Food drive

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A food drive is a form of charity that is conducted by a group of individuals or a corporation to stockpile and distribute foodstuffs to people who cannot afford food.

Contents

Overview

Non-perishable food items collected during a holiday food drive. Non-perishable food items collected during a holiday food drive.jpg
Non-perishable food items collected during a holiday food drive.

Food drives are operated in order to stock food banks that distribute food to homeless people, soup kitchens, vulnerable seniors, orphanages, refugees, and victims of disasters. There are also food drives to help people hold feasts on Christmas and Thanksgiving. Many are organized by community organizations, nonprofits, churches, and even individuals.

Criticism

Many people involved in charity work are critical of the inefficiency of food drives. Emergency food providers are able to buy surplus stock from the food industry at a significant discount, Katherina Rosqueta of the Center for High Impact Philanthropy estimating it at 5% of retail price. Instead of buying canned food at store prices and physically donating it, a monetary donation to the same value could be used to acquire a much greater amount of food, and of a variety chosen by the food charity. [1]

"Food Not Bombs" is a network of collectives that recover surplus food from grocery stores and create vegan and vegetarian food to share with those needy." A mural of "food not bombs" in Berlin, Germany.jpg
"Food Not Bombs" is a network of collectives that recover surplus food from grocery stores and create vegan and vegetarian food to share with those needy."

Greg Bloom of Bread for the City expressed concern over the health value of donated food, saying that "almost half of what comes to us in any given food drive just doesn’t meet our nutritional standards". [1]

Contemporary food drives often work towards a radical approach to food provisions and aid. Organizations like "Food Not Bombs" pair vegan and vegetarian food provisions to those in need with a radical political agenda. The organization protests the military industrial complex, a phenomenon that fuels wars and usurps almost half of all tax money. [2] According to the organization, the tax money utilized for war could fuel better social infrastructure to provide food aid to all who need a cushion of support.

Largest food drive

The largest food drive by a non-charitable organization in 24 hours was set by the North Carolina School of Science and Mathematics Food drive. It collected 559,885 pounds of food in Durham, North Carolina, USA, on March 5, 2011. [3]

See also

Related Research Articles

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Food bank</span> Non-profit, charitable organization that gives out food

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Food rescue</span>

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Redwood Empire Food Bank</span>

Redwood Empire Food Bank (REFB) is a food bank on the North Coast of California which belongs to the Feeding America network. Its mission is to end hunger in its community.

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Angel Food Ministries</span> U.S. nonprofit organization closed due to fraud

Angel Food Ministries was a Monroe, Georgia, based nonprofit organization that provided a monthly food service to over 500,000 families. The ministry was a nondenominational program located in 43 states across the United States and the District of Columbia, distributing food from 5,200 locations. There were 473 distribution centers in Georgia and more than 1,400 concentrated in Texas, Missouri, Tennessee, and Pennsylvania. The headquarters was located in a 16,000-square-foot (1,500 m2) warehouse in Monroe. The ministry employed 220 full-time employees and 500 temporary workers. The program bought food in bulk at discount price and then sold it in family sized quantities, while spreading the word of Christ. The ministry delivered $120 million in direct food assistance to families and nourished over 22 million Americans. In 2005, the ministry received the largest USDA grant ever given to a faith-based organization. The ministry closed in September 2011 as a result of a federal fraud investigation.

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Midwest Food Bank</span> U.S. charity

Midwest Food Bank is an American 501(c)(3) non-profit organization that gathers food donations, primarily from large companies, and distributes them to other non-profit organizations and disaster sites. Founded on a family farm in Bloomington, Illinois, in 2003, Midwest Food Bank began expanding in 2005 after contributing to disaster relief efforts for Hurricane Katrina. Currently, it operates ten locations in the United States and two internationally. As of 2021, it was the United States' thirty-ninth-largest charity and second-largest food bank by revenue; each month, it distributes more than $32 million worth of food to more than 2,000 other non-profit organizations.

References

  1. 1 2 Yglesias, Matthew (2011-12-07). "Can the Cans". Slate. ISSN   1091-2339 . Retrieved 2017-02-05.
  2. "FOODNOTBOMBS.NET". foodnotbombs.net. Retrieved 2023-12-02.
  3. "Largest food drive in 24 hours - single location". 2021-03-01. Retrieved 2021-03-01.