Good Intentions Gone Awry

When I volunteered at our local food bank for 18 months, I was appalled at the treatment given our so-called "clients." Most of the donations received from private citizens were expired canned goods that were headed for the trash bin but they brought them to us instead. I was told by the agency's Director that those foods should be put on the back of the shelf and given out only as a last resort, meaning that when they finally were distributed they were even older.

A mainstay of the foods I helped unpack were spoiled produce, expired frozen meats and stale baked goods brought on trucks from the supermarkets nearby. We also received bags of packaged, processed foods headed for extinction that instead ended up as food drive donations "to feed the needy."

Nobody where I worked ever dispensed nutritional counseling to the people we served, despite the fact that most of them were in bad physical shape. Besides being  morbidly obese, several were on oxygen despite the fact that they still smoked cigarettes. Yet not one word of advice was ever handed out with the stale chocolate eclairs and giant boxes of pasta, rice, instant potatoes, sugary cereals, salt-laden soups and canned fruit in heavy syrup.

Sadly, this is considered "charity" in small-town America.