What is your opinion on people giving the homeless their scraps"?

  • Thread starter Thread starter Rozellelily
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I don’t know of any homeless in the Seattle area that would not be offended. They would not even allow their AKC registered purebred dog to eat them! And, the crumbs would soil the floor of their REI tent, and possibly the soles of their new Nike shoes. Anyway, their Starbuck’s card lets them eat fresh pastries.

This is tongue-in-cheek, but only barely.
 
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I think here the issue wasn’t just presentation but also was taste.
 
I would stop reading texts between others.

Many welfare agencies here used to give out of date and damaged food to people seeking help.
 
The local grocery store would have food bank volunteers handing out lists of recommended food products for people to buy at the store and donate to the food bank on the way out.

This way, the products are not expired and still good.
 
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I should clarify the texts were shown to me.I definitely didn’t go through someone’s phone!
 
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I don’t know what people eat there,I don’t live in America.😾
People could still get fat from just eating the tops of muffins as they are the parts with all the fatty frosting.
 
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Actually it sounded like a good idea to me. I make fancy decorated sugar cookies and I have some batches that just do NOT turn out so I can’t use them for whatever event I was making them for. They are edible, just not pretty. Lord knows I don’t need the food, and neither does my family, but donating them to a homeless shelter sounds like a VERY good idea than eating unnecessarily or pitching them in the trash.
 
I prefer the bottom of the muffin. It is what a muffin should taste like, and it doesn’t have all of the unhealthy garbage on top of it.

If given a muffin, I remove the coating on the top and just eat the rest of the muffin.
 
anon64704623 said:
Poor homeless people. 😭
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I have a history of beer & ale book which notes that in ht middle ages, at least in some places, the penalty for an ale wife who made a bad batch of beer was a dunking and the beer was given to the poor.

It then comments that this was rough all around–not just on the ale wife (dunking in a trebuchet was measured in time by reciting the Lord’s prayer), but also on the poor who had to drink the beer that noone else wanted . . .

Anyway, this exact situation can be described in another way: should this food be thrown out, or donated to those for whom it will be better than what they would otherwise eat?

Or, an argument that it is sinful to toss it while there are those with nothing to eat.

One of the eye-openers in my life was when I called the local shelter to hire a couple of guys to unload my truck in grad school. I was moving into a run-down quanset (sp?) hut only used for temporary student housing (the ones built for the GI bill after WWII, that were somehow still standing), and one commented hat buy his standards, it was a mansion . . .

More recently, I had a conversation with a priest. I’m an attorney, and cannot charge my rates while showing up in a ratty suit. I’m also tall, and my elbows wear through my shirts long before they look worn in the front. So I asked him about these, as a suit with a bit of shine that hid the torn elbows seemed better than what many might have for an interview. I asked if I should donate these.

He not only told me yes, but also that these could offer someone dignity in burial (it hadn’t occurred to me that every bit of visible wear on mine would not be visible in such a situation).

So the question isn’t whether or not the donation is the absolute best of quality; it’s whether you’re throwing out something that would improve someone’s life or day.

I now try to package my “worn” suits with a shirt to donate.

(As a practical matter, I’ve reached the age where there’s enough “blonde” in my beard that even though I look several years younger than I am, I don’t have to wear suits to meet clients, but that really only governs how many I go through . . .)

hawk
 
Thanks Hawk,

At the same time,what if the biscuits or cakes etc genuinely taste yuck?
To be honest I have had cakes and biscuits made by myself or others that have tasted pretty awful-lack of sugar,very dry and tasteless etc…
When people have a mindset of “the homeless will just eat anything” could that also be seeing them as not with dignity?
Notice how your donated suits provided them with dignity because the visible parts were still in good quality.
Donating ripped shirts etc would probably not be accepted by charities as they don’t provide warmth but they also don’t provide dignity.
Perhaps food items could be looked at in the same way?

I should clarify I’m referring to biscuits that taste “yuck” and that a person wouldn’t eat themselves -not just presentation issues.

Where I live,there are usually services that make food for the homeless so people probably aren’t as starving or desperate as somewhere like in India for example.
 
Depends. If it was something you weren’t sure that you’d like but were experimenting with i.e. you think it’s a personal taste thing then fine. If you’ve burnt them or used inferior ingredients it wouldn’t be OK.
 
Rozellelily said:
At the same time,what if the biscuits or cakes etc genuinely taste yuck?
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If they’re not fit for human construction, then they certainly belong in the trash, not donated.

I’m assuming that we’re talking about food that didn’t come out as desired when we’re talking about donating, but is still better than what the recipient would have.

Also, there tend to be limits making it quite hard to donate home-cooked (or not professionally sealed) food.

hawk
 
Although recently expired stuff is a pretty common donation. Most stuff in the U.S. is quite edible for some time past the sell by date. (It’s an extremely common money-saving tip for grocery shopping while poor, to buy things a day before expiration when they’re marked down.)
 
Heck yeah! I don’t toss out my expired food except in special circumstances. Most of it is good way past the date. (Cans and dry goods)
 
FYI – muffins (in the US) do not have frosting. They might have extra nuts or some kind if topping strewn across the top, but not necessarily.
 
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