone can take however much they want.

It is a really important distinction. A community pantry or any waste food initiative is not like a food bank. These initiatives are generally intended for anyone to give food and anyone to take anything they can use - regardless of personal means. There is nothing shocking or disgusting about anybody using this resource, so much food is still wasted on a daily basis, it is great if we can use it up. Make sure your partner knows about Olio and Too Good to Go as well.
If people dont support these initiatives they will fail. As others have said there should be no stigma around these things. If you still feel squeamish about this, make sure that you don’t waste food at home and send any food you don’t want to the pantry or put your unwanted stuff on freecycle/ freegle etc.

Yep my well off uncle does this too in his village! He thinks it’s great that he comes back with so many goodies. He also stalks the reduced section at Waitrose for stuff too. He wouldn’t be seen in any other shop than Waitrose! Then it gets stuffed in their huge freezer. He retired early from his well paying job after paying off their mortgage years early. Really winds me up.

Our local one is to cut waste. I’ve seen ham in there with that data date. Bread and cakes. It’s mainly perishable stuff that the food bank (separate) don’t take.

People are very judgmental. I'd look at their website or social media and see what it says. Unless it's aimed only at helping people who are struggling, then what's the problem? 'The talk of the village'! 🙄Apparently some people would rather see perfectly good food go to waste than have some of it be taken by people who aren't struggling with poverty.

We had one like this near us before covid. It was definitely to cut waste and was open to everyone. I don’t see anything wrong with what your DH is doing tbh. He’s helping them achieve the aim of the pantry.

I wouldn't do it because I agree it could be a lifeline to others, even if it's not the main purpose of the pantry.

There is a Community pantry in my area, and it absolutely is for people in need. It partners with supermarkets to reduce food waste but at the same time - in the winter they will start stocking jackets, coats, winter boots. Things that people who are struggling find hard to pay for.

If he's going in to save the odd bag of veg from landfill, fine. But it is not the business of anyone in a higher tax bracket to be taking free coats, boots and sleeping bags when they can easily afford it.

Community pantries are not food banks. And usually, they seem to be in quite middle class areas, so if people like you aren’t taking the stuff it gets thrown away. Which defeats the object rather

A few of these in our area have stated on multiple occasions that these are available for all, and are not food banks. Their purpose is to reduce food being binned for no reason, and they want to encourage as many people as possible to use.

It totally depends on what the pantry is for.

• if it's to reduce food waste and the stuff is there because it's about to go off, brilliant, crack on
• if it's a food bank, wtf no je has to stop

I'd go further and say, if it's option 1, brilliant that he's using it because he's destigmatizing it for everyone. If you think of all the shame about food banks etc, seeing a tech bro take home some stilton that's on its last day means someone in actual need won't think twice about taking what they want, too. Go have a look at UN stats on food waste, they are terrifying, so anything that address this problem is good.

I think I would encourage your DH to go later in the day,so that he's not depriving other people but it is absolutely right that your household makes use of food that would otherwise be wasted. Normalising reduction of food waste is important. Perhaps you could suggest that he makes a donation to the community pantry or a local food bank to (at least) balance what he's saving.

Well, a few things...

a) this isn't the same community pantry

b) coats, boots and sleeping bags don't go off so there's not the same urgency to get them taken before they just go to waste

c) OP hasn't said anything about coats, boots and sleeping bags.

These answers are varied because it seems that community pantries vary in purpose depending on where you live. That means only the OP can say if it's right or wrong - OP, you will just need to find out what the actual purpose of the pantry is and whether or not there are people who really need to use it because they are struggling.
We have one around the corner that is absolutely for anyone. Most of the food has sell by and use by dates on the day of collection or the following day, but you can get bags of vegetables, loads of sandwiches, pastries, meat, all sorts - it varies each time. Usually there is a rule of two carrier bags per household, but other times they are begging people to take more of a certain item because it will otherwise end up in the bin. If the OP's pantry is like ours here, all the intense criticism of the OP's DH is completely unfair as the whole purpose of the pantry is to stop waste. But as I say, the OP needs to look into it, ask the volunteers, to find out if it's appropriate to go or not.