When E and I were moving this past summer, cleaning out the kitchen in itself took a whole day (and that’s just an apartment-sized kitchen) and the frustration didn’t just end with packing pots, pans, and dishes. The fact that we were throwing away TONS of food from our cabinets. Food that wasn’t just mine, but some leftover from roommates, visitors who came on through, parents and friends who thought you could use a lil extra something…
It hurt enough to see all that stuff go in the trash, and there had to be a better solution. And thus, we ended up putting all we could into a bag and donated it to our nearest Food Bank NYC.
Interested? These were the guidelines we were told:
- Pile up whatever non-perishables you have that’s not expired. Yep, it’s called shelf-life for a reason! But if it’s not that far from the date, you can give it a shot to see if they’ll still need it.
- Find the location nearest to you and call ahead to see if someone would be there to collect. The lady in charge was on vacation, but luckily someone else was there to help. Not everyone’s protocol might be the same, and since it was in the dead of July’s major heatwave, we needed to be sure there was a definite point B from walking at our point A . The Food Bank actually ended up being in a church a few blocks away from our apartment and unmarked (no sign except inside the church).
- Our site had some preferences to what food was to be donated (based on necessity) but in case you ever find you have any questions here’s a list I found of some suggested food items for giving.
- Also, don’t always expect a receipt. Honestly, we weren’t concerned with a tax deduction that so much as our need to find a place for this food, the fulfillment of knowing it wouldn’t be wasted, and the reassurance of knowing that someone else could benefit from this situation more than us.
And I hope that someone did.
caroslittletreats 