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The more things they can get from you that they actually can use, the closer you will have brought them to having enough to meet their needs.

“Must have” foods aren’t necessary

An issue closely related and equally crippling to ending hunger is the flip side of only giving out certain food. That is the very widespread practice of pantries trying to make certain they always have certain food products or categories of food on their shelves, and going out and buying—or getting their supporters to go out and buy—those products if they aren’t available from the area’s food bank or food rescue organization.

This is a terrible mistake!

Donated food helps families meet other needs

Except in extraordinary situations, when a food bank supplies a family with food, it is supplementing that family’s pool of resources. The family has added up its needs and its ability to satisfactorily address those needs, and has concluded that they need help in order to get by. So when they come to you they are not so much in need of any specific thing or things as they are in need of a bunch of things that cover enough of their needs so that their other resources will stretch far enough to cover everything else.

I have heard countless pantry staff affirm with absolute heartfelt conviction that, “We have to give them meat,” or “We always have to have some of every food group on our shelves.” But it is just not true!

Ending hunger requires variety, quantity and the right for the client to pick and choose, but does not require any specific food or food item, particularly if and when “making certain the pantry always has some specific item or items” diminishes the total variety or quantity of goods the pantry makes available to its clients.

The only exception to the above rule is if and when a client or clients have a specific need that cannot and will not be met other than by your pantry supplying them with some specific urgently-needed product, such as Ensure for a cancer or AIDS victim, infant formula for a high-risk baby, or rice for a primarily rice-eating immigrant population.

Our research suggests that most other clients’ needs can and will be best met by your making available to them the best collection of things the food bank or food rescue stream makes available to you. Period!

We will never end hunger if we only use a fraction of the quantities and varieties of food available to us for that purpose.

The more things they can get from you that they actually can use, the closer you will have brought them to having enough to meet their needs.