colwoods

Whenever I buy a 'buy-one-get-one-free' item, I save the extra one to give to our food bank at the church.

miriam

:thumbup:

hikingquilter

We have a community food pantry in the homeless family shelter where I work. We welcome ANY donation. The need has become greater this past year. We are usually over run with pasta, but don't have pasta sauce to go with it; peanut butter, but no jelly (please buy it in plastic - not glass). We also need: canned meats, stews, ravioli, baked beans, rice, cereal, cake, muffin and pudding mixes, bottled juice, dry milk or shelf-stable liquid milk, baby food. Bread is welcome if the pantry has freezer space. Teabags, cocoa mix. Sometimes scouts or civic groups will do a collection of personal care items for us: shampoo, deodorant, soap, toothpaste, TP. Thank you - all of you - for helping out with this - wherever you live!

ktmo815

I would ask the center what they are most short of. For Boy Scouts every year we do a collection & the center gives us a list to pick from of what they are need most. Usually things like tuna fish, peanut butter, pork & beans & the like.

jdiane318

Our food bank can return $10 worth of product for each $1 donated. Monetary donations are always appreciated.

ndgirl

I volunteered at our local food pantry for at least 15 years and learned a lot!! Anything kids can fix for themselves is good - cold cereal is good but try to avoid those with lots of sugar. Any high protein canned item is good. What a lot of people don't realize or think about is that paper products cannot be gotten with food stamps, so we were always in need of kleenex, toilet tissue, etc., as well as hand soap, dish soap, laundry soap, shampoo, deodorant, lotion, that sort of thing. If people can't afford food, they most likely can't afford that stuff either. I used to get margarine, cheese, sandwich meat, etc. from one grocery chain when it was close to being outdated, too. It doesn't hurt to ask, but only if there is refrigerated storage available.

Evelyn

I have been a volunteer "packer" in a food pantry for more than 15 years. It is unbeliveable how many donations we must discard because people have "cleaned their own pantries" and donated expired food! Please check the use by date before
passing items to pantries.

The most needed items are: canned soups, canned pasta, peanut butter, jelly, canned and dry milk, tomato sauce, hot and cold cereals.

JCL in FL

I volunteer at a food pantry one day a week and we depend on donations. Tuna and canned meat are great and so is canned fruit, since vegetable are cheaper we get more donated but still need them and don't forget soup. There are larger cans and they can be used by a small family if they add some broth to them.
At our pantry we given them a bag of canned goods and bread and they get several picks from a shelf of items and some things that go well are instant coffee, boxed meals like hamburger helper, rice e roni. Pasta and sauce,instant oatmeal and cereal.Peanut better and jelly.They love it when we get large cans of fruit juice too.

Annaquilts

Food that can be eaten out of the can like chefboyardee, thick soups that have protein and maybe cans of fruit. Oh I am not sure if it is for homeless people. If it is definitely something that can be eaten as is. I found plain beans etc. not to be very popular.

FroggyinTexas

Give whatever you would buy for yourself. Bless it and give it with glory in your heart. It is needed and will be appreciated. froggyintexas