Saturday, October 6, 2012

The Couponers Delima--Donations

Why is it that some things are not good enough for me, yet are good enough for the masses?

That is a question I have been thinking about the past few weeks. I am pretty discerning in the food that I eat. The majority of my food comes from whole ingredients, and about 50% of the time it is organic produce, and 100% of the time it is organic meats. That is good for me, good for the planet, and good for the animals. 

But....what about the food that I get for free or for cheap that I donate to the food pantry? Should that be a higher quality food too?

I think it comes down to a question of quality or quantity. When donating food to food banks, we tend to donate a cheaper, lower quality of food because its cheaper, and we can get more product for our money. Is this a problem?

For example, if I were able to buy a prepackaged meal that I would never consider feeding my family because it is fattening and has no nutritional value, should I donate that item to the food bank? Is it better that someone has something, anything to eat, even if it is not good for them? Will donating these types of items to the food pantry encourage diabetes and obesity? Or, is just having something to eat good enough?

This is a question that I don't have an answer to. What do you guys think? I would really like you to weight in and let me know your thoughts. 

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

o thats a great question, I have no idea what I would do.

lesley: the dream tree said...

hmmm, gets you thinking. well i guess like you said, it's better than nothing. unfortunately that's why sometimes people who are less fortunate have more heath problems because of money or lack of services. same applies to food i think.

Denise said...

pretty sure we should not give anything less than what we would accept for ourselves...that said I LOVE hearing about people who donate from their garden.

Brooke said...

That's a hard question. personally i eat crap food, so i have no problem donating crap food. BUT i think the reason i eat this type food is its what i grew up on. my family was poor - our only veggies were from the garden. so now i only eat green beans, okra, corn, and green peppers (the kinds of things you'd find in an east TN garden.

when corn, mashed potatoes, and biscuits is the best you can serve - you really don't have the luxury of wondering if its a complete meal. when frozen salisbury steak or spam are the meats you can afford, you save them and they become "treats". of course we were the type that would have never gone to a food pantry. thankfully in our time of most desperate need (dad out of work due to medical emergency) the church came to us. my sister and i remember that as the best Christmas ever - we had more toys than any other year. i think that speaks volumes to how much the church cared for us.

so maybe i do think giving crap is bad.