{"id":5109,"date":"2025-05-06T05:30:00","date_gmt":"2025-05-06T05:30:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/burn-the-priest.com\/?p=5109"},"modified":"2025-05-06T11:36:31","modified_gmt":"2025-05-06T11:36:31","slug":"my-foodbank-is-forced-to-throw-away-20-of-our-donations","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/burn-the-priest.com\/index.php\/2025\/05\/06\/my-foodbank-is-forced-to-throw-away-20-of-our-donations\/","title":{"rendered":"My foodbank is forced to throw away 20% of our donations"},"content":{"rendered":"
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\n\t\t\"Rotten\t<\/div>
I\u2019m constantly battling for the food I need to feed people with balanced, nutritious meals (Picture: Getty Images\/iStockphoto)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Stale croissants mixed in with dying flowers.  <\/p>\n

Browning broccoli scattered with bashed up blueberries. Fizzy fruit salads. Wet, wilted bags of rocket and leaves.  <\/p>\n

Potato salad, or coleslaw, or cream or milk with the clock ticking down on its use-by date<\/a>.   <\/p>\n

No, this isn\u2019t a particularly disastrous online food shop. Dealing with this kind of unusable food \u2013 often in large quantities \u2013 is the true reality of working in a foodbank<\/a>.  <\/p>\n

As the pantry manager at the foodbank at my church, I\u2019m constantly battling for the food I need to feed people with balanced, nutritious meals. <\/p>\n

Food is love, food is community, but food waste is <\/a>far from either of those things and my role has become about waste minimisation and management.  <\/p>\n

Most of our food is donated by the big supermarkets. We go to them and boxes are already stacked up and ready to go. Usually they want us in and out, so we grab them, load them into the back of cars and head back to the church. <\/p>\n

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\n\t\t\"close-up\t<\/div>
Then we look at what can be composted and, finally, what needs to go in the bin or taken to the tip (Picture: Getty Images)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Then we pick through to see what\u2019s actually suitable for giving out or incorporating in our meals, which we cook for the community twice a week.  <\/p>\n

Then we look at what can be composted and, finally, what needs to go in the bin or taken to the tip. Some weeks it\u2019s 15 to 20% that\u2019s wasted<\/a>. <\/p>\n

Although donations help provide food for those who need it in our community, having to wade through bad-smelling, curdling, out-of-date food to get to that point is frustrating. <\/p>\n

This isn\u2019t just happening in my church. New research from environmental charity Feedback \u2013 based on the lived experience of people just like me \u2013 found that the burden of damaged, out-of-date or nutritionally inadequate food is being unacceptably passed on by supermarkets and retailers to food aid organisations to deal with.  <\/p>\n

It found that 91% of organisations like mine have had to discard donated food, with the most common reason being that the food was damaged or inedible. Meanwhile, 85% reported feeling frustrated, angry or sad when they received donated food items that they can\u2019t use or redistribute.  <\/p>\n

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\n\t\t\"Nonperishable\t<\/div>
We now have two big fridges and two big freezers, as well as back ups (Picture: Getty Images)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

I took part in Feedback\u2019s research, and am writing this because I want to sound the alarm on the reality of food distribution in this country.  <\/p>\n

Our food pantry and foodbank<\/a> at the church has been open for over two years and in that time it has grown and grown. When we began, I wanted to open up the church and bring people in. My original vision was of a little fridge, a little freezer and teas and coffees.   <\/p>\n

How na\u00efve I was. We now have two big fridges and two big freezers, as well as back ups.  <\/p>\n

We started advertising locally and I was shocked when 70 people turned up in the first week \u2013 so many people needed us. We now have over 50 volunteers and feed more than 200 people at a time. We sometimes have to turn people away.   <\/p>\n

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\n\t\t\t\tFood bank guidance\t\t\t<\/h2>\n
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