Post by trike on Nov 22, 2011 2:18:31 GMT -5
I've been in a lot of different food bank-like settings. One, devoted to providing food to people with HIV/AIDs had a list of clients and each week would come up with a weeks worth of recipes and packed the boxes accordingly. Example: Monday would be chicken and rice so we'd pack a can of chicken and a box of rice, Tuesday was spaghetti so a box of pasta and a jar of sauce, etc. And they took into account different dietary needs (gluten free, diabetic, etc).
The downside to that system was that it was the same meals week after week and the serving sizes were quite small (one box of pasta was expected to last 3-4 meals, for instance). But otherwise they indicated how each food item was/could be used, which was nice.
Another soup kitchen I worked at provided hot meals on site and also had a food pantry so that each person could take home some food. Clients would walk up to a volunteer and tell them what they wanted and the volunteers would bag it up for them. The clients could get what they wanted and could eat.
The only downside was that it was dependent on people donating the goods so a lot of canned veggies and not too much fresh stuff and if you were a cultural minority looking for some more exotic food you were out of luck.
One of my fond memories of that place (which I will share with you because it gives me the warm fuzzies and it should for you too, goddamit) was of a mother who wanted a small treat for her daughter because she was doing so well in school. Since it was Easter we had bags of donated or cheaply bought candy that we were giving away to anybody that wanted it. They had a very large chocolate rabbit in the food pantry that we didn't know what to do with until she walked up and requested something. She was quite surprised to be given a nearly two foot tall chocolate rabbit and a little girl had a very nice Easter treat
The downside to that system was that it was the same meals week after week and the serving sizes were quite small (one box of pasta was expected to last 3-4 meals, for instance). But otherwise they indicated how each food item was/could be used, which was nice.
Another soup kitchen I worked at provided hot meals on site and also had a food pantry so that each person could take home some food. Clients would walk up to a volunteer and tell them what they wanted and the volunteers would bag it up for them. The clients could get what they wanted and could eat.
The only downside was that it was dependent on people donating the goods so a lot of canned veggies and not too much fresh stuff and if you were a cultural minority looking for some more exotic food you were out of luck.
One of my fond memories of that place (which I will share with you because it gives me the warm fuzzies and it should for you too, goddamit) was of a mother who wanted a small treat for her daughter because she was doing so well in school. Since it was Easter we had bags of donated or cheaply bought candy that we were giving away to anybody that wanted it. They had a very large chocolate rabbit in the food pantry that we didn't know what to do with until she walked up and requested something. She was quite surprised to be given a nearly two foot tall chocolate rabbit and a little girl had a very nice Easter treat
