
Little Free Pantry - brudgers
http://www.littlefreepantry.org/
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Freak_NL
One of those shown on the front page is in the Netherlands, but access to dry
foods isn't usually the problem for the target users here, because they
already qualify for access to our system of foodbanks. Dutch supermarkets
donate a substantial amount of dry goods and fresh produce to foodbanks.

If you want to make a difference, set up a recurring donation to your local
foodbank instead, or volunteer to help. People in financial need already go
there, so you can help them by not making them run around town to a bunch of
free little pantries, and help them avoid the shame of using that pantry in
your neighbourhood being watched by all your neighbours.

This feels like one of those initiatives that benefit the provider more than
the intended recipient.

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skrebbel
But how will your neighbours know that you're donating to the food bank?

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Broken_Hippo
By helping to advertise donations to the food banks. Of course, this means
putting signs in your yard/window or actually talking to neighbors.

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hprotagonist
Access to dry goods and food to people who lack them is certainly a good
thing.

I would like to suggest that it's an even better thing when it's done
personally and actively. You learn who your neighbors are, for a start, and
there's even a chance you'll bind yourself tighter to your community!

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mattferderer
I've been told, at least in the US, that we have more than enough food at food
banks. It's much more of a distribution problem. Things like these help a bit.

It's also interesting to see that places are investigating direct shipments to
homes as well. I don't have any sources but discussions with local food banks.
I was told over a year ago that west coast states have started testing it.

I think both these ideas can help different groups of hungry people. Those
with an address & those without.

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peterwwillis
The simplest, most direct assistance would be if somebody got a bike with a
carrier trailer, and just rode through nearby food deserts delivering care
packages to people with food insecurity. People often can't leave their homes
(can't get a sitter, don't have a bike or car, are disabled/elderly, etc) and
this moves the assistance out of wealthy neighborhoods and into the ones that
have difficulty getting food.

They could drop leaflets in mailboxes that people could check off if they need
food, and then you could go back and collect the leaflets, and know who to
deliver to. Or make the leaflets prepaid postage to just return via the mail.

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mattferderer
People do that but with a truck in many areas of the country.

I'm not sure how the food delivery works in all parts of the country, but I
believe you would sign up yourself or a family member to receive a collection.
Note, many people won't signup themselves.

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peterwwillis
These might be illegal in major Florida cities, as it is illegal to feed the
homeless.

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skrebbel
Wow, that's some pure evil going there. Do you know what the background is?
Solve the homeless problem by starvation?

I mean, I doubt it - there has to be a bigger point that I'm missing. (right?)

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2000andlate
It’s simple: poor people have always been screwed by people in power. It’s
been that way since forever. It’s Florida too, so there’s probably a racial
component. You get to screw over poor people AND black people.

