On Saturday after a month or so of planning we had our block party for the “Child Hunger Ends Here” campaign. Melinda worked her butt off to secure the moon bounce, the cupcake truck and to make sure there was enough food, drinks and raffles for everyone. She did a great job putting everything together and the day was awesome but there was one huge problem. The food donations!
To gain admission to the moon bounce all you needed to do was bring non perishable food items or a small financial donation. Most people brought food but some people did give food and money. It was great we had so much food I needed to load up the kids’ wagon 2 or 3 times to get all of the food to the van. The van was so full with food that the back end was kind of sagging due to the weight. We were so excited and proud that people stepped up and donated for a great cause.
On Sunday Melinda wanted to look through the food to see what was donated and she started to look at the expiration dates on the items. One of the first two items she pulled out of the bag was expired. We were hoping this was an isolated incident and that everything would be good but now we started to check every item in the van to make sure the dates were good. They weren’t and we found item after item with expiration dates 2, 3 and 4 years past the date. I understand a can or two but we filled up two 13 gallon trash bags with expired food. What a waste.
I was really mad and upset that this happened. This was supposed to be a fund raiser to help feed hungry child not a day to clean out your pantry and give old expired food so your child could go on the moon bounce. I understand people not wanting to go to the store to buy food when they have food at home but seriously people check the date. You shouldn’t even be eating it let alone donating it for someone else to eat. That just isn’t cool. I understand things and the economy are tight but if you aren’t able to give food that is not expired then do not give anything at all because all we did was just throw it away.
All in all it was a great day and when Melinda dropped off the food at the Maryland Food Bank on Monday the total weight of the donation was 338 pounds. Not a bad day if you ask me for one local block party but it could have been better if we didn’t have two trash bags full of waste. So this is my gripe and now a service announcement to all. If you are going to donate food to a cause pretty please make sure the item is not expired.
