Today's Trip To The Food Bank

As most the folks that have been on here a while know, the bride and I donate extra food to the local Food Bank. We also walk up and down the paths of our complex asking folks for donations if they happen to have extra veg or fruit.

The most that we have had this year so far was ten crates full in a day. Today we had seven...which isn't bad.

One chap went way-out and washed and arranged his donation and bundled them with twine. This is absolutely not a requirement for donors, but when someone does this...it gets noticed.


We gathered it up and placed it in its own crate:


Like most donors, he came in especially to harvest and prepare his donation for us. Most folks do not go this far, as I said...although their veg is clean and edible. By "clean" I mean that most of the dirt has been brushed off. They do not remove slugs and dead leaves usually...but if we have time, we do that ourselves before taking the veg in. Sometimes we must help folks harvest if their donations are not quite ready when we do our pick-up route. Today's donations were varied and included many different types of veg.

We collect at our allotment complex and this year, we go to a new one. It is smaller, but they manage to collect quite a bit of veg anyway. It is so nice to see folks give their extra veg to the Food Bank instead of just letting it rot in the garden or compost.

Here is a foto of two of the Food Bank volunteers that were on duty this morning.The veg that you see is what we collected today.


Most of the donations from supermarkets and so forth were already put away. It is a quiet time for donations now as many folks are away on vacations. This donation will go into the cooling immediately and then be given out tomorrow morning.

 

We don't have a lot of extra vegetables to share but any extras we have is donated to the Seniors Center. They serve very low cost meals to seniors and anything extra is always appreciated. Vine ripened tomatoes are especially appreciated.

 

There is a Food Bank here called Fishes and Loaves. They would be overjoyed to receive such bounty. Kudos to the Chap who bothered to bundle his donation.
We give neighbors extra produce from our bounty.

 

Very nice to see such nice produce donated,..its a bonus to have someone go to the effort of washing and preparing the produce like in the picture,..to add it all two Food Bank Volunteers with beaming happy smiles

 

Idea ! If there is a surplus, the less-privileged might freeze or can the produce.

 

That is really good, it is great to be able to create abundance and be able to share the fruits of your labours. Now if only those hungry people could have their own garden patch too (if they wanted)

 

Excellent job. I think those who use the Food Banks really appreciate fresh garden produce.

 

Great idea, Odif. The city of Detroit no has green spaces where people can raise gardens. Nearby Brownstown allows residents to have a raised bed garden by their Museum, for a small fee to cover water and timbers to build the bed.

 

Thanks so much for your nice words, EILEEN--I hope so too. There can be no excess of fresh veg there.

That sounds like a good plant there too, 2OF.

Hello GROWING--it is interesting to hear of the project there in Michigan. Thanks so much for your comments. If there was enough for the recipients to freeze or can I'll bet they would; however, there is actually very little fresh veg for the several hundred people using the Food Bank. Just too many families and too little fresh veg. What a great initiatief there in Brownstown and Detroit.

Thanks for your nice comments, PHILIP.

ODIF--It would be nice if the Food Bank clients had the time and/or inclination to garden. I do not know any folks personally but the leader there at the Food Bank tells me that the clients are at rock bottom and scraping-by with just a few euro's per week. It is tragic.

ISLANDL--I hope sincerely that you are right. According to the co-ordinator the people are quite happy to get the lottie veg. The Food Bank personnel do not put our fresh veg in every basket, but rather the clients must ask specifically for it. Not every client is interested in the fresh veg, this way when folks ask for the fresh veg---we know that they want it and it will not be wasted.

 

Sjoerd, it's so sad knowing hunger is in every nation.

 

You are too right, Growing...Well, we cannot save the world, but we can help out a little here locally. It requires so little effort.