There is no larger point. People are cruel, particularly certain political
parties that tend to maintain power in the American South.

~~~
black6
La majestueuse égalité des lois, qui interdit au riche comme au pauvre de
coucher sous les ponts, de mendier dans les rues et de voler du pain.

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groundCode
This is nice. In the UK some supermarkets have a food bank you can donate to
as you leave. I usually donate food to those. This is a bit more personal.
Although I’m lucky enough to live in a neighbourhood where it doesn’t seem
like people are wanting for food. I suppose you never know when someone is
having a rough few months though and this is a nice way to foster some
relationships.

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keyle
This is a great venture with such a simple message. When you consider how much
a supermarket throws out, it would make a lot of sense to place one
'strategically' near a supermarket. Maybe an employee will take it to heart
and supply it.

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b5
In an ideal world, they would be allowed to do that. As it stands, that would
potentially be a quick way for them to lose their job.

When I last worked in a supermarket (just over three years ago) taking home or
giving away food that was destined for the bin was treated as theft. You could
be fired for it if your manager felt that way inclined.

Several months before I started, several people at another store lost their
jobs for just that. Instead of throwing out the bake-goods, they'd been giving
them out in small amounts to people who were struggling.

Sometimes it was a handful of bread-rolls, other times it would be croissants
or muffins. There was no loss to the company because the food had been written
off anyway. Still -- it was treated as theft, and they were fired. The company
would prefer the food was wasted than it feed people.

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michaelmior
While I certainly agree that it is a shame that food perfectly good food which
is going to be thrown away can't go to feed those who need it, I think it's a
bit of an oversimplification to say companies want food to be wasted rather
than feed people. There are many other issues: liability if someone gets sick,
employees intentionally preparing too much food to ensure extras leftover,
etc.

I'm _not_ saying these issues are more important than keeping people fed, but
I do think addressing these sorts of things would go a long way to make
policies allowing food to be given away more practical.

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Miner49er
> There are many other issues: liability if someone gets sick, employees
> intentionally preparing too much food to ensure extras leftover, etc.

Pretty sure the liability thing is just a convenient excuse. In the US we have
the Bill Emerson Good Samaritan Food Donation Act, which protects food donors
from being sued. I bet most other countries have something similar.
Additionaly, nobody has ever been sued over donated food in the US.

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majos
Interesting, I didn't know about that legislation.

In that case, I don't follow supermarkets' logic. If donations are restricted
to people who can't otherwise afford the food, and the food will be discarded
anyway, why not donate it? Maybe some people will substitute donated food in
place of purchasing food themselves. I wonder if supermarkets have data
suggesting this is a meaningful fraction of customers.

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barbecue_sauce
Many supermarkets actually will and do donate food. Sometimes it's even hard
to find enough qualifying organizations to take it all. Usually organizations
must be documented 5031(c)(3) Tax Exempt non-profits. Donation pickups are
usually run by volunteers, so can be inconsistent. Perishable items that are
safe to donate usually include in-store baked bread and centrally-produced
commercial bakery products. A lot of the food waste (within which I'm
including near-expiration perishable foods) is simply not edible or will not
be edible by the time it makes it to someone who wants/needs it, but will
occasionally make it into a separate stream for reuse (for example, I've seen
a wide variety of food waste make it into the hands of pig farmers). CPG/Self-
stable items (which are much safer and realistic to donate) that have
aesthetic imperfections will often be sent to a centralized reclamation
facility and then parceled out to organizations as seen fit.

As another poster said, no one has been sued in the US for donations, but
supermarket chains are also reticent about the optics of donating food that
has clearly expired. Just because you won't be sued doesn't mean you won't
feel some blowback in public sentiment if you cause an outbreak of food
poisoning in the food-insecure demographic of the population by improperly
donating food.

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sjmulder
We have one of these in our neighborhood and it's quite actively used. There's
a Facebook group for it which does cultivate a sense of togetherness.
Sometimes people take all the things but it's rare.

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ineedasername
Even the people that take all of the things... maybe they need them, so I
wouldn't judge someone harshly for it.

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Waterluvian
This is a really intriguing idea. But whoever designed that has never spent a
summer with the kind of raccoons we have up here.

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socrateslee
two questions: 1\. how the pantries get cleaned? 2\. how to deal with expired
foods?

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abootstrapper
I assume the property owner who installs the pantry maintains it and its
contents.

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bobbyd3
This is a great website and a very worthy cause. Several of the LFP's in my
community I had no idea even existed...the search feature is awesome.

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elil17
This model totally ignores the fact that the people with the resources to give
food live no where near the people who need food the most

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abootstrapper
Wrong. In medium to large cities, the homeless are everywhere. They're in our
neighborhoods, they're on our way to work, they're outside our office.

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elil17
But there’s already a system in place for giving food to people who obviously
need it: just giving it to them

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abootstrapper
That has nothing to do with what you said or my reply. I wasn’t arguing for or
against little pantry.

But to your brand new point, can there not be more than one system to give to
the needy? Maybe you don’t want to carry can goods with you to work, maybe you
don’t want to interact with strangers, maybe you want to help people at times
you’re not physically in front of them.

It sounds like you have a bone to pick with this concept but you lack a
compelling reason to argue against it. Here, I’ll share my reasons for not
installing one at my house. The wild animals will want it, the heat here is
extreme and will cook its contents, and I don’t want strangers loitering in
front of my house.

Still it’s an interesting concept. It might work well for some people is some
areas.

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fnord77
how do you prevent assholes vandalizing these or people taking the items and
reselling them?

(in SF people get stuff from the food bank and then sell it on the sidewalks
around mid-market)

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Baeocystin
You can't, and it gets trashed. We had just such an honor system set up by
well-meaning folks here in Gilroy, and it lasted for all of a few weeks before
the first time everything was taken and the box trashed and smeared with
feces.

The _majority_ of the people who needed to use the box did so respectfully and
properly. There is a huge need, particularly here in the bay area of
California, where the number of people forced into homelessness has exploded
over the past several years.

The problem with systems like this is that they have no oversight, the bad
apples find them and take/destroy with glee, and it doesn't take many of those
folks to ruin it for everyone else.

