I guess it’s the choice between hiring enough folks to make the inquiries as to why the kids aren’t being fed and just go ahead and feeding them. It would take 20 years of data to measure which would be cheaper in the long run.

You hit the nail on the head, excellent thought process.

so the school lunch program , that offers breakfast and sometimes an after school meal as well as daily meals during summer in some neighborhoods.

we have the data and if you want food in the bellies of kids , feeding them gets it there with nothing going to anywhere else.

what feeding them doesn't do is educate them at all

they never learn to cook not that they would at home , but it seems like it needs to come with an education in how to feed yourself as well. or it repeats a cycle

A never ending cycle. Even God put a limit a cycle.

2 out of 3 here are run or heavily supported by the churches

We've been running a food shelf for 28 years now. We do see some of these people. Unfortunately, in liberal MN you can't inquire as to their income to see if they would be eligible to receive food. We used to be able to when we first took over the food shelf from another couple after he died.

We know there are people who come for the food that really don't need to. However, there are others who really need the help. Some are elderly who pretty much live on their SS. We have some families where both parents work at low paying jobs with several kids. Or, a single parent with several children. We have some Latinos who work at a local farm that have large families. These are hard workers that I'm sure work for minimum wages.

We had a mother with two children who was a court recorder involved in a serious auto accident. She was hospitalized for over a month, in a cast for several months, and unable to return to work for almost a year. She had house payments to make. Her only income was disability payments. After she finally was able to return to work she sent us a nice letter thanking us, telling us what a blessing we were to her when she needed help.

We are aware that there are some who take advantage of the free food. But, there are those who are legit and really need it and it's for those that we keep doing it.

There are folks that need it. I agree with helping them.
But there is also a large parasitic element that spans the entire concept.
All the way from the top down.
A lot of waste and abuse.
Pity

Just try to take food away from old folks, children, the disabled and those struggling with chemical dependency that’s all your going to hear about the abuses will never come up.

about half when I worked the Green county pantry were seniors living on SS often in senior apartments.

when we worked the by appointment pantry it was a lot of women getting out of abusive relationships with their kids.
they could maybe find an apparent but not afford an apartment and food
actually shortly after we worked that one a moving church to church shelter for women and families established in the county and we worked that for several years.

Are food banks something that is obvious/advertised in communities?

We have a few of those women too. We have a single guy in his 70s who lives in low income housing (pays $200 a month). His only income is SS. After coming for food a couple times, he said he felt like he needed to do something to pay it back. So, now he helps unload food, put it away, and take it out to cars at distribution times.

I should mention that all of us are volunteers; nobody is paid for doing this. For this reason we are very grateful for the people that help us.

Same goes thing goes on here.

probably should ask if you're claiming to represent a specific church. dont need to ask if you're just doing it as an individal

some are more lowkey than others. depends on who runs them. the privately run ones don't seem to be as public and a bit put of the way.

I purchased my 70 442 there in 1978 I believe …. Sure wish I still had that car

I unload all the deliveries to a local food bank. It’s housed in a church basement. Trucks from the Feds come 6-7 times a year, get state bought food 4-5 times a year. I don’t work on the distribution day, 2nd Thursday of the month. But I have been there those days. Most of the recipients are older. My aunt handles all the applications and paperwork….many of those old folks are living solely on SS checks as income….20K-24K a year. Wore out old folks with little money.

It's all church run here, they take food donations and I guess from super markets and such, I sometimes see day old bakery goods in the drop off box...

From what I can see, the volunteers bag the food up and the recipients get the bag , I don't think they get a choice but I'm not sure.
Years ago when the Gov't was giving out free cheese, flour and stuff to the welfare folks they had to cook, they didn't want it...I know a lot of people getting it from the welfare people...Wasn't any food banks then.

Somebody reached out to a church member who then sent a group text. We happened to be in the grocery when the text came through. We got the address and dropped off some stuff, far as they know it was the church. Do we need to inform the church?

County one is there no advertising but the free stuff folks all know about along with social services people so word of mouth. The traveling one is advertised that’s through the church mostly a truck shows up people line up.

I don’t need it but I don’t fault the ones that legitimately need it it’s the freeloaders that tick me off .