Is this Facebook post reasonable or rude and ungrateful?

[Cantheowneroftheredcorsapleasemovetheircar]

Opinions in the comments are split. What's yours?

YABU - rude and ungrateful
YANBU - understandable

They have no idea on where the food comes from and how its been stored or treated. Its therefore unusuable.

The content is reasonable the tone is rude. The same message could've been delivered differently.

We know whoever is leaving bread and fresh produce is doing so with the best of intentions, but unfortunately we are unable to distribute out of date items and are having to bin most of it, which has led to us incurring additional waste removal charges. We appreciate the gesture but would ask that donations are shelf stored long date items such as tins and packets. We have other mechanisms in place for collecting and distributing fresh goods daily. Thanks all for your continued support blah blah blah

Depends how they ask for donations and how specific they are. If they have generally said they want donations and not mentioned anything or mentioned bread as a staple component, it's rude and ungrateful, as the problem is their lack of organisation is sorting/distributing donations.

If they have made it known that they can't take perishables, don't want bread at this time, or put out a list of what they would like that doesn't include bread because it goes off too fast and they can't keep up with it, or it's not what their clients want, then it isn't rude and ungrateful at all.

Food banks tend to be well run, well oiled machines. Providing fresh food that they haven’t asked for and have no idea how it has been stored is plain stupid.

Perfectly fine. You can sense their exasperation. This isn't just a one off and causes them extra bother. Extra bother caused by a few individuals who have shifted their problem onto someone else and are probably patting themselves on the back for 'doing a good deed'.
The only thing I would maybe add to the message is to encourage the 'donor' to meet with the organisation so that they can chat through why this isn't appropriate. People tend to understand more when you can have back and forth conversation.

Guarantee they’ve asked nicely 20 times and are at the end of their tether.

I'm kind of surprised anyone thinks it's an unreasonable post, for these reasons.

If people just see a charity as a dumping ground without bothering to take the time to find out whether what they're planning is a help or a hindrance then they're the problem and need to see this.

There was a thread a while ago with hundreds of posts telling a poster to simply donate unwanted toiletries to charities - even ones that listed what they could take and didn't include bath bombs etc. There is a point where you're just offloading the disposal of your things onto someone else because it makes you feel better.

Can’t be used- they likely have no safe place to store it AND have no idea whether it’s been appropriately stored thus far.

Understandable but rude. There are a lot of other nicer ways of saying please don’t.

That’s the thing about facebook posts, texts etc, they are open to different interpretations. First time I read it I didn’t think it was rude but after reading the comments on this thread I read it again and understood how it could be seen as rude by others. Facebook is a crazy place though and someone will always be offended no matter how it’s worded.

Dump unwanted and unusable food and just let a charity deal with it and what? Expect to be thanked as opposed to a request to stop?

It's a perfectly fine post.

The original makes the point more effectively in fewer words.

And tbh I think the wording is perfectly courteous, albeit blunt. Dressing things up in handwringing understatement doesn't get the message across.

Why would anyone be grateful to have old food dumped and left outside overnight?

Imagine spending your free time organising a local food bank and when asking people not to donate certain things getting actual abuse and being called ungrateful. AND THEN the post going national!!!

Yes it might have been worded slightly more sensitively, but they will have asked people not to do this 100 times. At this time of year the food bank volunteers are run ragged. Ffs - these people are saints- cut them some slack.

Even if they had specifically asked for fresh bread and sandwiches, leaving plastic bags of it outside overnight isn't 'donating' it's 'dumping'.

People know, whether it's a food bank or a charity shop, if you are making a donation you need to go inside and hand your donation over to someone or place it in a marked container.

Just leaving bags of stuff outside is fly tipping.

Reasonable. Sure its common sense that if you dump fridge stored food somewhere for someone to find, anything from 5 minutes to 2 days later (because how on earth could they know) its no longer safe for them to pass on- even if they could store it, which its unlikely they could? Its basic food hygiene 101

Why should they be grateful for something that attracts vermin and costs them money?

people who donate to make themselves feel good will see it as rude. people who donate to make a difference will see it as reasonable.

Who needs fruit, veg and bread in bin bags left in the street overnight? Would you eat it or give it to your kids?

The people dumping the food don't have the best intentions, they've probably picked up a load of left over food from a supermarket through Olio/TGTG, taken the best bits and dumped the rest.

Same as people who dump tat on the doorsteps of charity shops - they've not doing it with good intentions, they just don't want to have to dispose of their rubbish themselves so are pushing the cost and effort onto volunteers.

That's a really good way of looking at it.

This looks to me like a pick up from a place like Food Diverse who offer free collections of close to use by date food from supermarkets and restaurants etc. My church gets collections every week - we get it in green crates and big plastic bags like the ones in the photo.

It is probably a local charity/organisation who are registered and get a regular collection and they are trying to off load what they don't want or need. There can often be lots, especially bread, and you never know what you're going to get until you turn up but it is up to the organisation/charity who has the collections to ensure that the food is used and not dumped. It's not ungrateful of the church to ask people to stop.

I doubt an actual charity or organisation would dump bags of food outside.

Maybe they've tried putting it nicely and keep getting ignored. It certainly reads like they are exasperated with people doing this as if it's been going on a while.

The message is fine. The delivery is not professional for an organisation. It should have read more or less ‘thank you so much, we appreciate, a small ask is don’t put this in because of this and that. Once again thank you so much yada yada’. ‘Whoever is doing this can you please stop’ absolutely had me 😂😂😂