"We'd Spend Hours Each Week Unpacking & Throwing the Food Away" donated from Amazon

[Grammy23]

34. It is not unlike the problems caused when people donate inappropriate

Clothing to be sent to disaster areas. Sending heavy winter coats, boots and hats or frilly party dresses to Haiti after a hurricane happens all the time. Even used underwear gets donated. Then someone has to sort through spike heels, faux fur coats and negligees to find the things that can be used. And then the unusable stuff has to be trashed or sent somewhere else. Big hassle. But the people sending it meant well but were not very well informed on what was needed. They just felt motivated to do something.

Our local food bank had a refrigeration problem, too. Things that could have been kept edible longer had to be given away on the spot or trashed. (Hint: if the recipients don’t have refrigeration either, chances are good it will end up trashed either way.) So they got a grant from a local organization that gives out large grants based on a well thought out plan of what you intend to do with the money. Commercial size refrigerators and freezers were purchased and the donations that could not be given away immediately could be frozen and given out as needed. Problem solved.

Making Amazon the villain in this story is looking the gift horse in the mouth. Someone needs to go back to Amazon to explain the issue or look to another organization to help raise the funds to freeze the excess donations. Or just do a fund raiser themselves. If they explain the problem, often the community will step up and help.