22 minutes ago, rotuts said:Im very pleased that your local Kroger
has found a fine place
to donate what they can
so many store have not looked into this
and thus are not able to help their communities.
Kroger gives away daily its deli, bakery and meat items that are about to expire. A different charity picks up daily, measures the donation by weight, and reports to the Food Bank, which keeps up with it and gives Kroger the donation credit for its taxes on a regular basis. Whatever the agency was that used to pick up on Fridays recently dropped out of the rotation, and the Food Bank, where we'd been buying our stuff, contacted us to see if we wanted to pick up. We did!
Two weeks ago (I was traveling and someone else picked up last week), we had the largest donation I've ever gotten -- more than 400 pounds of food. Fortunately, as I was dialing for assistance (usually its a little more than 200 pounds, and I can handle it by myself), some friends came in and I drafted them for help. They're going to help on a regular basis. They don't have a lot of money, and a BIG family, so I make sure plenty goes home with them. I'd guess today was in the neighborhood of 300 pounds. Would have been about normal sized if not for the mega-load of chicken.
Arkansas does have a good system of distributing donated food. There are five regional food banks spread over the state, coordinated by the Arkansas Hunger Relief Alliance. They receive donations of bulk food from processors, etc., and coordinate delivery of them to the banks where they're needed. Those banks also take donations from groceries and processors in their area. Several different churches have food pantries, which can buy food (for like 10 cents a pound) from the Food Bank, as can charitable programs that provide food (senior centers, day cares, summer kid feeding programs, nursing homes run on a non-profit basis, etc.)
Works pretty well.
