If you are going to donate to a food drive...

Before donating to a food drive, wherever you may live, please read this, and think about it:

(Not originally written by me, but adjusted to fit more than just one city setting, and to add some food bank information. This was written by a friend of a friend, really, and so the "I" in it is not me.)

Imagine going to your local grocery store, only instead of wandering the aisles picking out the food you want, you're handed a pre-packed bag at the checkstand. That's your dinner for the next week. If you don't like it, too bad; you'll have to eat it because it's all you're getting.

Welcome to the food bank.

Around many cities this time of year, there are almost as many food donation barrels as espresso stands. Traditionally, we all clean out our cabinets and drop off the rejects -- we get to feel industrious for cleaning and virtuous for donating. As a formerly homeless person who at one point could have written a Zagat guide to Seattle food banks, I'd like to ask you to try something different this year: give like a hungry person.

Seriously. If all of your meals for the next week were coming from that donation box, what would you put in there? That's what you should donate -- one day's worth of non-perishable food you would choose for yourself. If you'd be thrilled by the prospect of having that dented can of split pea soup for breakfast, donate it. I'm guessing, though, that there's a reason it's been hanging out in your pantry for the last three years.

A few ground rules:

1. Do not give anything you would not want to eat. Odds are that no one else wants to eat it, either. Grocery stores donate enough to cover the "food in scary-looking packages" base. If you wouldn't pick it up off the shelf, don't put it in the bin.

2. Don't give stupid things. I once received a two-quart tub of candied fruitcake fruit from a food bank and eventually had no choice but to eat it. I enjoyed that almost as much as I enjoyed thinking, "I am reduced to eating something so awful that someone donated it to a food drive just to get rid of it." Some food is just too horrible to wish on anyone else.

3. Consider giving food that can be eaten without cooking. When I was homeless, I didn't carry my microwave around. Even living indoors, people have a hard time cooking if their landlord won't fix the broken stove or the power company just shut off the electricity again. That's why some food banks specifically offers no-cook food bags. Think granola bars, crackers (including cheese and cracker packages), spam, tuna, peanut butter -- anything you'd take on a long hike.

4. Make it easy to get at. Aseptic packaging and pouches are better than pull-top cans are better than traditional cans. It sucks even more than usual to be hungry if you've got a perfectly good can of food and no way at all to get the bloody thing open.

5. Choose items that don't require elaborate preparation. A boxed cake that says "just add water" is much better than one that wants milk, eggs, vegetable oil, and whatever else it can think of. Instant oatmeal is great; oatmeal that wants to be cooked for an hour isn't so good. Also useful are multitaskers -- Bisquick rocks.

6. Be nice. Most of what food banks need is pretty basic, but I still remember how finding cookies in a bag from the food bank could make me smile all day. When you're too poor to feed yourself, small things take on more significance. Try to include at least one item you'd choose as a treat for your kids. Someone else's kids will love you.

7. Consider donating cash as well/instead. Food banks spend a huge amount of their revenue directly on feeding people, and they can get way better deals on food than you can. It costs them much less to feed a family for a day than it would cost you. To find out how to donate or help your area, visit FeedingAmerica.org or search online for any local food banks or pantries you'd rather donate to.

--

This is a self.post so I, in no way, receive karma for this. I just wanted to remind the friendly people of Reddit the same way I needed reminding! Happy Holidays.