I’m sure many of us already donate to food banks regularly, but they need your support now more than ever! Ours have been hit badly, for sure.
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May I add to that: donations should be in money, not in food, as the food banks can get more food for the same money than the retail customer can
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Yes, thank you for adding that!!!
By co-incidence, I have just made a small donation to the Trussell Trust which is a UK wide charity operating food banks. J had no intention of doing so but I was just ordering a home delivery dinner. The ordering website (Deliveroo) has added the facility to make a “rounding up” donation to your order, since last time I used it. Good idea. If I ca afford home delivery I can afford a small donation.
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I used to round up at the local Giant supermarket, but now prefer to make my donation personally. That way I have better control over where it goes, and… well, not to be too cynical, but these can all be written off for tax purposes for a fairly large business 
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It’s impossible to be too cynical about big business.
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My neighbourhood also has community fridges, where people can leave food in the fridge for people nearby. It usually is taken within an hour.
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Our food bank loves donations of in-date non-perishibles, take in road kill deer, elk and the rare moose in addition to monetary donations. The ‘bank’ operates a store two afternoons a week in which anyone can ‘shop’ for what they need. They also accept donations of paper products and personal hygeine goods. Some donations come in of partial packages of diapers, for young and all. There are satellite locations in several small towns and a shared kitchen which can be used to produce foodstuffs in a required ‘commercial kitchen’ setting, as required by the health department.
This will all change with the federal funding cuts. It takes a village to keep our citizens together.
Give where you can, when you can.
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Around here you can also volunteer to break down and repackage the bulk food they buy.Comes with an interesting tour!
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Speaking of supermarkets, ours has a collection bin for food bank product donations. We usually buy a couple of things just for the bin. Things like pasta, tins of meat and the like with the occasional “treat” (like biscuits or something chocolatey.
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We have the same here, and I used to buy stuff too for the bin, until it occurred to me that I was paying full retail, whereas the food bank could get more for the same money. Now I instead send them money a few times a year.
Some years ago I read about a food bank in Montreal turning away people on Christmas Day because they ran out of food; broke my heart.
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Another post I would “knife,” except it’s too sad.
There’s a supermarket chain in my area that offers “holiday boxes.” You pay less than retail for a box of canned or non-perishable food and they put the box into a large bin. This chain also allows you to redeem the free turkey\ham\alternative frozen entree for the local foodbank (in addition to redeeming one for yourself). These are holiday promos, but they do prompt for a cash donation year-round.
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Agree. I once had the privilege of participating in a volunteer day of sorting donations of non-perishable foods at my area’s largest food bank. Based on what I saw, I became convinced that donations of money in any amount have the largest impact.
I saw pallets of desirable non-perishables ready to be distributed, which the food bank had purchased using donations and grants. Definitely would help feed households.
On the other hand, the food donations I helped to sort weren’t going to be that useful. Past-date food, bags of leftover holiday candy, and a random selection of single items. The better stuff could serve clients as extra foods. But you couldn’t expect to stock a food pantry from them.
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On a related matter, a number of British supermarkets have links with charities such as FoodCycle to donate perishable items which are nearing their sell by date. Food Cycle then turns that into hot meals which it serves, for free. This is the nearest location to me ( a few miles away)
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Now that’s an ideal model.
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Speaking of Food Banks, I got this email today
"Dear xxxxxxx…you’ve probably seen the news that the federal government has put some food shipments to food banks on hold. This week, we learned that we’ve been affected too – and we need your help to bridge this gap.
Eleven loads of food we ordered through The Emergency Food Assistance Program (TEFAP) have been cancelled. These shipments would have provided our neighbors with more than 250,000 nutritious meals full of proteins and produce, like chicken and green beans. We do not know when, or if, we will receive this much-needed food.
This was already on top of concerning news we received last week – that a federal grant intended to help us expand our grocery recovery efforts in xxxxxxxx had been cancelled.
…"
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Incomprehensible cruelty.
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Yes, here in SE Pennsylvania we’re seeing the same thing–empty shelves where the government supplied\funded food should be. There was one story on the news, I believe from Delaware, where a truck carrying milk funded by USDA was cancelled. I’m not sure what the government plans to do with the milk. They certainly can’t store it long-term in a warehouse. This is not good for the hungry or the farmers. As @Meekah notes, it’s just cruel.
I guess this is what happens when leaders think “groceries” is an old-fashioned word meaning “lots of different things in a bag that you can eat” 
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