Small Idea

ShAnE

Hi Folks,
This seems like the right section to post this question.

We (25-30) of us work in the countryside. So our company provides lunch. Fills up the fridge with, meat, cheese, butter, a few ready meals, yoghurts, and some soup and bread. That sort of thing.

I was wondering if there are any charities, (would have to be in the Surrey area) that I would be able to take the opened/unopened leftovers too on a friday evening?

Basically, my aim is, rather than let a packet or two of ham and half a loaf of bread go to waste, find a home that would make use of it. The only problem is, I don't know how little or how much would be left each week. As long as we could get enough together to provide a decent lunch on the saturday for a family or couple of kids. I'd feel like we're helping.

I have a number of problems though:
Firstly, getting work to agree to this (if a charity already exists, that would help)
Secondly, would anywhere accept food which has been opened / is past it's best before. (but still within it's use by date)
Finally, finding somewhere/someone that'll accept that we wouldn't be able to give generously every week.

I'm probably just a mad dreamer, but if you don't ask you'll never know.

My other alternative is trying to get something started up, where by we try and raise £10 or so week, between the company and it's 25-30 employees to buy some essentials for a different or same family each week. But again, i'd need to find a charity to help me, as I don't know any families in need of this myself.

McKneff

What a brilliant idea.

My pet charity is a homeless project in Harrogate. During the month
when I shop i pick up a few extras each time I go shopping and then take the whole lot in a box at the end of the month.

If you google local homeless charities Im sure they would be grateful for these things.

Good for you for thinking of it. I absolutely hate waste in any shape or form.
x
Annie

oldtoolie

Why not take turns taking it home and have the week's recipient make a donation to a selected charity? You could have a collection box for the chosen charity and make the donation once or twice a year.

If you consider the cost and effort of driving a short-dated pack of ham and a half a loaf of going stale bread across town, it isn't an economical use of resources.

It is the same argument for McKneff. You are buying products at retail prices to give to the homeless centre. Why not make a cash donation so the centre can buy what it is most in need of at wholesale prices?

McKneff

Because its only a small homeless project, being a pensioner I cant afford to give them say £10/£20 a month all in one go but if
i pick up the odd thing for say £1 or £2s each time I go shopping I dont miss it.
I have asked what kind of things they want/need so I pretty much know what is appreciated.

Then no one at the Homeless project uses their resources having to go across town or into another town do the shopping at wholesale prices, it works for me and them anyway.

Savvy_Sue

shAne, great idea, but logistical nightmare!

oldtoolie wrote: »

Why not take turns taking it home and have the week's recipient make a donation to a selected charity? You could have a collection box for the chosen charity and make the donation once or twice a year.

That does sound like a better idea to me.

oldtoolie wrote: »

If you consider the cost and effort of driving a short-dated pack of ham and a half a loaf of going stale bread across town, it isn't an economical use of resources.

It's even more complicated than that: we are sometimes offered 'leftovers' from corporate lunches / small bakeries etc, and we usually have to say "sorry, no", because by the time these things are offered, we've usually made arrangements for the food we need for the night, and as we can't rely on anything being given, that's the way we have to work.

We wouldn't want to take opened food either: if I say "you don't know where it's been!" you'll understand that we're not being rude, but when we do our own shopping we know the food was transported in cool bags and put into the fridge promptly. Homeless clients are usually quite vulnerable to infection and bugs, so trying to keep the food chain 'safe' is quite important.

Plus if we do end up with food we can't use, we have to pay to dispose of it.

Now, to be more positive, the kind of project the OP is thinking of might be a Foodbank - can't find one in Surrey, but that doesn't mean there isn't one! Working on the larger scale is FareShare - that's our local depot in the video.

vikki_louise

Theres PitStop in leatherhead if your nearby, i dont know what their rules are but i know they except food as we had a charity party so wondered if they would take our untouched left overs but they were only open one sunday a month and the party was on the saturday. The idea of taking it in turns to take it home and give a small donation is a great idea, even if its just 50p that would add up over the year