I once had a gentleman who stopped by our food pantry every week with a bag of food to donate. Unfortunately, every time the items he gave us were grubby, damaged beyond use or exceptionally expired. It got to the point where we would barely glance at them after he left before throwing the bag away because it was never of a quality that we’d be comfortable sharing with clients.

One day, when he handed me a gallon of milk that was over a month past its expiration date, I finally asked him where he was getting this food.

“I’m dumpster diving. I know you guys need food and I thought this would help. Someone can use this.”

My jaw dropped. I gently explained to him that while we appreciated the thought, we needed to ensure that all the food we gave away was safe to eat, which we could not do it if was salvaged from a dumpster. We haven’t seen him since.

It’s true that the US wastes extraordinary amounts of food. It’s also true that donations of discarded and unwanted food are the primary food source for most anti-hunger organizations like food banks. The demand for food far outweighs the capacity for anti-hunger organizations to purchase it. However, as my experience with the above-mentioned donor illustrates, it also perpetuates the idea that it’s okay for people experiencing poverty to eat food we would deem as garbage.

There is enough food in the US that food pantry clients don’t have to eat damaged, discarded, or expired options. There is not a food shortage in this country- simply a lack of access.

Food waste has been adopted as the primary tool of food banks thanks to the benefits of donation (tax write-offs and public relations), and our cultural preference that people in poverty eat lower-quality food. It was largely a result of the impacts of the pandemic that food banks began dedicating more money to food purchasing rather than depending solely upon donations, and hopefully this trend continues.

Food pantries and banks need food. This system would not currently function without donations of discarded, unwanted, and damaged items. Most of the time, this food is perfectly fine to eat. Expiration dates are simply a date of maximum nutritional value and not a food safety concern. Canned and dry goods are completely fine up to ten years past their expiration date if the packaging and container are all intact.

Donations often include food that can’t be sold for many reasons besides being old; the store over-ordered and doesn’t have storage capacity; the boxes fell over in transit and are damaged but unopened; one container in a pack of many was damaged but the rest are intact. Perishable foods are more complicated to evaluate- but my pantry has a standard by which we assess every item and a timeline of how long past the expiration date it is appropriate and safe to distribute an item.

Perpetually running on a scarcity mindset, food pantries are often encouraged to distribute as much food as possible, which encourages the distribution of foods long past their viability date.

When the food bank receives a donation of onions, they are pressured to get those onions to food pantries who will salvage the best ones for distribution to clients. This doesn’t mean that clients are getting good quality onions- it only means that they’re not getting the worst ones.

New Ways of Thinking

The goal of an anti-hunger organization should not be to give out as much food as humanly possible, but to make sure that what we do give out is safe, nutritious, and respectful. This attitude can be difficult for many food pantries to adopt as they are conditioned to a scarcity mindset where food is in such short supply it feels wrong to throw anything out. Ensuring that all the food on the shelves is dignified and useful will help cultivate client trust. Client satisfaction increases enormously when clients don’t feel like they need to inspect every single item of food for safety and viability.

Our food pantry asks two questions when we’re evaluating if food is appropriate to give to clients.

1. Would someone be able to wait until tomorrow to eat this (or is it going to go bad immediately)?
2. Will this food bring someone joy? Will a shopper pick this up and be excited to show it to their family when they get home? Although you can certainly salvage the inner layers of a moldy onion, no one feels joy receiving such an item in a time of need. It does mean we toss out some foods that some people might consider usable, but we ensure that our clients feel respected and cared for.

Rather than emphasizing how much food is saved from the landfill, food banks and pantries should emphasize the quality of foods donated and how they lend dignity to the experience of visiting a food pantry. Rhetoric like this will help us move away from the idea that its appropriate for food pantry clients to eat whatever we salvage from the landfill.

Food donations are essential to the food banking industry. No organization has the budget to purchase all the food they need to support their neighbors experiencing hunger. But it is also time that we rethink the food we give with an emphasis on quality to move away from the idea that anyone deserves any less than the freshest, healthiest food out there.

The opinions expressed here are solely my own and do not express the views or opinions of my employer.