nokturne213

In general the company who funds us. They also facilitate the government goods. I only volunteer and perform my duty handing out goods. I am not privy to anything else other than what the woman who runs it vents to me. Other than my parents, I am the longest serving volunteer and I know the distribution system of our goods very well, so she vents a lot of her frustrations to me.

2mo ago

All this produce is going to spoil at the food bank where I volunteer

Jump

We have already stopped getting any government commodities. We used to always have some kind of nut and dried fruit, for two years that I have been volunteering we always had those two things, since February we have not had either. We do not even have government cheese any longer.

2mo ago

All this produce is going to spoil at the food bank where I volunteer

Jump

The other obstacle is volunteer hours, as I mentioned in another reply, there is only so much we can do. Many of the volunteers are only there to get some extra food, others for community service (as required by a judge in restitution for a crime), others as required by their church. Most are ONLY there for the volunteer hours and do not care about anything other than getting their hours. They will not go beyond their basic duties.

There are weeks we barely have enough people to keep the doors open to give out food. I am no longer in a position to volunteer whenever they need me.

2mo ago

All this produce is going to spoil at the food bank where I volunteer

Jump

Trying to get it to animal farmers.

2mo ago

All this produce is going to spoil at the food bank where I volunteer

Jump

Because of bureaucracy we have to request this. If it is found out we are giving away the food to unapproved recipients we can lose all of our funding. If we give to unapproved recipients and they in turn give us prepared food to give out, that is okay.

Word got out that we were loading up my pickup with food and taking it to the homeless camps. I did get a number of them to start coming to the bank to get food. But it was easier when I could take stuff to them.

2mo ago

All this produce is going to spoil at the food bank where I volunteer

Jump

The tomatoes I took home Wednesday were moldy and unusable by Friday. I had planned to cook them Sunday morning.

2mo ago

All this produce is going to spoil at the food bank where I volunteer

Jump

The woman who runs the bank has been posting on Facebook. We have to be careful because we can lose our funding if it is discovered we give food to anyone And not only those in our system approved to get food.

2mo ago

All this produce is going to spoil at the food bank where I volunteer

Jump

We have tried to work with restaurants in the past, giving them extra produce for free and they in turn have to prepare so many meals for unhoused and our volunteers and they refused.

We are looking at being able to use the community kitchen to process it ourselves. The issue then comes down to enough volunteer hours to do this.

2mo ago

All this produce is going to spoil at the food bank where I volunteer

Jump

Rural nm (edit NM is the state abbreviation for New Mexico, a lot of US residents, our president included, think we are actually Mexico, but they still recognize the postal abbreviation NM. Using it is a work habit I have.)