Why Canned Food Drives Might Not be the Best Idea

As the holiday season quickly approaches, so too will the thousands of canned food drives held throughout the country. As Americans reach into the back of their pantries and make quick runs to the grocery store to load up on canned goods, foodbanks throughout the country will become overloaded with food that will help feed the countless hungry bellies in our own backyard.

    While an easy and generous way of sharing your unneeded food with those who might need it more, canned food drives are quite often not the most efficient way to give back to the hungry during the holiday season.

    First of all, studies show a lot of food that winds up at the doors of food pantries gets thrown out due to being expired, while nearly half of the food that sticks around and is taken to a needy home goes unused, as the hungry either cannot use the food or do not know how to. Not even mentioning food allergies barring much of donated food from those who are hungry, canned food is often high in sodium and sugar and fails to meet the nutritional standards of food pantries.

    Before you run out to the store to pick up a handful of cans, also consider that paying full-price for canned goods at the store is not the best use of your money, as food banks and pantries throughout the country have better means of getting food in bulk at a much smaller price. These organizations buy surplus food on a whole-sale level from a network of food banks and work directly with farmers to get food for “pennies on the dollar,” according to Katherina Rosqueta of the University of Pennsylvania’s Center for High Impact Philanthropy. “Food banks can acquire the same amount of food for much less money than you or I could if we just went to our local supermarket.,” Rosqueta said in an interview with NPR. Even further, Packaging and distributing all of these cans can cost food pantries more money and time than it would take to just buy fresh foods themselves.

    Instead of reaching into your pantries for old cans or spending $10 on a handful of cans at the store, consider donating that money directly to food pantries, such as Tender Mercies Ministries in Princeton, West Virginia, or Bluefield Union Mission in Bluefield, West Virginia, so they can purchase more nutritional foods at a lower price and cater the foods to the needs of the hungry families. Your money will not only go a longer way to helping the hungry in your area, but it will also save food pantries the hassle of sorting, packaging and distributing the cans they can use and tossing out the ones they cannot. However, if you are going to contribute to a canned food drive, do your best to pick nutritious cans that are low in sodium while stopping and considering if that can of soup is actually something a hungry family would want to put on their table.