Let’s can the food drives (LA Times)
By John Arnold and Katherina M. Rosqueta November 18, 2011
The holiday season is here. And in the spirit of the season, millions of people will donate food to food drives. Much of that food will be lovingly packed into boxes and baskets to be distributed to needy families. And just as in years past, such well-intentioned food donations will needlessly leave millions of people hungry. Here's why.
In the traditional food drive/standardized food box approach, donors are asked to go to the store and buy food or to donate food from their cupboards. It's then dropped into a collection barrel, or piled around a Christmas tree, or put on the altar of their churches, etc.
For every $10 spent that way, $10 worth of food goes into the charity food distribution system. But if the receiving charity food agency packs and gives out the food in standardized boxes, research has shown that as much as half of the food may not get used. This is not because the receiving family wasn't needy but because the food is either something they can't use or don't know how to use.
So that $10 gift may end up providing only $5 worth of actual hunger relief. What's more, because donations to food drives are nearly impossible to document for tax deductions, the donor bears the full cost of the $10 donation for what amounts to $5 worth of food used.
Read the op-ed on the LA Times website.